Insurance rejects Challanger panels.

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Cavie

Cavie

Senior Member
Location
SW Florida
Went to a home today to quote a service change. Owner stated the insurance will cancel policy if the Challanger panel is not replaced. I know they are doing it with Zinsco, FPE here in Florida. This is a straight Challanger ITE style panel. Can they do this??? Did Challanger buy into the Zinsco/FPE mess??
 
Cavie said:
Went to a home today to quote a service change. Owner stated the insurance will cancel policy if the Challanger panel is not replaced. I know they are doing it with Zinsco, FPE here in Florida. This is a straight Challanger ITE style panel. Can they do this??? Did Challanger buy into the Zinsco/FPE mess??
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AFAIK an insurance company can refuse coverage for any reason. Question is, how, why did they find out what panel was in the home?

When was the panel installed? Westinghouse purchased Challenger in 1987. Eaton purchased the industrial control & circuit breaker/load center line from Westinghouse in 1992.
 
starbolin said:
AFAIK an insurance company can refuse coverage for any reason. Question is, how, why did they find out what panel was in the home?
When was the panel installed? Westinghouse purchased Challenger in 1987. Eaton purchased the industrial control & circuit breaker/load center line from Westinghouse in 1992.
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Could have been for any number of reasons. A damage claim, or preinspection for writing the policy are two that come to mind immediately.
 
Sure they can refuse to write the policy for anything. But only the right reasons. Meaning it can't be for malicious reasons, racial, or similar. They really need a good cause to cancel "just because it it is a Challenger"

I would challenge them on this.
 
I know that the challenger business was with Westinghouse for some time where the challenger breakers were nambranded as I recall matter of fact I think the load center was a Bryant 'BR'. Even though challenger was a different business distribution unit I can't recall any issues with the product,
 
starbolin said:
AFAIK an insurance company can refuse coverage for any reason. Question is, how, why did they find out what panel was in the home?

When was the panel installed? Westinghouse purchased Challenger in 1987. Eaton purchased the industrial control & circuit breaker/load center line from Westinghouse in 1992.
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Normal home inspection in Florida by the insurance companies. They have been turning down Zinsco and FPE for years. I'm told today that they are turning Challenger because they used Zinsco mains. Screw in fuses went this way many years ago. Realtors are telling me many companies are going this route. Fanny Mae is requiring GFI outlets in kitchens and baths no matter when the house was built.
 
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They might have zinsco mains.
However I have never heard of one being more of a issue than others.
 
Sierrasparky said:
They might have zinsco mains.
However I have never heard of one being more of a issue than others.
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Challenger was Zinsco in a former life, but most of Zinsco's issues were with plug-in breakers & their problematic aluminum bus. As much as I think that Zinsco products & their successors/ knockoffs need to die, this seems to be a over reaction, IMHO.
 
Here in my area I have never heard of such insurance requirements, either as an electrician or homeowner. There are tons of homes still running Edison base fuse panels around here with K&T circuits.
 
iwire said:
Here in my area I have never heard of such insurance requirements, either as an electrician or homeowner. There are tons of homes still running Edison base fuse panels around here with K&T circuits.
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Same here. I've had varous insurance companies in the few decades that I've owned my home and not one has ever looked at a thing.
 
gadfly56 said:
Could have been for any number of reasons. A damage claim, or preinspection for writing the policy are two that come to mind immediately.
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Or an increase in square footage or the policy was sold to another company or borrowed against or their bank was re-balancing their risk or... HO said 'cancel' so I assumed it was not a pre-inspection. The question is to whether the insurer had a specific reason to go looking for Challenger panels or whether they were after this HO in particular and just were looking for a excuse.

I've had the insurer object to items on a pre-inspection but the home had been owner-remodeled and there were issues on the home-inspectors report. The one time they did, indeed, look in the electrical panel.
 
Cavie said:
Went to a home today to quote a service change. Owner stated the insurance will cancel policy if the Challanger panel is not replaced. I know they are doing it with Zinsco, FPE here in Florida. This is a straight Challanger ITE style panel. Can they do this??? Did Challanger buy into the Zinsco/FPE mess??
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Yes, Challanger owned certian FPE product lines from 1986-1988 including the USA stab lok line before they sold it to American Circuit Breaker. However this was after the UL issues were resolved so there really is no basis for an insurance company to deny coverage based on name brand.
 
zog said:
Yes, Challanger owned certian FPE product lines from 1986-1988 including the USA stab lok line before they sold it to American Circuit Breaker. However this was after the UL issues were resolved so there really is no basis for an insurance company to deny coverage based on name brand.
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Welcome to Florida
 
I put in at least 200 3 phase challenger tubs and a whole lot of the same brand loadcenters and not one has exploded so far. It's been more than twenty five years so thats a pretty good brand if you were to ask me. I still have three challenger ten pack boxes full of unused Challenger single pole twenty's and two pole thirty breakers sitting around. Now I use the same equipment but it comes in Eaton boxes and is just as reliable.
 
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