Eaton giving up on the non-notched bus stabs

[brycenesbitt]

I wanted to comment on an old thread:
Eaton Giving up on Notching CTL Bus Bars?

This is Eaton's current (September 2025) page on the notched stabs. Placed here for archival purposes:

Eaton appears to have given up on notching bus stabs, and somewhat reduced the price of tandem breakers that are compatible
with full (un-notched) bus stabs.


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https://knowledgehub.eaton.com/s/article/What-is-the-difference-between-the-BD-BQ-and-BQC-breakers
Q: What is the difference between the BD, BQ and BQC breakers?
A:
BD – Duplex
BQ – Quadplex (independent trip)
BQC – Quadplex (common trip)

The BD, BQ, and BQC circuit breakers are also known as CTL breakers and have a rejection tab on the bus connection side of the breaker to prevent them from used in certain areas of loadcenter. CTL stands for Circuit Total Limitation.

These breakers are used in BR type CTL loadcenters. A circuit limiting loadcenter has notched bus stab so that only certain number of duplex/quadplex beakers can be installed into them. The BQ quadplex breakers feature the independent trip function where each circuit/pole trips independently of the other. The BQC breakers have a common trip feature where the center and/or outer poles will trip synchronously.

CTL breakers are not compatible with non-CTL (current offering) loadcenters.

The image below shows an example of the notched bus and how a CTL breaker with rejection tab can still be installed on that loadcenter.

For more information and Eaton's current offering of CTL breaker please visit this catalog page.
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In short the more flexible Eaton breakers that go into ANY panel are:

BR	Non-CTL	Various types
BRD	Non-CTL	Various types, all BR compatible
BRDC	Non-CTL	Double width, two common trip circuits

See also Wikipedia:

Circuit total limitation - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Of course you still need to respect panel fill and ampacity limits, regardless.

 

[brycenesbitt]

BRDC230250 $31.10 at Lowes (universal)(when available)
BQC230250 $30.98 at Lowes (notched stabs only)

But it seems that Eaton's strategy here is to try to discontinue BRDC slowly, I suspect.

 

[infinity]

This entire CTL concept is a relic of the past and needs to be removed completely from the NEC because it is obsolete. Eaton chose years ago to get rid of the notched stab so CTL breakers don't even work in their panels.

 

[Joe Villani]

Even ABB (Formally GE) has stopped making the "wafer" style breakers and is going the same way with their circuit breakers using tandems and quads

 

[ramsy]

Eaton chose years ago to get rid of the notched stab so CTL breakers don't even work in their panels.

So did GE, and successor ABB, but Siemens still uses the notches with CTL breakers. Not sure about SQ-D

 

[kwired]

So did GE, and successor ABB, but Siemens still uses the notches with CTL breakers. Not sure about SQ-D

Homeline still has notched bus, but for most part is in every slot since about the time the 40 circuit max went away.

QO rejection feature has always been at the rail and not the bus.