Discontinued panels and breakers

There are two main manufactures of panels that have been discontinued because of a history of fires due to overheating.
#1. Zinsko a very popular panel in it's day. They
have two major problems. Failure to trip or open when required and buss problems as visible on the right. As you can see the breaker as well as the buss have been corroded and burnt. This creates a bad connection, heat and possible fire.

These breakers are some times very hard to reset. You can still buy replacement breakers at greatly inflated prices. $70.00 for a single pole breaker. It it usually cost effective to replace these panels because of repair cost as well as piece of mind.


#2. Federal Pacific Electric FPE breakers. They can also go buy

• identifying labels:

• Federal Electric                           
• Federal Pacific Electric
• Federal NOARC
• Federal Pioneer
• FPE
• FPE-Stab-Lok
• Stab-Lok 

 As you can see buy the breaker on the right heat has been created when failure to trip had happened during an overload. Again you can notice the burnt stab lock where the breaker contacts the buss. I am not an alarmist but would recommend a thorough inspection of all parts of either of these panel manufacturers. Take a particularly good look at connection points both where the wire connects to the breaker and neutral bar as well as the buss and stab locks on the breakers. Any discoloration on the wires is likely caused by over loaded wires. And of course the burnt buss and breaker connection points is reason for concern. 

Feel free to call or email me Phil at 480-694-6531 or philkroff@yahoo.com with your questions or concerns