ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Federal Pacific

I have a customer that moved his stove to clean bout behind it. When he replaced it tripped the breaker. He unplugged it and reset the breaker, plugged back in an tripped again. left plugged in and reset the breaker, Sparks then trip. He found that when slid the stove out, the red wire come out of the crimp connection, and shorted to the stove frame. Now the question is where can I find a 50 amp 2 pole breaker so he can cook. I told him he was lucky that it tripped at all. Any ideas?
Thanks, Keith

try electrical advisor mag for a breaker remanufacturer or used breaker supplier. I think thier web site is www.ea-online.com

In my area FPE Stab-Lok breakers are easy to find. Home Depot stocks the UBI brand replacemnets for FPE breakers. I'm sure a Square D dealer could get you a genuine Stab-Lok from Canada. If you can't find one I will get you that names of a few breaker shops in California that will ship to you.

Curt

Any chance of changing the ckt. breaker panel. We all know those stablock -Federal Pacific, are no good. Might be good insurance to change out the panel. He would be getting a quality panel as compared to a house fire.

He is lucky that FPE breaker tripped at all. I know a home owner/customer who was doing his own demo and crossed phases (I assume) when ripping out his dryer receptacle - obviously with the circuit still on. Needless to say he called me - Half his power was off and the 30Amp FPE branch and the 100 main breakers were still on. Upon further investigation there was only the A phase coming into the panel from the meter. Called PG&E and they ended up replacing the meter.

I told him that might be the next step. He found one on ebay for $6, but I think I talked him out of that. The hardware store can have him one here on Wed. I will know tomorrow what he has decided. On another note about FPE, A lady where I work lost half her power and called an electrical contractor in the area who charged he $300 to tell her it was the poco problem, but he managed to scare her talking about her FPE panel, then quoted her $3000 to replace it. Most of the older homes in this city have FPE panels.

Lowes sells a breaker that will work in FPE panels. Only about 3 times the cost of other brands. Its sold under the name Federal pioneer and is approved as a replacement use.
I might even have a 2 pole 50 FPE in my storage room - used of course - I save them when I change them out. Never know when one might in handy
Sounds like you have the potential to market service changes in your area.

If you're in the DC area go to Alexandria lighting in old town Alexandria.

Found one at ACE, cost $53 installed and working like before!