Retrofit kit for Federal Pacific

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Minuteman

Minuteman

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I saw this on display the other day at the supply house. It is supposed to be a direct retrofit for Federal Pacific. For single phase panels up to 125 amps it uses BR type. For those over 125 amps is it uses CH.

Retrofit Kit

What do you think?
 
mdshunk

mdshunk

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They're expensive, but they can make good sense some times. Flush panels and panels piped in conduit, for instance, is where these can make good sense. I have used them in the past, but for the upcharge, you need a pretty good reason.
 
Minuteman

Minuteman

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George Stolz said:
I'm a little confused - how much are these replacement guts?
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I asked a guy at the counter, he said in the $200 ballpark. Sounds like left field to me. There could be some benifit to it though.
 
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J

Jhaney

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owensboro, ky
Did a gut swap not too long ago, I replaced a 120/208 3 phase 24 space guts. Entire change out took less than 3 hours and at a cost in parts of roughly $600. But in the right situation they can be a life savor
 
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chris500

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In today's lawsuit happy world I don't think I would be comfortable just changing the guts of a panel. Very rarely anymore will I even agree to *only* change a panel and leave the wiring from the weatherhead to the meter and the meter to the panel. It has to be in damn good shape; then I begin to think that if the exterior has been changed and the interior wasn't, why? There are just too many possibilities that can come back on you or your company that a couple hundred more dollars wouldn't fix. It just isn't worth it to me to leave potential liabilities hanging over your head at a minor savings.

This isn't to say that it may not be a good option for some people, but when the volume of work you do starts to get up there, statistical numbers start to be less than statistics and more real.
 
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Jhaney

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owensboro, ky
Chris I 100% agree with you. But no matter what some situations it is easier and more economical to just do a gut swap. Take the example I gave in post #7. The commercial setting I was in had called me 4 different times in as many months usually on the weekend for a failed breaker each time I would spend over an hour diagnosing the problem to find no problem except a breaker that had failed and needed replacing. After the 4th time I finally pinned down the manager and found out that they were using the breakers for switches and had done so for 20+ years, I could not talk them into letting install a switch center so in order for them to save money (weekend emergeny calls add up quickly) they requested a new panel so since they didn't want to be shut down for a full day the guts were replaced with new. by the way replaceing the wire all the way to the weather head in this situation would have been several thoasands of dollars that they wont spend
 
mdshunk

mdshunk

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chris500 said:
In today's lawsuit happy world I don't think I would be comfortable just changing the guts of a panel.
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I think we have some communication failure here, since what you typed makes no sense.

What is inherently unsafe about reusing a panelboard cabinet?
 
Minuteman

Minuteman

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chris500 said:
In today's lawsuit happy world I don't think I would be comfortable just changing the guts of a panel.
Click to expand...

mdshunk said:
I think we have some communication failure here, since what you typed makes no sense.

What is inherently unsafe about reusing a panelboard cabinet?
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Exactly. since it is an UL approved retrofit kit, what would be the problem? If the rest of the service needs fixin', than that's another issue. I'll probably not use this retro, but not because of any possible legal issues. As I said, the old FPE cabinet are small, and usually in a tight closet.
 
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