ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area So what panel brands are popular in your area?

I thought that I would start this thread to spark up a little bit of chat here. So, what brands of circuit breaker panels are most popular in your area?

I cut my teeth in the electrical biz in Northern NJ and the most popular brands were FPE and Murray. My boss insisted on using Square-D for any new work that we did.

ITE was most popular when I lived in North Carolina.

When I moved to Northern VA, the most popular brands were GE and Cutler-Hammer (the original CH series with beige covers and breaker handles).

I'm still in Virginia and it seems that the same CH and GE brands are most popular, although Square-D QO seems to be taking on a good chunk of the market.

So what are the predominant brands in your area?

I see a lot of Sq D Homeline, and CH is resi jobs. Sq D and Siemens in comm jobs. (As AHJ)

Personally, I have a Sq D QO, and was a Sq D guy as an EC.

Yes, FPE & Murray used to be the 'choices'! (Northern NJ) There are still a lot of FPE panels around that are being replaced.

I might add that I've pretty much seen everything, even the dreaded Zinsco brand, but only two or three times in VA. The installing contractors must have been from out west. (Sorry, California guys).

Everyone jokes about ITE (Bulldog) 'Push-a-Matic' panels, but I was always a fan of the fact that they offered a bolted bus connection even in residential environments.

Yes, I came upon Bulldogs, even had a three phase panel that was out of a demo job.

Bryant was another, mixed in with Murray, GE, T&B, and any other breakers that would fit.

Murray or Bryant used to have some really interesting 'tandem' & 'quad' combos.

I did see a few of those Push-a-matic three phase panels. They had two sets of parallel bus bars (A/B and B/C), but I never saw how they could accommodate a three-phase circuit. Maybe that is what let to the demise of their design.

The Bryant quads were pretty popular in these parts with their 'double 30' design; one for the oven and the other for the cooktop. The other manufacturer's variations are still widely popular here for the same use.

In new construction I see C/H, Homeline and some Siemens.
Commercial is usually SqD QO.

Our panels keep changing.

FPE is obsolete and Schneider is pushing a new panel to replace it.

Westinghouse was taken over by CH and the new breakers don't fit in the commercial panels.

A wholesaler dropped the GE line and picked up ITE, which wasn't being carried by anyone else.

Sylvania took over the CEB style, then disappeared.

There must not be much profit in selling breakers.

Siemens/ITE,C-H,& GE,are common, but the GE supply house dropped them in favor of Siemens,so GE will be rare now, SQ D never had a local supplier until a few years ago, so they were a "import" but there is still a large installed base of Cutler-Hammer XO panels & Zinsco/Sylvania/Challenger was popular in multi-family, & tract homes, & other places where cheap is normal.

Super rare is ITE Pushmatic,& some FPE.

Did Rexel dump GE all over? They did buy the West Coast chain, Platt & the supply house Platt bought was a long time ITE & later Siemens dist. so 2 Rexel owned distributers sell Siemens now, and am wondering if one will be closed........

http://www.rexelusa.com/PDF/PlattPressRelease.pdf

In SE Alaska it's mainly SQD QO, GE and cutler hammer. Zinsco is still around in trailers mainly and FPE in older houses. What combinations

EV,

Where in north NJ did you live? I am in Morris county and around here not only was there a lot of FPE, but we had Murray, Zinsco, Wordsworth, ITE, Cut-Ham, Square D, I think, they all made it here. I used to have to carry at least a couple dozen breakers in my truck when we went out on service calls here. Now these days it is what the big box stores carry. Square D, Cut-Ham, and some ITE. That last one is because we still have a local supply house that carries it.