Breaker shortages

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jimport

jimport

Senior Member
Location
Outside Baltimore Maryland
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Master Electrician
Just an FYI, but we are seeing breaker shortages at both the big boxes and supply houses. Heard the breakers are not being shipped out of Mexico. Starting to cause job delays.
 
All Homeline breakers are almost gone from the supply house. They mentioned getting calls from surrounding states about buying and shipping them in.
 
Don't buy QO often but the shelves were still stocked when I was there Firday. Didn't ask if that line is affected too. They carry Eaton and that shelf was full as well.
 
Another C10 said:
Maybe we can start making our own breakers again. As well as everything else. I'll pay 2 more bucks or so for the Made in America logo.
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I don't think they could do it for $2 more. I think a $4 1p plug on breaker would end up being $20.

Look at the buy american act compliant GFCI receptacles. $80 vs $12
 
Todd0x1 said:
Look at the buy american act compliant GFCI receptacles. $80 vs $12
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Time for american manufacturers to be a little more competitive, I worked Union at one time, very good .. but way over priced. Or buy the high end stuff and pass the cost on to the customer. I know easier said than done.
 
Free market works fairly well until the government gets involved. China does not have nowhere near the environmental regulations we have. Before the environmentalists on here start screaming, we need common sense regulations, not total elimination . Sure, that still won’t make us competitive with the rouge nations, but it would give more incentive to stay here.
 
Most of the factories (Siemens, Schneider, Eaton) have moved their resi breaker factories to the Monterey MX area, and they have been hit hard by the virus. A lot of them have had to shut down completely. I toured the Siemens factory in Juarez right before they closed it and moved to Monterey.

These factories and their workers are frequent targets for bad people, so they build the factories like walled cities, with schools, gyms, theaters, shopping etc. inside so that parents don't have to leave their kids unattended at home. It's a sweet setup, but the closeness is something tht's going to be a petri dish for something like COvid-19
 
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retirede said:
What’s the status of QOs? Similar?
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I know they used to make QO breakers in a plant in Lincoln NE about 30 years ago. It appears the plant is still there and is active but not finding any information on what they do there. I went through that plant with my class in probably about 1988, and got to see the QO assembly lines, and AFAIK that is about all they did there back then was QO breakers. Panels came from another plant.
 
I know when I toured that plant back then the breakers were assembled by machine. I suppose there would still be some tasks they could spend less on labor though by moving out of the country. I know back then they said the GFCI breakers were still hand assembled but I'm pretty sure up to 60 or 70 amp 1 thru 3 pole were all machine assembled. Employees on those lines kept the parts feeding the machine stocked and the machine ran itself. Might have been more labor involved in packaging, can't remember.
 
I tried to get some HOM115PDF's form my supply house a couple weeks ago. My sales person laughed and said they had over 4000 on back order. He first was told that Mexico shut down the plant due to Covid. Later he was told Mexico shut down both Eaton and Square D plants in retaliation against the US. If that is the case all manufacturing should be permanently pulled for Mexico. Someone told me the other day Eaton and Square D have both started shipping breaker manufacture in US plants. Who knows what the real truth is.

No matter the reason this shows the US really needs to bring some manufacturing of all products back to the US. We obviously can't compete with other county in pricing but we need to be able to walk away from any country if necessary and be able to produce the products with limited delays.
 
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