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Home Owner Beware

If you have FEDERAL PACIFIC ELECTRIC (FPE) panel/ equipment in your home, be advised that these panels have defects and are a hazard.

There have been many lawsuits against Federal Pacific Electric (FPE Stab-lok ®) over the past number of years ……… and yet THEY CONTINUE TO BE SOLD both here in the United States and in Canada.

The biggest issue is that due to poor and even fraudulent manufacturing and labeling, house fires and injuries have been reported.

Independent testing confirms that FPE Stab-lok® ®circuit breakers fail to trip as much as 70-80 % of the time.

Research has not found any other model of circuit breakers that fail at this high rate.

These FPE Stab-lok® ®circuit is a fire and injury hazard.

WHY?

  1. In New Jersey, the court ruled that over many years FPE had violated the NY Consumer Fraud Act. Specifically, the court found that “….FPE knowingly and purposefully distributed circuit breakers which were not tested to meet UL standards as indicated on their label”.
  2. High FPE Stab-lok® – failure rates: Tests on over 500 homes across the country on these breakers found 1/3 of the two-pole FPE Stab-lok® circuit breakers and about 1/5 of the single-pole FPE stab-lok® circuit breakers in those tests.
  3. FPE stab-lok – fire and injury hazard: in addition to the failure of these circuit breakers to protect a building and it’s occupants from dangerous overcurrents, switching an FPE Stab-lok® circuit breaker to the ‘off’ position may leave the breaker ‘on’ internally risking fatal electrical shock.
  4. FPE Stab-lok® – latent fire and shock hazard: The presence of the equipment in a home does not itself initiate a failure. When there’s a dangerous overcurrent the equipment is likely to fail to provide the safety protection that is expected of circuit breakers.
  5. FPE Stab-lok® equipment violated the National Electrical Code: Because of proven high defect rate, the FPE Stab-lok breakers do not provide the circuit protection that is required by applicable codes and standards.

There is no practical way that an electrician can reliably inspect and test which FPE Stab-lok® breakers in an electrical panel are seriously defective internally.

In fact, attempting field testing on FPE Stab-lok®equipment is not recommended as this can result in a serious fire or injury as simply switching breakers on and off increases the risk of a future failure to trip.

Summarized from https://inspectapedia.com/fpe/fpepanel.htm

The recommendation is to have FPE Stab-lok® circuit breakers replaced by your electrician. Call Luminous Electric at  for more information or to schedule an appointment. Or contact us on online.

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