Painting circuit breakers

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K8MHZ

K8MHZ

Senior Member
Location
Michigan. It's a beautiful peninsula, I've looked
Occupation
Electrician
I have a friend that is involved in maintenance in a foundry. He said that they paint the handles of the breakers in order to color code them. He said that repeated paintings have made many of the current ratings in the handles not readable and fears that additional coats of paint will make all of them totally unreadable at some point in time.

He wants to put an end to this process and is looking for some ammunition. He called me and asked if painting circuit breaker handles (covering the current rating in the process) was a code violation.

All I can find related is 240.83 (A) which requires they be marked, but I see nothing that prevents the markings to be obscured by paint after installation.

Does anyone else have any ideas?

Yeah, I know, what about plain common sense.......sadly, that is seldom present in the world as we know it....:mad:
 
raider1

raider1

Senior Member
Staff member
Location
Logan, Utah
Section 240.83(A) requires the breaker to be marked with their ampere rating in a manner that is durable and visible after installation.

If the breaker is painted, the marking is no longer visible.:)

Chris
 
K8MHZ

K8MHZ

Senior Member
Location
Michigan. It's a beautiful peninsula, I've looked
Occupation
Electrician
raider1 said:
Section 240.83(A) requires the breaker to be marked with their ampere rating in a manner that is durable and visible after installation.

If the breaker is painted, the marking is no longer visible.:)

Chris
Click to expand...

I will read the section to him word for word and let him decide.

So, the violation is the improper marking of the breaker, not the actual painting of it, correct?

In other words, if a breaker installation requires painting, a breaker that is marked in a manner to keep it's marking visible after repeated paintings is required. Since none (that I know of) exist, by default that prohibits painting.

No?
 
J

jusme123

Senior Member
Location
NY
Occupation
JW
raider1 said:
Section 240.83(A) requires the breaker to be marked with their ampere rating in a manner that is durable and visible after installation.

If the breaker is painted, the marking is no longer visible.:)

Chris
Click to expand...

this majority in this forum do not believe the word 'and' is applicable in the code, as referenced in the pole taken on not supporting emt
 
Jim W in Tampa

Jim W in Tampa

Senior Member
Location
Tampa Florida
I have a weird idea they might try, it's called a DIRECTORY
That would be far better than paint unless they have a lot of non english speaking workers. If thats the case then go back to paint
 
Dennis Alwon

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
The old bryant breakers were color coded so that they were easily identified but that was factory done. Blue was 15 amp, red was 20 amp, green was 30 amp, etc. Seems pretty weird to paint them.

You could use a color sticky on them where it won't cover the ampere size.

2453lgn_27.jpeg
 
H

highline

Member
found a lot of that when I first started working where I'm at now. White = inside lights, yellow = outside lights, red = do not turn off. Made for a real mess when someone moved something. 98% are gone now. Replaced with external switch and updated directories.
 
acrwc10

acrwc10

Master Code Professional
Location
CA
Occupation
Building inspector
The words ( qualified persons ) are in the code about 100 times. If you need to paint the breaker handle to identify it you are not "qualified persons" and should paint the walls not the circuit breakers.
 
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