Leviton load centers

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McLintock

McLintock

Senior Member
Location
USA
Occupation
Electrician
I’ve been thinking about using a Leviton panel on my next project, just to try something different and see if I like it.

Does anyone have experience with these and if so is it good or bad what are the pros and cons?


“ shoot low boys their riding shetland ponies”
 
I still wonder if they will go the way of Trillant, & T&B, loadcenters, with Trillant, & Leviton, having a proprietary design for the breakers means difficult & expensive to find replacement breakers when like Trillant, is, and if Leviton were to be discontinued, on the other hand if never try anything new, we will be stuck in the past. Just trying look at both sides.
 
We began using the Leviton load centers a couple years ago. Most of our residential projects are large custom beach front homes that take a year or 2 to build so we don't have too many out there. I went in the back of our local supplier and saw a stack of Leviton breakers being shipped back. They said one of the large residential contractors has had a HUGE problem with them tripping constantly. We were having intermittent problems at times but have stopped using until I can find something else out. I actually was checking the forums today to see if anyone else had posted anything. Sometimes it's poor installation practices that cause the problems.
It seemed like a nice idea behind their design. I installed a couple personally for friends that needed panel replacements and liked the product.
 
I tried to order one to evaluate a couple of years ago. My supplier was unable to get it through normal channels, so I didn’t pursue it.

I can’t say I trust Leviton to commit to it 100%, and that’s based on experience with other product lines they abandoned.

It’s also really expensive. There’s nothing to me worth paying the premium for. I don’t care that you can land the wires at rough in. I don’t care that the homeowner can more easily change a breaker. I don’t care that it’s white, or has a clear door. That’s cool, but not several hundred dollars more cool. Also their WiFi connected breakers and energy monitoring seem gimmicky to me. Who wants to pay $200 per breaker to turn it off but not on? Why in the long run is their energy monitoring worth hundreds or thousands more than SqD Wiser / Sense ?

I’m a good salesman, and I really upsell my residential customers on products I think are worth the cost. This is not one of those products. You’ve got to come at me with something more than “it looks good and seems more approachable to the customer.” It’s still electricity. Your customer isn’t a moron. They won’t feel better about touching the box because it’s pretty.

Also, their marketing videos featured some residential wiremen talking about “it was so much faster.” Ok, how much faster? What’s the actual data and why didn’t you share that with me? That told me the numbers didn’t add up. They circled back to a builder talking about how nice it looked. I can paint anything white if that’s what the customer wants.

Edit to add… they have a “case study” on their website and claiming 3-1/2 hrs labor saving from an EC. I’d really like to know exactly where those savings came from, because I find it hard to believe that simply landing wires at rough in versus using an Eaton BR PON load center saves 3-1/2 hrs.



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brantmacga said:
they have a “case study” on their website and claiming 3-1/2 hrs labor saving from an EC
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And how much time lost trying to get one of the darn things, and you have to keep a full compliment of spares in stock since you can't run into wherever and grab parts. I would say any potential time saved installing one is nullified by all the other hassle involved.
 
Dennis Alwon said:
I would touch it with a 10' pole. We have enough qualified and reliable panels and breakers so why go toward something that has not been truly tested. It means trouble in my opinion
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I see no reason to use them either. As mentioned I remember the Trilliant experiment that completely failed.
 
brantmacga said:
I don’t care that you can land the wires at rough in. I don’t care that the homeowner can more easily change a breaker.
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Definitely dont want HO to have it easy to change out breakers. I can see it going the direction of fuses, if it keeps blowing just put a bigger fuse in.
 
Fred B said:
Definitely dont want HO to have it easy to change out breakers. I can see it going the direction of fuses, if it keeps blowing just put a bigger fuse in.
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ptonsparky said:
What the HO does after I leave is their problem.
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Well, just from a business perspective, I get paid to change breakers. Anything that makes that easier for a HO is less profit for me. Not something I'm in favor of. I'm honest with my clients and I will walk them through fixing their own problem if I sense a GFCI or breaker has tripped. I don't need one more thing like that.
 
I wish I could remember an explanation that was given to me about these panels by a cmp member. He believed that there is no intention of making money on this product but I don't remember his reasoning as to why they put it out.

Basically they expected it would fail
 
Did a few service calls in houses with these..my opinion..I'd never install. Ya get a late night trouble call..faulty breaker..we all carry plug on breakers and if you buy the cutler hammer classified it's a plug n done..not go to supply house to get special breaker. Also the switch is funky kinda hard to tell if it's off. Your trusting it's off an no way to lock. Sure it's resi but I've been at some large homes where 2 or 3 electricians are working I can throw a breaker lock on normal breakers but not the leviton.
Dennis Alwon said:
I wish I could remember an explanation that was given to me about these panels by a cmp member. He believed that there is no intention of making money on this product but I don't remember his reasoning as to why they put it out.

Basically they expected it would fail
Click to expand...
 
Leviton is fully capable of making high quality panels and breakers like everybody else's. It makes no sense to do so. It's a mature market. They would be fighting the other guys over pennies. The only way to go if you want to enter this market and be successful is to make something completely different. But it also has to be better. These apparently are not. Fire the market research guys/gals.
 
Coppersmith said:
… They would be fighting the other guys over pennies. …
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Yeah, literally pennies. The cost to make a load center and breakers for mature designs like Eaton, Sq D, Siemens and GE is so much lower than what they are sold for that there could never be enough profit left for a new player if the others decide to start squeezing them out. Yes, the other guys are making bank on the onesy-twosy orders that most contractors place, but when a big project comes along, i.e. thousands of breakers and hundreds of panels on one project, you see the REAL numbers come out. When I was at Siemens I saw 1P20A breakers go for under $2, 12/24 panels for $15 on a large condo complex project. There is no way Leviton can compete with them with having to factor in amortization of their entry costs, so they will never get those big projects that help offset the production lines and move enough volume to bring their costs down and survive in the long run. That means ECs having to deal with angry users who have to pay through the nose for future breakers once they go obsolete.
 
Yes i've experience with Leviton's new offerings, and yes they can't s*ck enough.
No, i won't be using any of them again....

and further, of more relevance is, they do not in any way shape of form in God's green earth are user friendly as the trade rags promote them to be

<point>?

trade rags are not consumer advocates, nor ours

one needs to log on to one's peers these days

~RJ~
 
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