In my opinion home depot and lowes should not be allowed to sell main panel and sub panels and for that matter breakers to anyone who does not have a license, period!!!

In BC a Home owner can replace their own breakers without a permit.

Rules seldom have the effect you want. It might be better to have homeowners buying new from a retail outlet than used from a buddy.

Anyway, what happened?

In these "internet" days, bans like that are unenforceable anyway.

well a friend called me about his dryer, it had no heat so i went over and found out that his buddy had put a new panel in for him.after a couple of hours of straightening out everything i looked at the dryer problem.he He had the double breaker on the same phase.I mostly use cutler hammer or square D but this one was a fpe. Cutler hammer stagger their phases and so does square D but FPE doesnt they group them in twos.So never start with a double on FPE.

Swoop:

What? You guys up in Canada have NEW FPE panels??

maybe their just selling off old stock, but I would have sent them all back, I hear the new breakers are ok though

yup

http://www.schneider-electric.ca/ca...mp;p_family_id=15207&p_range_id=7254

Yikes! Looks as if they just changed the color of the breakers. It wasn't the "stab" part that caused FPE breakers to be so dangerous. It was the fact that they wouldn't trip!

I seem to recall that their skinny two-pole breakers couldn't occupy a space on the same leg. It has been a while since I've encountered an FPE panel around here so I can't speak with certainty.

Yes we are allowed to put them in our igloo's

Seems like Schneider (parent of Sq D here) took the stab-loc design?

Interesting, last I saw here (US) the 'listed replacement' stab-loc cbs were made by a company called American Breaker, and they were $$$$.

Thanks guys

LOL,
From the website:


What??

Last I heard, these things were a fire hazard.

Sometimes the connection is too durable. I've broken breakers trying to get them out. They have even left the stabs in the panel.

I've seen more than one electrician get both sides of the breaker on the same phase. Another problem is that on 3 phase the narrow breakers are phased AA BB CC instead of A B C. It's never home-owners getting that one wrong.

I installed a stablok load centre a month ago. They have a new problem. The bars in the panel are now made of some real soft material that bends out of the way when you try to plug in a breaker. I had to shut down the power and fix the bent metal in the panel. That's the end of FPE panels for me.

It seems to be the new way.

Anyone want to talk about Chev vans?

YES!!!!!we have and we are hated them . They are cheap and locals loved cheap! So...

Chev van's are great.They made in unknown country,from scrap parts,and people why build them have no pride of work .Chev van great,slowly falling apart,and always have surprise for you. God bless America.

I wouldn't want to take people's options away from them. Some people know enough to do what they have to do safely. I wouldn't want to cater to the people who DON'T know enough, by taking it away from EVERYONE.

People aren't braindead (if they were, they'd be a pile of skin on the ground... oozing all over). Every guy "knows what they're doin"

I did that breaker mistake too... and then I stopped