We recently received a flyer from an electrician.  It says:

ELECTRICAL 
PANEL SAFE?
A Potential 
HAZARD
could exist at your home

AT RISK: Federal Pacific, 
Zinsco, X.O Style Square D,
Pushmatic, Challenger,
Crouse Hinds, Sylvania

We have a Federal Pacific panel.  My brother thinks this means our
panel is unsafe.  I think this electrician is just trying to scare
up business.  His list seems to be just about every brand of panel
ever made.

What do you think?  Thank you in advance for all
replies.
--
Whenever I hear or think of the song "Great green gobs of greasy
grimey gopher guts" I imagine my cat saying; "That sounds REALLY,
REALLY good.  I'll have some of that!"

On Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:56:56 -0700, Daniel Prince
<n...@ca.rr.com> wrote:

>We recently received a flyer from an electrician.  It says:
>
>ELECTRICAL 
>PANEL SAFE?
>A Potential 
>HAZARD
>could exist at your home
>
>AT RISK: Federal Pacific, 
>Zinsco, X.O Style Square D,
>Pushmatic, Challenger,
>Crouse Hinds, Sylvania
>
>We have a Federal Pacific panel.  My brother thinks this means our
>panel is unsafe.  I think this electrician is just trying to scare
>up business.  His list seems to be just about every brand of panel
>ever made.
>
>What do you think?  Thank you in advance for all
>replies.


Sure it is possible a hazard exists.  Why does your brother think your
panel is unsafe?   Is it wet? rusting? sparks?  shocks?  Made in
China?

> We recently received a flyer from an electrician.  It says:
>
> ELECTRICAL
> PANEL SAFE?
> A Potential
> HAZARD
> could exist at your home
>
> AT RISK: Federal Pacific,
> Zinsco, X.O Style Square D,
> Pushmatic, Challenger,
> Crouse Hinds, Sylvania
>
> We have a Federal Pacific panel.  My brother thinks this means our
> panel is unsafe.  I think this electrician is just trying to scare
> up business.  His list seems to be just about every brand of panel
> ever made.
>
> What do you think?  Thank you in advance for all
> replies.


*Federal Pacific does have a reputation for faulty circuit breakers. 
Sometimes they don't trip when there is a short circuit.  I have experienced 
this myself a few times.  I have also found with the FPE two pole and three 
pole breakers when you shut them off not all poles will open.  Home buyers 
are also aware of the problems and hysteria associated with Federal Pacific 
so you may want to consider an upgrade at some point.

I seem to recall that there were some problems with the old style Square D.

There is one style of Crouse-Hinds circuit breaker which I have found to 
have a high rate of failure, but have not associated any hazard with it.

I haven't heard about any problems with the rest. 

"Daniel Prince" <n...@ca.rr.com> wrote in message 
news:n...@4ax.com...
> We recently received a flyer from an electrician.  It says:
>
> ELECTRICAL
> PANEL SAFE?
> A Potential
> HAZARD
> could exist at your home
>
> AT RISK: Federal Pacific,
> Zinsco, X.O Style Square D,
> Pushmatic, Challenger,
> Crouse Hinds, Sylvania
>
> We have a Federal Pacific panel.  My brother thinks this means our
> panel is unsafe.  I think this electrician is just trying to scare
> up business.  His list seems to be just about every brand of panel
> ever made.
>
> What do you think?  Thank you in advance for all
> replies.
> --
> Whenever I hear or think of the song "Great green gobs of greasy
> grimey gopher guts" I imagine my cat saying; "That sounds REALLY,
> REALLY good.  I'll have some of that!"

Federal Pacific has known problems with certain models. I'm sure all the 
manufacturers have had issues at one time or another, and probably had law 
suits as well. I am a licensed electrician in down state NY. FPE was from 
Newark, NJ, so my area is full of their panels. Most contractors offered 
customers a high end panel, or an FPE, if they wanted to save a few bucks. 
IMO. if the panel is in good physical shape, and the service is adequate, I 
wouldn't lose sleep over it. Considering the thousands of them around my 
area, and in 37 years in the business, I've never seen or heard of a fire 
caused by one, it's probably OK 

On Apr 23, 2:56=A0am, Daniel Prince  wrote:
> We recently received a flyer from an electrician. =A0It says:
>
> ELECTRICAL
> PANEL SAFE?
> A Potential
> HAZARD
> could exist at your home
>
> AT RISK: Federal Pacific,
> Zinsco, X.O Style Square D,
> Pushmatic, Challenger,
> Crouse Hinds, Sylvania
>
> We have a Federal Pacific panel. =A0My brother thinks this means our
> panel is unsafe. =A0I think this electrician is just trying to scare
> up business. =A0His list seems to be just about every brand of panel
> ever made.
>
> What do you think? =A0Thank you in advance for all
> replies.
> --
> Whenever I hear or think of the song "Great green gobs of greasy
> grimey gopher guts" I imagine my cat saying; "That sounds REALLY,
> REALLY good. =A0I'll have some of that!"

I don't know if they were all defective, but I had an FPE at my last
house lose one side explosively. It was more inconvenient than
dangerous I just lost half of the 120 and all of the 220 until we got
it replaced.
I have another FPE that I bought 2nd hand, that we used as a temporary
in my shop until it could be wired. I worked with it enough to say it
doesn't have the sturdy feel of a Square D & the breakers are poorly
thought out and executed, + the buss bars are flimsy (likely the cause
of the problem in my first sentence.) Still we welded in the shop,
used a 4 post lift, & used good sized wood working tools until the
contractor could get around to trenching & wiring to do it properly,
all on that old FPE on a 100' 220 extension cord.

"Daniel Prince" <n...@ca.rr.com> wrote in message 
news:n...@4ax.com...
> We recently received a flyer from an electrician.  It says:
>
> ELECTRICAL
> PANEL SAFE?
> A Potential
> HAZARD
> could exist at your home
>
> AT RISK: Federal Pacific,
> Zinsco, X.O Style Square D,
> Pushmatic, Challenger,
> Crouse Hinds, Sylvania
>
> We have a Federal Pacific panel.  My brother thinks this means our
> panel is unsafe.  I think this electrician is just trying to scare
> up business.  His list seems to be just about every brand of panel
> ever made.
>
> What do you think?  Thank you in advance for all
> replies.


http://www.philadelphiaelectric.com/recall__federal_pacific_breaker.htm

That's one of many interesting sites found via a google search with the 
words "recall federal pacific electrical". Do the same google search and 
you'll find more info. 

Daniel Prince wrote:
> We recently received a flyer from an electrician.  It says:
> 
> ELECTRICAL 
> PANEL SAFE?
> A Potential 
> HAZARD
> could exist at your home
> 
> AT RISK: Federal Pacific, 
> Zinsco, X.O Style Square D,
> Pushmatic, Challenger,
> Crouse Hinds, Sylvania
> 
> We have a Federal Pacific panel.  My brother thinks this means our
> panel is unsafe.  I think this electrician is just trying to scare
> up business.  His list seems to be just about every brand of panel
> ever made.
> 
> What do you think?  Thank you in advance for all
> replies.

FPE submitted fraudulent test information to UL. FPE was sold to 
Reliance and they reported the fraud. UL then revoked the listing for 
much of the FPE line. The problems were probably for equipment 
manufactured around 1965-1980. The Consumer Product Safety Commission 
did preliminary tests on FPE breakers with disturbing results. The CPSC 
closed it's investigation - one reason probably was that breakers are 
not a "consumer product".

http://www.inspect-ny.com/fpe/fpepanel.htm
has a lot of information of FPE, much of it derived from the 
investigation by the CPSC. Two pole breakers may not trip (can jam and 
never trip) if the current on both poles is not the same (like ground 
fault). (Service disconnect size breakers were not tested.) Another 
problem - single pole breakers may never trip at 135% of rating. Also 
bus failures which cannot be seen as they are developing without panel 
disassembly.

Another source:
http://www.codecheck.com/cc/pdf/electrical/FPE_Article_Nov2003.pdf
includes additional problems with FPE panels, including the bus problems.

There was a class action suit in NJ in 2005. Haven't heard results.

FPE is currently sold in Canada.

==================
Some info on Zinsco. (I haven’t read it.) Sylvania bought Zinsco.
http://www.inspect-ny.com/electric/Zinsco.htm
http://www.mikeholt.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/005092.html

-- 
bud--

On Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:56:56 -0700, Daniel Prince
<n...@ca.rr.com> wrote:

>We recently received a flyer from an electrician.  It says:
>
>ELECTRICAL 
>PANEL SAFE?
>A Potential 
>HAZARD
>could exist at your home
>
>AT RISK: Federal Pacific, 
>Zinsco, X.O Style Square D,
>Pushmatic, Challenger,
>Crouse Hinds, Sylvania
>
>We have a Federal Pacific panel.  My brother thinks this means our
>panel is unsafe.  I think this electrician is just trying to scare
>up business.  His list seems to be just about every brand of panel
>ever made.
>
>What do you think?  Thank you in advance for all
>replies.

Some close friends of mine had their house burn about a year and a
half ago.  The initial event was a short in an attic fan (probably a
result of years of vibration, but it was too badly burned to be sure).
But the FPE breaker in their FPE panel didn't trip.  The investigator
removed 3 other breakers from the panel (which was in the basement and
not damaged by the fire) and sent them to a lab for testing.  I read
the test results.  The test consists of applying an overcurrent to the
breaker and waiting 5 minutes to see if it trips.  If it doesn't, the
breaker is allowed to cool, then the test is repeated at a higher
current. The breakers were all 20 amps.  One tripped at 23 amps (about
right).  The second tripped at 47 amps.  The third did not trip at the
test limit of 50 amps.  The investigator said he has seen many
electrical fires resulting from failure of the FPE breakers to trip.

My friends were lucky.  No one was hurt and they had good insurance
coverage. They were home and detected the fire quickly, but the damage
to their home  was still extensive.  They have only recently finished
the rebuilding and refurnishing, a year and a half later.  My buddy
tells everyone who will listen 2 things.  If you have an FPE panel,
get it replaced. Now.  And take pictures of everything you own.  Open
every drawer and spread out the contents and take the shot.  Same with
cupboards, closets, etc.  Then burn them to a Cd and stick it in your
safe deposit box.  

I don't have an FPE panel, but I followed his advice on the pictures.

Paul F.

On Thu, 23 Apr 2009 22:09:46 -0400, Paul Franklin
<p...@nospam.hotmail.com> wrote:

>On Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:56:56 -0700, Daniel Prince
><n...@ca.rr.com> wrote:
>
>>We recently received a flyer from an electrician.  It says:
>>
>>ELECTRICAL 
>>PANEL SAFE?
>>A Potential 
>>HAZARD
>>could exist at your home

Breakers??
Who needs BREAKERS?
Fuses are pretty well fail safe and I'm in no hurry to replace my
"amalgamated electric" fuse panel
>>
>>AT RISK: Federal Pacific, 
>>Zinsco, X.O Style Square D,
>>Pushmatic, Challenger,
>>Crouse Hinds, Sylvania
>>
>>We have a Federal Pacific panel.  My brother thinks this means our
>>panel is unsafe.  I think this electrician is just trying to scare
>>up business.  His list seems to be just about every brand of panel
>>ever made.
>>
>>What do you think?  Thank you in advance for all
>>replies.
>
>Some close friends of mine had their house burn about a year and a
>half ago.  The initial event was a short in an attic fan (probably a
>result of years of vibration, but it was too badly burned to be sure).
>But the FPE breaker in their FPE panel didn't trip.  The investigator
>removed 3 other breakers from the panel (which was in the basement and
>not damaged by the fire) and sent them to a lab for testing.  I read
>the test results.  The test consists of applying an overcurrent to the
>breaker and waiting 5 minutes to see if it trips.  If it doesn't, the
>breaker is allowed to cool, then the test is repeated at a higher
>current. The breakers were all 20 amps.  One tripped at 23 amps (about
>right).  The second tripped at 47 amps.  The third did not trip at the
>test limit of 50 amps.  The investigator said he has seen many
>electrical fires resulting from failure of the FPE breakers to trip.
>
>My friends were lucky.  No one was hurt and they had good insurance
>coverage. They were home and detected the fire quickly, but the damage
>to their home  was still extensive.  They have only recently finished
>the rebuilding and refurnishing, a year and a half later.  My buddy
>tells everyone who will listen 2 things.  If you have an FPE panel,
>get it replaced. Now.  And take pictures of everything you own.  Open
>every drawer and spread out the contents and take the shot.  Same with
>cupboards, closets, etc.  Then burn them to a Cd and stick it in your
>safe deposit box.  
>
>I don't have an FPE panel, but I followed his advice on the pictures.
>
>Paul F.
>