Sources for obsolete breakers

[zbang]

I may have to deal with an unknown but older panel in a couple of weeks, and the local electricians tell me that they can't get breakers. Unfortunately, they haven't yet told me which make/type of panel it is...

I know about allbreakers.com and baybreakers.com, any others to keep in mind? This should be simple, it's a 277/480 panel and all I need is something around 80 or 90a 3pole.

 

[kkwong]

If you're in CA there's Circuit Breakers Plus. I know they have a lot of obsolete equipment.

 

[Jljohnson]

Try a google search for the brand of breaker. There are many, many links that will come up for you to check out. I have never failed to fing the breaker that I am looking for yet.

 

[tallguy]

There was a recent thread on this topic.

 

[zog]

Circuit Breaker sales www.cbsales.com has over 250,000 old breakers in stock, many of these other places buy from them and resell.

 

[brian john]

I have a local supplier that with a minimum of a clear picture or with model manufacture has always been able to get me what I need. IM me if you are having problems I can pass his contact information on. I have no horse in the race simply trying to help.

 

[zbang]

Thanks everyone. If they'd simply told me the panel type up front... Square-D EHB breakers aren't that hard to find.... they're even available on ebay. Made it sound all exotic-like.

 

[kingpb]

Not sure how you will price the job, but if it's an upfront bid, you better find out before a price is provided, the equipment could be quite expensive. At some point, the cost to add may not be justified, since you could do a panel change out for less, which I would highly recommend you pursue.

You may need to consider liability also, and how the exotic equipment addition is going to be covered in case of breaker failure.

 

[zbang]

Fortunately, in the end all I had to do is tell someone else where to get the breaker. This is for a temporary rig in another city, and the facility's crew there will install & own it. Saves me much time & energy. They also get the privilege of moving and setting up the temp transformers . My part is supposed to start after the temp transformers, but there would be some major jiggering of loads if had to use the existing breaker, which is too small. The alternative is a generator, which adds some other complexities.