I have heard of Challenger and Connecticut Electric breakers that replace federal pacific breakers. How can I find out if this is correct and legal? I have seen the breakers. But are they really approved to replace FP breakers?
Thank you for any helpful information.
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I'm not sure if there is a more complicated trade issue in our industry than this one. It makes the breakup of the old Standard Oil of Ohio look simple.
Bottom line, "Challenger" became part of Eaton years ago, but had bought the rights to the Stab-Lok breaker when FPE went bust. Eaton however wanted no part of that legacy, so they had Challenger sell off that product line before the takeover. They sold it to a company called Providence, who later changed their name to American Circuit Breaker Co. (ACBC). They now own the rights to sell that breaker as a "Stab-Lok" replacement breaker. But the old FPE also had an independent Canadian division, and THAT division had the rights to make and sell the Stab-Lok breakers in Canada and as they later claimed, the US as well. The name of that company changed to Federal Pioneer, then later just Pioneer. Pioneer was then later bought by Schneider, who of course owns Sq. D too, but Schneider wanted no part of marketing the Stab-Lok breakers in the US. In a huge fight over this, ACBC settled on giving up their production facility in South Carolina that was making the breakers, in deference to Pioneer making them for them in Canada at a guaranteed price. At the same time Schneider gave up the rights to sell and use the name Stab-Lok in the US and ACBC cannot sell in Canada. The Canadian version is made as grey, the US version is still black. The Canadian grey versions still make it here on the "grey market" (ironically) and are exactly the same beside the color of the plastic. If you see Stab-Lok breakers that still say Challenger on them, they are old stock, as in pre-1988. Challenger, as a brand name now owned by Eaton, has no official connection to that product any longer.
When Schneider forced ACBC to stop making the Stab-Lok breakers, Connecticut Electric (CE) supposedly bought the old ACBC factory in South Carolina including the molds and machinery used to make the old Stab-Lok breakers (they moved it I think). But they do not have the rights to the
name "Stab-Lok", so you will not see it on their version. In addition, they did not get the rights to the UL
listings for them in FPE load centers. So the only thing CE could do is get their versions "Classified" for use in FPE load centers, and because UL had a problem with FPE's listings even when they were FPE, CE got listing under ETL (which some people view as "easier" to get than UL).
There are a lot of AHJs who read internal Inspector journals and websites deriding ALL of the FPE replacement breakers, including (and maybe especially) the CE versions. Mostly the issue is that they feel that since with the ACBC / Pioneer versions there has been no substantial change in the original design flaws, they still can't be trusted, and the CE versions are suspect as well. Some have done their own tests exposing a high failure rate, and share it among themselves.
So as far as ACBC vs CE, it comes down to how you and your AHJ feel about "Classified" breakers vs "Listed" breakers. But also be aware that some AHJs, right or wrong, will not allow ANY replacement breaker for FPE panels, forcing you to challenge them if they say no. For that reason, lots of contractors just refuse to be bothered with it and swap out the old FPE panels, or refuse the work if someone insists on using replacements.
