High Price of a TMCB!

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FaradayFF

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California
Hello,
The other day I got a quote for $14000 for a 1000 Amp Enclosed breaker..The price seems a bit high, is that a typical price range for a circuit breaker?
The kAIC rating is 100kAIC at 240Volts.
 
FaradayFF said:
Hello,
The other day I got a quote for $14000 for a 1000 Amp Enclosed breaker..The price seems a bit high, is that a typical price range for a circuit breaker?
The kAIC rating is 100kAIC at 240Volts.
Click to expand...
I think you will find that the price of such things varies greatly from supplier to supplier depending on your discount code. Discount codes for the same item can range from 10% off to 90% off depending on all kinds of things some of which are not especially obvious.

You could also buy a breaker by itself and operator and handle and put it in a box yourself.

It is hard to tell you what a good price is because prices are all over the place on electrical parts. Even the same part from the same distributor.

You might want to talk to your outside salesman about a purchase like this. There's enough money in it that he can probably get you a better deal than the counter guy can. The counter guy is just a flunky who has no say on pricing.

he might also want to look around on the internet and see if you can get a better deal. It's not like your distributor is going to have one laying around in the warehouse. it's probably going to have to be made up at the factory so it'll take some time to get anyway.
 
I agree with most of what has been said. alAIC especially can kill prices because it is the single biggest driver of breaker “size”, just as much as frame size (amps). In fact that price is so high it sounds like a good place for fuses. Add current limiting fuses upstream (for the current limiting) to drop the AIC down to something reasonable.

In addition there is a huge “used” market with many grades and conditions. Don’t be afraid. Be aware that frequently the OEM is going to the same people for breaker work too. That being said don’t assume used market prices are lower. Frequently I’ve quoted new and gotten a better new price. It can go either way.

Also many options turn it into custom equipment. And don’t ignore the idea of replacing the entire panel or doing retrofill. Often depending on what it is the extra cost of complete removal and installation can be far less than trying to fix what is there. As an example SqD SE breaker trip units are becoming very unreliable. The cost of an entire ILine panel on a couple jobs or a Masterpact NW was so low that with labor it was cheaper to just replace the whole thing.

Don’t forget custom equipment either. I was recently quoting an old Siemens Allis. Going new was out of sight expensive. I could buy aftermarket clone breakers that are cheaper than rebuilding the originals or going new. On the same job for a GE lineup a custom built system was far cheaper than fixing what was there or retrofitting with standard switchgear. It just depends on the application.
 
I have had limited success with talking with my salesperson at the supply house, and explaining that I need this part for this job and I have to be able to hit a particular number can he call the mfgr rep and see if they can do it. Worth a shot, the manufacturers have so much margin on this stuff they can do whatever they want to. Works best when its a supply house that does alot of business with that manufacturer, not smaller independents.
 
Some numbers I have come across: Going from a 1000A MLO Siemens panelboard to a 1000A MB added about $5,000, but that was 65K, and also for a 1000A MB you have to go up to their P5 panelboard, where you can use a P4 for 1000A MLO so that could be a little of that extra cost.

I was quoted 20k by SQ D to replace an obsolete P frame breaker with a new powerpact, but that included Sq D field services coming to the site and doing the work.

With these large breakers, the price for the breaker only will be very high. You are almost always better off buying it with a panelboard or going to one of these online breaker houses like superbreakers or pacific coast breaker (to name a few).
 
electrofelon said:
Some numbers I have come across: Going from a 1000A MLO Siemens panelboard to a 1000A MB added about $5,000, but that was 65K, and also for a 1000A MB you have to go up to their P5 panelboard, where you can use a P4 for 1000A MLO so that could be a little of that extra cost.

I was quoted 20k by SQ D to replace an obsolete P frame breaker with a new powerpact, but that included Sq D field services coming to the site and doing the work.

With these large breakers, the price for the breaker only will be very high. You are almost always better off buying it with a panelboard or going to one of these online breaker houses like superbreakers or pacific coast breaker (to name a few).
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Square D services consistently kills anything from Square D. They charge like $350 per hour and contract out all engineering. Avoid, avoid, avoid. They have ruined more jobs for Graybar etc. than anyone else. I mean think about it....that breaker would cost under $10k by itself. Then Square D Services blows it up $15k to the point where you can buy a whole new panelboard.

Hint, hint. On panel boards the UL Listing is for what is inside the cabinet. You can buy the the stripped down panelboard for retrofitting. Just need to build mounts for it. That’s what $15k of Square D Services buys you...some strut and sheet metal that is not part of UL (hardware).

This is fairly innocuous for Square D Services. They are as bad as lawyers in terms of blowing up jobs and killing business deals. In the Carolinas as soon as I hear the name Anton we just walk away. Not too long ago I have catalog numbers and asked for a price on three switchgear breakers. Should be catalog. Suddenly they want to call Anton and charge me to design three catalog switchgear breakers just to quote the job. So I went elsewhere because Square D doesn’t make switchgear anymore.

As to what is going on Square D decided to outsource their in house engineering. They can’t design anything now. Their service department has to pay for engineering and they are charging “airline ticket” prices for local service techs ($350 per hour). So they blow up everything they touch.
 
paulengr said:
Square D services consistently kills anything from Square D. They charge like $350 per hour and contract out all engineering. Avoid, avoid, avoid. They have ruined more jobs for Graybar etc. than anyone else. I mean think about it....that breaker would cost under $10k by itself. Then Square D Services blows it up $15k to the point where you can buy a whole new panelboard.
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Yes this was a three section switchboard, and I was able to replace the whole thing with two panelboards for less than the cost of the breaker retrofit....plus now I am charging them rent for all that extra space I freed up in the electrical room :LOL:
 
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