Eaton's CL Breakers

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jes25

Senior Member
Location
Midwest
Occupation
Electrician
I'm working on some inventory management stuff around here and I'm trying to reduce the types of breakers we carry. Eaton's CL (classified) breakers are listed for Siemens, Murray, Homeline, GE and other manufacturer's panels, which is great. However, the supplier told me they're not listed for their own BR panels! How can this be? Can anyone confirm or deny this?

This seems so ridiculous I just can't believe it. The CL's cost more too so you would think they want to sell more. If you're not familiar, an Eaton BR and Eaton CL look identical accept for the model number.
 
There are two types of listings for residential plug-on breakers, "Specified" and "Classified".

Breakers can be listed as Classified for use in panels not made by the breaker manufacturer. So a Classified breaker is, by definition, NOT for use in the panel made by the breaker manufacturer. To attain the Classified listing, each breaker must be tested in EACH specific competitive panel it is Classified for. It costs the breaker mfr approximately $25,000 PER LINE ITEM to list their breakers in a panel, so they have to sell a LOT of the CL breakers for competitor's panels to make that worthwhile.

Specified breakers are those listed by the PANEL manufacturer for use in their panels, so nobody lists their PANELS to be used with anything other than their own breakers. The BR panels ALREADY have an Eaton SPECIFIED breaker listed for them, the BR series. So why would Eaton spend the EXTRA money to test their CL breakers in their own panels?
 
And you still need to carry separate breakers to fit QO or CH for those lines still in production whether genuine units or classified units, or other separate breakers for FPE, pushmatic, etc. that are no longer in current production.
 
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