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I have a 1961, Apartment with Bolted on panels vrs the Stab-lock is bolted on safer?

Julie
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    You have two identical questions, please delete one. Not clear what you are asking. Stablok is a brand with known problems. Bolted on is a technical yen that can apply to many brands. What do you actually have? Pictures would help. – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact Dec 14 '23 at 18:26
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    If this is an apartment, as in a rental, there's nothing you can or should legally be doing in the panel anyway. – FreeMan Dec 14 '23 at 19:13
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    Good read: https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/62320/should-all-federal-pacific-panels-be-replaced – nobody Dec 14 '23 at 19:34

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If you are talking about Federal Pacific Electric in both cases (bolt-on and snap-in, both exist under the "Stab-Lok" name), the whole thing needs to be replaced promptly either way. The internal mechanism has several problems according to http://fpe-info.org/hazardous_fpe_171110.pdf which has nothing to do with the bus connection method:

  • Breakers often don't trip at their rated current, but at a much higher level, which can lead to fires
  • Breakers can jam on overcurrent and not trip at all, which can lead to fires
  • Breakers can jam when manually moved to "off" which is a safety problem and also possible fire hazard

Some (probably not all) of the bus-connection problems may be mitigated by the bolt-down breakers, but that does not make them acceptably safe. Either way, these panels are a fire hazard and need to be replaced promptly.

nobody
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