On Ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2351559241&category=20596

Should be banned for even listing those Hope no one buys them

I've got quite a little stock of FPE breakers myself. Years ago I bought out someones' old stock after they passed on. They may be hitting the dumpster soon if I need the space for other things.

Bill

I keep every old FPE breaker I pull out. If you ever have a need for one, it's nice to have one rather than paying up to $50 for an after market one.

Canada has many panel that still use them. I think they even are still manufactured here.

It's a nice relic of times past....

Sort of a reminder of WHAT NOT TO USE also, I guess.

Why were these things called "Stab Lock"

Were the connections to the breaker "backstabbed"?

i have in the past had a hard time locating
replacement fpe breakers. although when you
start having trouble it means it is usually
time to replace the loadcenter it is very hard at times to convince the homeowner.

I usually sell old breakers to the recyclers/remanufacturers. It beats having a lot of old breakers laying around. I do this whenever enough of the old breakers make it woth the time.

There are some surplus switchgear/circuit-breaker dealers that prominently state on their home pages: We do not carry residential components.

SvenNYC - they were called stablocs because of the way they attached to the bus. They had some kind of pointed prongs that you "stabed" into holes on the buss. After heating cycles, the prongs lost their tension and were likely to just fall out.

I guess its a good idea to keep a couple, and if there was any kind of water getting into the panel, I would push for a panel change as a minimum, and possibly a service upgrade. I have to admit, I have had very few calls, where a FPE breaker was bad. Usually, I would see the whole panel burn up. I allways tell the owner, that these breakers are known not to trip. Usually the people will listen. There's nothing like seeing a home owners panel box, and there it is, and you say to yourself, I feel sorry for this guy.

We did a bunch of work on a lady's house. She wanted us to add some stuff and at the same time check over the wiring for safety. We found a Stab-Lok subpanel in the closet and gave her printed info on the breaker failure issues. In addition she was very active on the computer and did her own research on FPE. When we returned to her house the next time she said she wasn't really having any problems with the breakers tripping!! so she didn't really think a new panel was necessary!!.
Sometimes it's tough to sell safety when they can't grasp the issue!