Home Inspection Services

Danger of Fire or Electrocution:

Federal Pacific electrical panels are something we see a lot of in Southern California. The main defect of this type of panel are the circuit breakers. Although buss bars have also been known to fail. Stab-Lok breakers fail to trip during short circuit and or overload conditions. Note Stab-Lok has a failure rate that exceeds UL test. Furthermore they fail at a rate 99 time higher than breakers of like equipment manufactures. Test show that the rate of failure is close to 82%. UL Tested other major brands and found them to only fail to trip in response to an over-current or short circuit only 0.85% of the time.

When an overload or short circuit occurs in an electrical device, the circuit supplying electricity to the device is supposed to be interrupted by the breaker. This interruption of electrical power is intended to minimize the resulting fire hazard of electrical overloads or short circuits. With the federal Pacific electrical panels this does not happen. A circuit breaker that fails to trip is unsafe. It fails to protect the electrical circuit and the building and building occupants where that circuit breaker is installed.

It is always recommended to remove and replace this type of panel as well as others that have a high failure rate. Names like Bull Dog Push-Omatic and Zinzco are panels that need to be inspected regularly to insure the panel is in good working condition.

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