Stab-lok breaker question

[brad d]

Well I have 400amp service to my house and will be feeding two strings of 100amps to the new shop. (the house has two 200 amp panels)

But there is not a ton of room on the panles.. from what I have seen some of the brakers take up 2 spots some 4 spots and some big guys take up 8 spots... but the odd thing is I have a 50amp that takes up two spots and a 40 amp one that takes up 8....

So is there a difference?

in one panel I have enough room for the big 8 one but in the other I only have room for the kind that takes 4...

Can I get a 100 amp breaker in the 4 spots??

[brad d]

this is the fatty that takes up 8 spots

http://image.bizrate.com/resize?sq=160&uid=733807282&mid=56274

[Terry Kennedy]

Can I get a 100 amp breaker in the 4 spots??
The answer to any Stab-Lok question is "change the whole panel for another brand". If you go here (http://www.inspect-ny.com/fpe/fpe.html) there's a lot of info.

I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes - a 20A Stab-Lok ignored a dead short, as did the 60A main breaker and a 125A floor breaker. The first breaker that tripped was a GE 400A feeder breaker (all the rest were FPE). About 40 of the breakers tested on that web site came from FPE panels I removed.

[tatra]

all the electricians i work with say the same thing..........basically you could weld with a stablok before it would trip.............on that note i have them in my house and garage and have never had a problem..........if i was buying new i would look at other options............and i have seen similar failures on the net of square d and siemens.........counterfits though of those brands........brad, my advice is do what i did and hire an electrician to teach you and buy the latest code book...........well worth the money...........i did both and never regretted it..................available down on main street from the permit/inspection guys............least thats where i got mine years ago..........

[BrianAltenhofel]

I still haven't gotten an FPE breaker to trip at my house. I'm pretty sure that a 120v MIG running full power (and still making great welds), 120v air compressor, deep freeze, refrigerator, microwave, 12 florescent lights, and stereo (that draws 3.4 amps constant according to an ammeter) is supposed to trip a 20 amp breaker.

Oh well, the wire's good enough for 40 going out there, but I'm about to upgrade to 100 thanks to someone's trailer house burning down (free 100amp loaded box and about 400 feet of wire, including 75 feet of 6/3 that wasn't hurt by fire or water damage). It *crossed* my mind to purchase a 100 amp breaker for the FPE box in our trailer, but the cost of that single breaker is the same as a whole new 200 amp box with most of the fixins' we need.

[Torque1st]

I have an older 1962 FPE 100A main breaker panel and there are no problems with it. I have tripped many breakers in it including the main when there was an unbalanced load. I have measured the current on all of the circuits and even attached a dummy load consisting of a rack of 100W light bulbs to help load individual circuits to test overload tripping. I have pulled all the breakers and checked all the connections. Everything checks out OK. Since it is an older panel it may have escaped many of the defects with later production. Even with that checkout it is being replaced when our service is upgraded to 200A. The panel is nearing 50 years of age and has earned retirement. I am replacing it with Siemens equipment.

[brad d]

I have tripped them in my house as well.. over loading it in the garage.... tread mill on the zeor arc or what ever they are... And a wire was not tight in the 25KW heater and it popped a 150amp one :O

[trainer]

I had them in my old shop and had them trip as well. I had an AC welder on a 20 amp 240 circuit. If i tried to crank the amps up too high then it would pop. Same thing with a 15 amp circuit that had a drill press and compressor. it would blow If i was using the drillpress and the compressor kicked on.

[Torque1st]

When my main tripped I started looking at the system and checking it out. The kids had every light in the house on as well as a bunch of other stuff. The way the panel breakers were arranged the load was incredibly unbalanced. The garage door opener was the final straw. When I was all done checking the breakers I rearranged them to balance the load for normal operation. I still have to make sure the electric oven is off and the electric kiln is off before I crank up my welder tho. For some odd reason the wife hates it when all the lights go off...

[Mr_fixit]

Stab loks don't like to trip. If you like the house, lose the stab-lok's. You can seel them and get your money back. The 100 Amp breakers for a stab lok would cost you a small fortune.