Yeah, I agree, S&S seems to be more reliable than Siemens. Was told that the Siemens was not really designed for hydro elevator use, have replaced 4-5 Siemens this year, they seem to be good for a few years depending on usage.
I will take an S&S any day. Never had one fail and if you find the right supplier they are less expensive. The other thing I like is their physical size is much smaller than Siemens. So mounting them in a tight controller like an LRV or a Vertitron is lot easier, plus the soft start and fault contactor can be separated and mounted on din rail. With Siemens I think in my area we have lost close to 80 in the last 4 years.
Well its nice they dumbed it down by adding the same connector as the siemens. The s&s doesn't normally come with that connector so you will have to do a little wiring, but it ain't no thing just control pwr run input and up to speed.