GTE/Sylvania Panel

Seven-Delta-FortyOne

Seven-Delta-FortyOne

Goin’ Down In Flames........
Location
Humboldt
Occupation
EC and GC
Looked at a genny job on Friday. It has an old GTE/Sylvania panel. Pretty rough shape. Some corrosion. No discoloration on the buss bars however.

But, the breakers look identical to Zinsco. I would rather replace the panel, customer would like to keep it for financial reasons. I’m not sure if they had the same issues as FPE or Zinsco.
 
It's the same thing as a Zinsco. Fwiw, the replacement grey cased UBI/Connecticut breakers are worse for not tripping than the originals.

Usually won't see heat damage on the bus unless directly under a breaker. Seems like the breakers take most of the heat, just end up with a pitted spot on the bus.

That must have sucked getting 200a feeders through those plumbing fittings.
 
ppsh said:
It's the same thing as a Zinsco. Fwiw, the replacement grey cased UBI/Connecticut breakers are worse for not tripping than the originals.

Usually won't see heat damage on the bus unless directly under a breaker. Seems like the breakers take most of the heat, just end up with a pitted spot on the bus.

That must have sucked getting 200a feeders through those plumbing fittings.
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I just changed out a Zinsco panel last week, because the breaker had failed and one room on the house was dead.

Ironically, it was an aftermarket breaker that had failed, not one of the originals. And when we pulled the panel, I went to pop all the breakers, and they all came off except the one that had failed. It’s basically welded on there. 😳
 
The plumbing piping is connected to the left side of the pull section and there is a 2" PVC on the bottom supplying the pull section.
Illegal line side tap before the meter? That would explain why they don't want to change the panel since that would require the city and utility to be involved.
 
curt swartz said:
The plumbing piping is connected to the left side of the pull section and there is a 2" PVC on the bottom supplying the pull section.
Illegal line side tap before the meter? That would explain why they don't want to change the panel since that would require the city and utility to be involved.
Click to expand...


I wonder. I saw that on the bottom, guessed it might be an old abandoned underground feed, but that doesn’t make a ton of sense.
 
Seven-Delta-FortyOne said:
I wonder. I saw that on the bottom, guessed it might be an old abandoned underground feed, but that doesn’t make a ton of sense.
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There is no way the city or utility would have accepted that connection for an overhead feed. Once you are underground it usually not possible to change to overhead.
 
curt swartz said:
There is no way the city or utility would have accepted that connection for an overhead feed. Once you are underground it usually not possible to change to overhead.
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Prior to ~10 years ago, PG&E would have likely energized that, especially somewhere rural. As long as it was sch40 steel and had a weatherhead on top.

There was a point in time where they were very lenient on what they deemed needed an inspection to reconnect. Lots of old services were upgraded with no permit when one failed. If you knew the troubleman, and or their supervisor. They could make a lot happen for you.
 
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