Jump to content

Federal Pacific Dates


Terence McCann

Recommended Posts

Are there certain dates that FP manufactured breakers that were "ok"?

I did a home inspection for a client and the seller was a real estate agent. Upon calling out the FP box they responded with "their FP box was ok because it was produced after X date (I asked for a copy of their response, haven't received it yet).

What's the skinny on production dates, if any.

TIA.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi,

They're blowing smoke Terry. After a certain date doesn't mean a thing. When FPE went under the General Manager and some other employees bought the remaining stocks and name of the company. Anything sold after that, was just remaining stock so it wasn't any different from what had been produced before they went under.

OT - OF!!!

M.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally posted by Terence McCann

Are there certain dates that FP manufactured breakers that were "ok"?

I did a home inspection for a client and the seller was a real estate agent. Upon calling out the FP box they responded with "their FP box was ok because it was produced after X date (I asked for a copy of their response, haven't received it yet).

What's the skinny on production dates, if any.

TIA.

There are two fundamental problems with FPE equipment.

First, at least some of the FPE breakers failed to meet the safety standards that they were supposed to; they're reluctant to trip. This was a breaker design issue that was discovered late in the game in the early '80s. As far as I know, there were never any changes to the breakers after that discovery. Some of the earlier, much older, breakers might have been ok. I don't know for sure.

Second, the method by which the breakers connected to the bus bars was flawed. This condition is common to all FPE circuit breaker panels regardless of age.

There's a boatload of misinformation out there about FPE panels. Most of it is spread around by home inspectors. I'll bet that the agent heard it from one of them.

All you can do is send them to Friedman's site and hope that they have enough of a brain to understand it.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...