ite pushomatic

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billdozier

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gulf coast
Hey guys just got back from a service call for a bad receptacle. We get to the house and hes got two rooms that wont work. the panelbox is directly above a receptacle in the room that doesnt work. So we go to turn the breaker off and to our surprise we see these style breakers. My question are these Are they common for a home wired in the 70s and what type of quality are they. Another words are they like fpes from that time period or were they one of the better breakers in there day? Let you guys know what the problem was combination of al wire and backstabbing. The hot had worked itself from the plug and was intermittently hitting the receptacle and box fun light show in the box for sure
 
As far as I know ITE pushamatics were a fine circuit breaker. I have had to work on a few of them in my career. I believe they were a regional thing. They were not very popular around here and I have not seen one in 20- 25 years or so.
 
In my opinion, the PushMatic was the finest resi panel ever made. They were just hard for old people to push in and out. When installed outdoors, the little window that shows 'on' or 'off' gets hard to read. If they still made PushMatic's, that would be my brand of choice.
 
there is nothing wrong with the quality of a Pushmatic breaker, the only problem is they are all getting to the end of their life since most out there are at least 40 years old. As far as I know, the breakers are no longer being manufactured, so you are limited to finding new old stock, or chinese replacements (which I would not advise using)...
 
ultramegabob said:
the little part that flips back and forth with on/off tends to come loose and jams the breaker up also (I figgure its due to the plastic getting brittle due to age.)
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You have had that happen? I've been around a heck of a lot of PushMatics, and I've never experienced that. I've heard it before, but I've yet to hear it from someone who has first hand experience with the situation. The story always starts out with, "I heard that...". It would be interesting to learn if you've actually had that happen.
 
Hey mark actuall had that happen to me. On a seperate ckt in the panel we accidently pushed in the push part of the breaker. we kept pushing it to get it to pop back out and it wouldnt. Grabbed it with a pair of kliens and pulled it out
 
billdozier said:
Hey mark actuall had that happen to me. On a seperate ckt in the panel we accidently pushed in the push part of the breaker. we kept pushing it to get it to pop back out and it wouldnt. Grabbed it with a pair of kliens and pulled it out
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Was this an outdoor panel, by chance? Once flooded, maybe?
 
mdshunk said:
You have had that happen? I've been around a heck of a lot of PushMatics, and I've never experienced that. I've heard it before, but I've yet to hear it from someone who has first hand experience with the situation. The story always starts out with, "I heard that...". It would be interesting to learn if you've actually had that happen.
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there are alot of old PushMatics in my area, and I have ran across that happening several times, but not as many times as problems I have run across with other styles of breakers. Overall, they are a good breaker design, the thing I dont like about PushMatics is the panel size, they are pretty cramped, and they could have had a better layout for the neutals....
 
ultramegabob said:
... the thing I dont like about PushMatics is the panel size, they are pretty cramped, and they could have had a better layout for the neutals....
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The same thing can be said for most panels of the same vintage. The 200 amp PushMatic panels were very generous inside, though. They were 20-24" wide.
 
I think most panels from that time frame get pretty cramped. And the majority of them could use a better neutral layout. Pushmatic's are pretty awesome in my opinion.
 
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Years ago there were many in service around here. I never knew of any problems from any of them. They served faithfully. Little by little they were changed out as the big fad for upgrading to 200 amperes came along. They were nearly all 100 amps.
 
There's just something to be said for a bolt on breaker. PushMatic was the only one made that way especially for a residential application.
 
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