*
Over the past couple of years I’ve heard about a brand of circuit breakers which I believe are now out of business that were not tripping when tripping was needed. Does anybody remember that brand and if there were any conditions for the bad breakers such as a certain serial number, or production year(s) that was affected? And what can you tell me about the nature of the failures? I’m trying to spread the word to some friends who may have that old brand but I don’t want to freak people out unnecessarily. Thanks.
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Up Next
Video Shorts
Featured Story

Zoning ordinances attempt to tackle housing shortages and affordability by allowing designs that increase density, but with new regulations come some challenges.
Highlights
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Replies
*
Federal Pacific Stab-Lok. I have one. Do some internet searching on it, look for responsible opinions, though.
Dave
*I read the electrical boards and its widely accepted that some of those federal pacific panels are just a house fire waiting to happen.
*Is there a difference between Federal Pacific Stab-Loc and Federal Pioneer?? Just picked up an older 200 amp service on clearance from an electrical supply (even came with colour coded breakers).
*You may want to check out:http://www.inspect-ny.com/fpe/fpepanel.htmThere have been some discussions of this on Breaktime, I believe, and I have seen some other Web sites that discuss this as well, so you want to do some searching.
*I have read that about 11% of all of them are faulty and that after several cycles of lighting surges etc. some houses have nearly half of their GFGCI's now faulty. New elec codes coming to require arc fault instead of ground fault interupters soon.
*PiffinThe Arc faults are not to replace GFCI's. They are used for a different purpose. They only trip on arc'ing faults (and overloads/shorts). They are currently only going to be required in bedrooms. They are designed to protect against poor connection which might be caused by faulty wiring/outlets or extention cords.They do not protect again ground fault where are more liking is "wet areas".
*Federal Pacific is still in business.A local supplier just got a big shipment of them in, and is having a big sale. I can't believe they would even still carry these things.James DuHamel
*James,I had heard (don't know if its true) that FP went down in bankruptcy, but that an off shore co is making replacement breakers (which are not UL listed.)
*They still have the name Federal Pacific on them, whomever makes them.On sale for $3.98 (single post 110v) and $$8.97 (double post 220v).What a cheap way to burn down your house, or short out your major appliances!They ought to toss these puppies in the garbage, but they swear they sell them quickly (the local supplier, that is)I only use Sqaure D on my house, and try real hard not to mess with breakers in clients homes. James DuHamel
*The ones I have are Federal Puoneer (same as Federal Pacific) but were produced 2 years after the ones that were recalled, should I still be concerned? Are houses still burning down with these things in them after the recall date? As far as savings go they were only about $30 cheaper than the Siemens Set-ups; not much for a house fire. Could someone gimme something tangible here?
*Man, I hope not too many folks are losing sleep. You can go over to http://www.codecheck.com and click around on their links to other sites and there is quite a bit about Federal Pacific, or at least there was. And don't forget electrician.com and elec-toolbox.com.
*http://codecheck.com/FPE_breakers.htm I just learned how to do that from Luka over in the tavern.
*
Over the past couple of years I've heard about a brand of circuit breakers which I believe are now out of business that were not tripping when tripping was needed. Does anybody remember that brand and if there were any conditions for the bad breakers such as a certain serial number, or production year(s) that was affected? And what can you tell me about the nature of the failures? I'm trying to spread the word to some friends who may have that old brand but I don't want to freak people out unnecessarily. Thanks.