This document discusses the safety of older, "Pre-1970" Federal Pacific Stab-Lok® Circuit Breakers & Electric Panels in buildings.

Here is information for building inspectors, home buyers, home owners, electricians exploring the background of possible hazards associated with Federal Pacific Electric Stab-Lok® circuit breakers and service panels.

Safety of Older FPE Stab-Lok® Electrical Panels & Breakers

Watch out: Safety warning: while opening the hinged door provided for consumer use to access and reset the breakers is permitted, because there is risk of dangerous or even fatal electric shock in any electrical panel interior, only an expert should actually remove the front cover.

Question: Are pre-1970 FPE Stab-Lok® circuit breakers as unsafe as the later models?

As I searched InspectAPedia I see statements that ALL FPE breakers and panels must be replaced. However the vast majority, if not all of the problem reports that I have read are of FPE circuit breaker equipment installed in the 1970's early 1980's.

We live in a neighborhood built in the 1950's and my wife is a realtor. The houses here have the old 100amp brown FPE breakers with copper split busses. Is there data and problem reports that supports a higher than normal industry failure rate for 1950s manufactured FPE breakers and panels? Or is this a "guilty by 1970s association so all FPE breakers and panels are bad" thing.

-- Loren Schiele. BS EE

Answer:

The photos below, courtesy of electrical panel researcher David Carrier, show older FPE Stab-Lok® circuit breakers that include the use of some copper components.

This 40-Amp two-pole circuit breaker, FPE Catalog No. 240, lacks an internal common trip mechanism, relying on mechanical linkage between the two breaker halves. Additional photos of FPE Stab-Lok® circuit breakers of various vintages including this pre-1970 set are at FPE BREAKER ID PHOTOS.

Only Limited Testing of Older Pre-1970 Equipment

Among the more than 1600 FPE Stab-Lok® breakers tested to date, there are too few of those with the "old" construction (brown case and/or hexagonal handle) tested to date to conclude that they are substantially different in performance.

Lack of Common Internal Trip Mechanism in Older Circuit Breakers

One significant difference is that the early 2-pole FPE Stab-Lok® breakers had linked handles but lacked an internal common trip mechanism.

The lack of a common-trip mechanism is today considered less safe, which is why the standards were changed to require it. At the same time, these do not have the jamming problem of the later FPE 2-pole breakers that is specifically attributed to the common trip mechanism.

Degradation of Electrical Equipment With Age

The FPE Stab-Lok® performance problems were not restricted to the 1970's and later production.

While one could postulate that the quality control, tooling, etc. at the plant degraded with time, so that the early FPE Stab-Lok® breakers might be better than the average FPE, that is in part balanced by the fact that mechanical devices generally degrade with time, and the original FPE Stab-Lok® breakers are now headed toward 60 years in service.

There is also the question of added circuits and replacements

• Many of the original panels are likely to have some Stab-Lok® breakers of more recent manufacture.
• What is their performance?
• Where do you get "good" Stab-Lok® breakers for future additions or replacements?

Busbar Contacts in Older FPE Stab-Lok® Panels

• As for the busbar contacts, there are no problems that we know of with the original copper busbar (with openings punched in) and the heavy "stab" of the full-width breakers.
• The split bus design (if that is what you have, as mentioned in your EMail) has adverse safety issues, however, regardless of brand of electrical panel involved.

Further Study Needed on Older FPE Equipment - Rotating FPE Breaker Replacement & Free Testing Project

If there are enough interested and cooperative homeowners in the neighborhood, perhaps you could organize a rotating breaker substitution system that would allow Dr. Aronstein or our collaborating test engineer David Carrier to test the breakers and return them, so as to obtain the performance data that all of us are interested in.

Watch out: preliminary field and independent lab test data indicates high failure rates (breakers don't trip in response to over-current following standardized tests) for replacement circuit breakers for FPE panels.

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Continue reading at FPE STAB-LOK HAZARD PROOF or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

Or see these

Recommended Articles

• FPE Stab-Lok® : FIRES WAITING TO HAPPEN

Suggested citation for this web page

FPE Pre-1970 STAB-LOKS OK? at InspectApedia.com - online encyclopedia of building & environmental inspection, testing, diagnosis, repair, & problem prevention advice.

Or see this

INDEX to RELATED ARTICLES: ARTICLE INDEX to FPE STAB-LOK BREAKERS & PANELS

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Citations & References

In addition to any citations in the article above, a full list is available on request.

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