FPE Angst

[Paul W. Abernathy]

Hey Joe,

Yeah I read that board....sad thing is PERSONAL opinions are like A##holes...everyones got one....Personally as I stated just because of the NAME of a panel I can't tell a person they MUST spend $ 1,200- 2,500 to replace it...IF upon review it seems fine, checks out fine and after reviewing it making the determination....

You will always have accidents, their will always be fires...in many cases it will be blamed on the panels...BUT i know of quite a few blamed on faulty Sq. D breakers and faulty Cutler Hammer as well.....

As you know.....better to have someone like ourselves look at it...IN DEPTH....and then determine...sure HI's can recommend it and I will suggest they do.....if anything to remove their potential liable issues in the event of something...but them let the electrician take over...as I am sure in most Zinsco's and FPE's...we will find other things......now you that is true fella...lol

[jcundiff]

Great responses.

The reason I posted this thread is that there seems to be a witch hunt brewing in my areas (cleveland) over FPE's. I too am a licensed EC, so I come from both sides of the fence. But what has me more aggrivated is that my pride as a long time AHJ has been affronted by my fellow HI's. It seems there are more than a few local HI's stating that FPE's "no longer meet code" or "have lost their UL listing", and of course, "must be removed". I have been called a number of times as an EC, because of this misinformation. I have been in more pissing matches over this in the year or so... eyyyeee.

So- I had a certain ASHI guy tell me "geeze... you should be happy, I'm making work for you". Well- I dont want it if its the result of fear induced Bullsh*t. The only thing substantial that an HI can point to is the CPSC report- which does NOT recommend recall or any other action for that matter. Its not that I have a feeling one way or another... really... But sometimes the CYA thing just gets out of hand. I like what Jeff Pope and others have stated re: "some reports of failure". This is based in fact. Anything beyond that is not. ramble ramble ramble...

[Jay Moge]

i usualy explain it to my client in relation to cars. if a Chevy guy has a buddy looking at a Ford to buy, he's going to tell him "bla bla this, and bla bla that" to knock down the Ford, and vice versa. every manufactured anything in this or any other country is designed to fail. Period. weak points are engineered into everything to cut cost of repairs, but also be more repair needy. a car is put together with nuts, washers, and bolts. each has a duel purpose. the nut and bold currode into one, the washer desintagrates causing all 3 to need replacement rather than the whole body panel, but a replacement none the less. diods and resistors burn out to save the whole board, and breakers trip and weaken to save the panel/wiring....and so on and so on.... some things inadvertanly have design flaws that cause "brand typical" issues, but that's just it. if one panel "usualy" has the same issues it's considered "problematic", but the other panel have issues too. if you take all the other issues in other panels and condence them into one single, but repeatative, issue, it to would be concidered problematic..........if that makes any sence to anyone but me then you've had as much if not more fine brewed Arabica than I.