When did UL drop Zinsco?

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Re: When did UL drop Zinsco?

Yeah, I think I've seen "Challenger" at Home Depot.

Wayne, thanks for posting those pictures. Good to know what these look like. My friend has these for his house, I actually found and bought a replacement breaker for it, for him, long time ago.
 
Our 40 year old Zinsco panel is clean

Our 40 year old Zinsco panel is clean

We just repalced a failed breaker in our 40-year old Zinsco panel because it would not reset. Except for a small amount of bluegreen corrosion (not powdery white aluminum oxide) on the edge of one of the contacts, it was clean as a whistle. Replacement breakers are widely available, although expensive.

The first electrician we brought in wanted 2 hr labor (@ $95/hr) and $200 for the replacement part, whined about having to special order it from far far away, etc, then stormed off when we refused to accept his $400 estimate. I bought the part myself at the local Ace for $68 (could have mailordered it for $40 at homedepot.com), and then hired another electrician to do 1 hr labor to install. The local Ace has a wide variety of Zinsco-type breakers, probably because so many houses are of a certain age in our town; we don't have houses burning down all over the place.

Don't be intimidated into replacing a whole panel if the one you have is clean and dry, and has adequate capacity. We live in California where it's nice and dry most of the year. Our house isn't that big and 100A service is all we need for now.
 
a scud missle may be clean- but ready to blow up

a scud missle may be clean- but ready to blow up

here is a link to some information regarding Zinsco failures.
http://www.inspect-ny.com/electric/Zinsco.htm

Being clean or dry are not indicators of proper operation in an overload or short circuit/ground fault condition.

The presence of Zinsco or FPE overcurrent devices should at least prompt a warning to the owner

Here is a circuit breaker failure page: http://www.inspect-ny.com/electric/badbreaker.htm
and a Federal Pacific page http://www.inspect-ny.com/fpe/fpepanel.htm

Be Careful Out There!!
 
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W Sanders said:
Don't be intimidated into replacing a whole panel if the one you have is clean and dry, and has adequate capacity. We live in California where it's nice and dry most of the year. Our house isn't that big and 100A service is all we need for now.
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I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience, certainly there are lots of service companies here in California that are happy to charge you a premium hourly rate plus a 400% parts mark-up.

However *most* electricians who would recommend that you replace a Zinsco panel would do so out of genuine concern for the installation, and not simply a profit motive. It doesn't matter that a Z panel is in great condition, it's that alongside Feds and Pushers, they just don't reliably work.

In southern Cal, where the average home price has cleared half a million dollars, I cringe to see that investment protected by a device I simply would not use in my own home, when the service could be replaced with something sound, modern, and reliable for a couple of grand or less.

IMHO, where your electrician went wrong was in recommending you replace a breaker, and not your panel.
 
W Sanders said:
We just repalced a failed breaker in our 40-year old Zinsco panel because it would not reset. Except for a small amount of bluegreen corrosion (not powdery white aluminum oxide) on the edge of one of the contacts, it was clean as a whistle. Replacement breakers are widely available, although expensive.

The first electrician we brought in wanted 2 hr labor (@ $95/hr) and $200 for the replacement part, whined about having to special order it from far far away, etc, then stormed off when we refused to accept his $400 estimate. I bought the part myself at the local Ace for $68 (could have mailordered it for $40 at homedepot.com), and then hired another electrician to do 1 hr labor to install. The local Ace has a wide variety of Zinsco-type breakers, probably because so many houses are of a certain age in our town; we don't have houses burning down all over the place.

Don't be intimidated into replacing a whole panel if the one you have is clean and dry, and has adequate capacity. We live in California where it's nice and dry most of the year. Our house isn't that big and 100A service is all we need for now.
Click to expand...

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I thought this forum was for electrical professionals...If this gentleman had to hire someone to replace a breaker, it doesn't sound like he fits the bill.

All the conscientious contractors and journeyman I know replace these panels at every opportunity, not because of greed, but because we've seen dozens or hundreds of examples of Zinsco failures.

I'm glad W Sanders didn't have any problems, but that certainly doesn't mean he won't.
 
How many Zinsco breakers do you want? I have boxes of them. The 100 amp ones I keep in the safe.

From time to time I would see a problem with a breaker, usually it wouldn't reset after it had tripped, but I never had a real problem with the panels except the old ones when you couldn't get the breakers out of them.
 
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