My circa 1961 home had Federal Pacific panels when I bought it about 8
years ago. The very first thing I had done was have both my panels
swapped out. My house has both 220 service and a separate 3 phase
service that runs the condensing unit....
In the first week I was in the house, before the panels had been changed
out, the electric water heater stopped working. The plumber from the
home warranty company pushed the reset button on the water heater, which
promptly exploded and blew a hole in the tank! Water spurting out,
electricity arcing like a Jacobs ladder, and the federal pacific breaker
never tripped...
Yeah, DEFINITELY change out that panel. Cutler Hammer or Square D.
Marc
Randall wrote:
> FYI,
>
> I recently bought a 220v air compressor and was looking today at wiring it
> up. My house has a 125 amp sub-panel with some spare breaker slots, so
> should be no problem, right ?
>
> Well, turns out that sub-panel and it's breakers were made by Federal
> Pacific. I'd never heard of them, but when I called a contractor friend, he
> immediately said "Aren't those the ones that catch fire ?" !
>
> Turns out he's right. Apparently "back when", Federal Pacific falsified
> their data to receive UL approval, and their circuit breakers (and panel)
> are simply a bad design that should never have been sold. A high percentage
> of the breakers can fail to open under various fault conditions; and even
> jam permanently closed so they will not open under any fault conditions !
>
> It's a long, strange story; still being played out in the courts. Lots and
> lots of details at
> http://www.inspect-ny.com/fpe/fpe.html
>
> You might want to check what kind of circuit breakers your home has ...
> I'm off to look at new sub-panels.
>
> Randall
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