zog
Senior Member
- Location
- Charlotte, NC
Brian John did a fairly large batch of testing on these a while back.
Federal Pacific breaker panel
- Thread starter Fmkehoe
- Start date
- Status
Brian John did a fairly large batch of testing on these a while back.
mbrooke
Batteries Included
- Location
- United States
- Occupation
- Technician
ptonsparky
Tom
- Occupation
- EC - retired
Thermal only trip?
gaelectric
Senior Member
- Location
- Highlands Ranch, CO
I don't keep them anymore. But between my Dad and I saving them after service changes I bet I have at least 500 of them in different ratings. I'd love to have someone take them off my hands for testing or target shooting or whatever.
mbrooke
Batteries Included
- Location
- United States
- Occupation
- Technician
In practice, yes. The thick member under neath the bimetal is supposed to be the magnetic trip according to the patents and FPE themselves, but in reality it does little if anything during a fault.
romex jockey
Senior Member
- Location
- Vermont
- Occupation
- electrician
so....how did Ul miss that?
~RJ~
~RJ~
mbrooke
Batteries Included
- Location
- United States
- Occupation
- Technician
While all FPE is somewhat suspect to me, these are IMO the biggest offenders:
http://i-inspect.biz/federal-pacific-stab-lok-breakers/
The red handle ones from the 70s. The ones that came latter with that white dot are fair enough.
romex jockey
Senior Member
- Location
- Vermont
- Occupation
- electrician
As an ancedotal aside, there's one of those exact panels at the local firestation. All the rigs down there have a power inlet ,to keep everything onboiard charged. A while back, one noob got excited ,and decided to drive off w/o unplugging (newer rigs have ignition responsive ejection inlets, this did not)
The resounding 'pop' was heard over the sirens
The cord was found , de-cord capped, still live , FP ocpd had not tripped.
~RJ~
The resounding 'pop' was heard over the sirens
The cord was found , de-cord capped, still live , FP ocpd had not tripped.
~RJ~
mbrooke
Batteries Included
- Location
- United States
- Occupation
- Technician
No mag trip might be part of it- along with a thermal curve- assuming it has not sized yet. FPE, the gift that keep on giving power.
Coppersmith
Senior Member
- Location
- Tampa, FL, USA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
It would be embarrassing if the fire station burned down.
goldstar
Senior Member
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
No problem. They probably have a Gamewell box outside
Adamjamma
Senior Member
- Location
- Jamaica and london
That happened in Jamaica.. fire department burned down because cook messed up...lol...
Coppersmith
Senior Member
- Location
- Tampa, FL, USA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
Was too much Red Stripe involved?
Adamjamma
Senior Member
- Location
- Jamaica and london
they were on duty.. fire station near the church... wedding going on with all the ladies arriving all dolled up... cook right with the rest watching the girls get out of cars etc.. smoke just a billowing from the back... was frying chicken..lol... almost burned the fire truck... sad thing was..
Fire station had no smoke detectors or fire equipment..everything on the truck...
Fire station had no smoke detectors or fire equipment..everything on the truck...
hillbilly1
Senior Member
- Location
- North Georgia mountains
- Occupation
- Owner/electrical contractor
I did a remodel on a Judge's house, and told him we needed to change it out, they thought I was trying to rip them off because a buddy of his put in the FPE panel and told him it was the best back when they built the house. I told him don't take my word on it, do some research. He called me back the next day and said get that thing out of there! LOL! KMart used them in a lot of their stores, back when it was ok to short out a wire as a circuit tracer (LOL!) you could burn off 6" of wire, and still not trip the breaker!
Craigv
Senior Member
- Location
- Boyertown, PA, USA
brycenesbitt
Senior Member
- Location
- United States
I had a run-in with a red handled FPE breaker.
Carpenter moved some a piece of 1/2 conduit, which had not been properly deburred years ago.
The resulting shower of sparks did trip the FPE breaker, after about 10 seconds.
Carpenter moved some a piece of 1/2 conduit, which had not been properly deburred years ago.
The resulting shower of sparks did trip the FPE breaker, after about 10 seconds.
Fred B
Senior Member
- Location
- Upstate, NY
- Occupation
- Electrician
REPLACE; risk is high for failure and fire. Had contractor doing renovations and accidentally damaged and shorted a wire, that ultimately began arcing and burning, fire ran up wire for more than twenty feet before worker was able to get to the panel to shut off power. At least the wall was open so you could see the whole thing as it was happening sparking and burning otherwise who knows how bad it would have gotten. FP breaker never tripped. When inspecting that panel found another breaker that would not even shut off manually, couldn't move the handle at all.
- Location
- Wisconsin
- Occupation
- PE (Retired) - Power Systems
I am closing this as it is a 2 year old thread.
Please feel free to start a new one, if you wish to continue the conversation.
Please feel free to start a new one, if you wish to continue the conversation.
- Status