ite pushomatic

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Were you raised in the mid west? Thats what my grandma calls it, shes from the mid west. Still calls the fridge an ice box and the vacuum the "sweeper" hehe :grin:

~Matt

TO get back on topic, does anyone have good pics of pushmatic panels? I have never seen one personally, just seen the replacement breakers.

~Matt
 
Recently saw a Pushmatic 6-meter Uni-Pak. Panel door was missing, loose cover exposed it to weather & corrosion. When the 100A breakers failed to reset the Fraternity boys hammered on it until plastic insulator broke, shorting bus to panel.

After rejecting bids on Uni-Pak upgrades, they found a hack to rebuild it. POCO unlocked meters, they were removed, bolt-on bars sleeved with heat shrink, broken insulators rebuilt, breakers replaced, breaker feeds re-routed so loose cover closed, green-grounding screws replaced corroded cover bolts.

Invoice described the repairs as temporary, an unlisted assembly, until service equipment could be replaced. Might make it thru 30-more years of hammering.
 
...when installing you are bolting to a live buss unless you turn the main off. Had a bad experience installing a breaker in a bar many years ago I didn't shut the main off and my screwdriver slipped off the screw and faulted from the buss to the back of the panel....
For that reason, those are quite dangerous to work on.

I have melted a screwdriver or 2 from that same thing on those old Bulldog panels. :mad:

A lot of them out there are "split-bus" type, and you can't easily shut off the main to change out an errant breaker. Gotta work `em hot, or it's an all day affair waiting for the POCO to come and shut off the juice.

On another job, I did shut off the main first when changing out a bad double-30 breaker. This was at 4 PM. That main would NOT reset back on. :mad::mad:

I had to do an emergency panel changeout that evening, since no replacement main breaker was available. This was over 20 years ago! They were obsolete even back then.

I put in a nice Square D type QO panel, but had to work until 10 PM that night to get them back on. The HO was not happy that a non-working dryer service call ended up having to replace the whole service panel.

FWIW, I can still get replacement Bulldog breakers from a local supplier. Just bought 2 double-pole units for over $60 each. Still made by ITE, but they are playing the FPE game: Jacking up the prices to encourage you to buy a whole new service, instead of replacing a few old bad breakers.
 
I dont particularly like them but that is from moderate bad experiences with them. I have tons of old breakers and am happy when I see sq d overanything.......Bryant ,Murray,Ge next in line equally after sq d.
 
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.


One of my buddies just bought a house and I have been installing cans lights for him and his breaker box has these Pushmatics. I have heard they are good by a few people but I personally can't stand them. The plastic on/off part has broken off on alot of them and it's hard to tell when they are on or off (if I don't know what circuit I was flipping). It could be that they are real old but my experience with them has not been pleasant. They are installed outdoors also.
 
Were you raised in the mid west? Thats what my grandma calls it, shes from the mid west. Still calls the fridge an ice box and the vacuum the "sweeper" hehe :grin:

~Matt

And my Grandmother from Avon Mass (near Boston) called the couch the Davenport?, front porch the piazza (SP), a sub a grinder and a milk shake a frappe. Them people speak another whole language.
 
Correct if you need an afci you have to set a sub panel and a two pole pushamatic is about the same price as a new qo homeline panel. Might as well change service.
 
And my Grandmother from Avon Mass (near Boston) called the couch the Davenport?, front porch the piazza (SP), a sub a grinder and a milk shake a frappe. Them people speak another whole language.

Does she warsh her clothes? My grandmother does and she also uses davenport in place of couch. But she's from the midwest
 
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UBIP120 Pushmatic replacement breaker by Connecticut Electric. Runs about $12.00 :) We see these all the time.
 
And my Grandmother from Avon Mass (near Boston) called the couch the Davenport?, front porch the piazza (SP), a sub a grinder and a milk shake a frappe. Them people speak another whole language.
I'm originally from northeastern PA and my gramma called the couch a "davenport". She used to tell me : " get your shoes off the davenport"!
 
Wikipedia has a decent blurb about the origin of davenport.Apparently it was the Q-Tip of couches.
On an unrelated note those UBI breakers seem like total junk, and I don't think they are listed. As far as I can remember they have some misleading statement on them making it seem that they are listed but they are not. I'll run out to the garage and find one
 
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