Selling customer on changing FPE....

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JacksonburgFarmer

JacksonburgFarmer

Senior Member
Location
Butler County Ohio
Ok, got a customer who wants to install backup genset....no problem....
He has FPE panels installed in 1979. When I seen the panels, I told him that these needed changed.....His response"Oh no, I dont want to change those, I have never had any problems, ever. I built this house new, and have NEVER (yes he said never ever absoulutley possitivley NEVER) tripped a breaker. I want to keep those panels in use." I told him of the fires, and such, which he replied, "Well, I know it only takes once, but, they always worked good"


I was so blown away, I was speechless....I need help on selling this man on changing these panels.....before his house burns to the ground.....He has 2 200amp panels side by side.........thought of calling the AHJ, and seeing what he says....what would you guys do????
 
electricalperson

electricalperson

Senior Member
Location
massachusetts
give him a price on changing the panels with the generator install

i know FPE stablok panels have a bad rep but is there any documentation by UL or something along those lines? ive had FPE breakers break apart in my hands while taking them out of the panels. the stab piece that clips onto the busbar remained on the bar and the plastic broke and it pulled all the guts out. had to shut the panel off to fix. ive seen FPE breakers trip but they taken a little longer than a new breaker

did UL really remove there listing or was that a myth? they sell replacement breakers for these panels but they are expensive
 
TOOL_5150

TOOL_5150

Senior Member
Location
bay area, ca
When the customer declines this type of work, i follow with "well, are all the batteries in your smoke detectors in good condition?"

I get the deer in the headlights stare, and it goes from there.

~Matt
 
I

ishium 80439

Senior Member
Location
Denver foothills via the Horn of Africa
There are a fair amount of FPE panels in this area. My pitch on these things used to be that it needed to be done (change out) but not necessarily this afternoon, put it on the short list and call me when you have some dough.

About a year ago something happened that made me change my pitch to "it needs to be done right away." My journeyman was replacing a broken receptacle hot (yes I know that we shouldn't work hot but that is not the point of this thread). As he pulled the recept out of the box it basically disintegrated in his hand and sure enough the hot and neut shorted out. Not just a spark and "zzzt" sound but to the point that it actually caused a flame in the box (I truly at this point don't remember what it was that torched). The good ole FPE CB held it's ground and did not open through this prolonged dead short.

I sold those people an upgrade and my attitude about those things has changed drastically. There are 1,000's upon 1,000's of those things in the Denver metro area. That does make people think that since they don't see fire truck's in the neighborhood daily that we are just trying to upsell for no reason. All you can do is present them the info and let them make the decision.
 
electricalperson

electricalperson

Senior Member
Location
massachusetts
heres a story. dont yell at me anybody. i was working at a place that had an FPE panel and i intentionally shorted out the hot to ground with my pliers. i wanted to see if it would trip. it had an incredibly loud bang, it blew the tip of the wire down to the insulation clean off. it did trip the breaker and he did end up changing out the panels anyway. another job we had there was a short in one of the wires. we turned the circuit on (not knowing there was a short) and all the lights in the house dimmed and after about 2 seconds it tripped
 
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