Colorado Springs Electrical

Colorado Springs Electrical

Federal Pacific Electric Stab-lok type (FPE Stab-lok®) residential circuit breakers are reported to pose a fire hazard. FPE Stab-lok® circuit breakers and load centers (electrical panels) can still be found in millions of homes. Even though FPE has not made a circuit breaker since 1986, the circuit breaker operations were acquired by other companies. In the United States, Stab-lok® circuit breakers are sold by the American Circuit Breaker Corporation.Federal Pacific Electric (FPE, aka Stab-Lok) electric panels have a history of breakers not tripping when they should. The Problem Circuit breakers are supposed to shut off when current reaches levels that
could start a fire or damage equipment.
Due to design and/or quality control problems, the FPE Stab-Lok circuit breakers do not always work reliably. Testing has shown that roughly 30% of the 2-pole circuit breakers fail to trip when they should. Virtually 100% of some lots of these breakers are defective. Fuses served the same safety function before we had circuit breakers. The situation with the FPE circuit breakers is the same as the old unsafe (but common) practice of over fusing or putting a penny in the fuse socket behind the fuse itself to deal with the nuisance of fuses frequently blowing... There isn't an inspector or electrical contractor (or even a realtor) who would not agree that these conditions should be corrected. And fast!"