Just inspected a home built in 1993, and it has a Westinghouse panel. Inside, there are Westinghouse breakers, a couple Siemens brand QT breakers, a Gould breaker, A Siemens QP breaker, and a Square D breaker. The panel label is unreadable… I’m thinking an electrician should sort it out…
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Report what you see. make a recommendation and reasoning. Let them sort it out. There are panels that will fit other breakers. There are also breakers that are forced into panels that they are not compatible.
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Trying to post a breaker replacement chart for Westinghouse Panels…and can’t find anything specific. Bob’s got it ^^^^
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(My) general rule of thumb…
If a panel has breakers from any other manufacturer than the panel manufacturer, I refer it to an electrician for review and correction as necessary.
I do not attempt to determine if any other brand of breaker is compatible for the installed panel.
Not my job, and certainly not my liability!!
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yep, thats all that needs to be said. (well, maybe a little more professionally)
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Usually panels (Major Brands) will state right on the label what brands are approved for installation. (I know you said it was unreadable). When I can, I find the little paragraph stating this and post a picture of it, then there is no “credible” argument form anyone. Most Major Brands only approve of the brand that will make them a profit (their own). An exception to this are specialty panels like at pools where they don’t manufacture their own breakers. They will usually list several brands with the “Type” that are approved (will fit). This is something we do need to call out, because if there does become a problem or a year later the buyer sells the home and another HI calls it out, Your Buyer may be kind of pissed thinking they could have made the previous seller make the correction instead of footing the bill now since their HI Missed it…Or didn’t think it a big enough deal to worry about…Like the Licenced Electrician that installed it in the first place as well as the City Code Inspector that also approved it. Come down to the last person of responsibility that is going to be blamed. (And that is us).
Todays inspection>> These photos are in the report. (along with an explanation)
Now on a Related Note: Are these Legitimate Square D Breakers or the counterfeit, I have seen mentioned?? (Manufactured home, 1994) almost all the breakers are like these…
This is a Real Question…Are these real and approved by Square D?? or cheap made in Mexico knock-offs???
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Regardless of who the manufacturer is or whether the breakers are even cross compatible, the magnetic field created by drawing a current that exceeds the breakers limitations is going to trip the breaker and open the circuit so even if the breaker doesnt latch properly causing a weak connection the breaker will still trip long before a dangerous fault in the circuit occurs. Worst case scenario is the breaker pops off the rail and the circuit loses power or it gets a weak connection that causes the breaker to trip prematurely. Its not a safety hazard, they just might have issues getting full line voltage on that circuit, which is an annoyance for sure but the purpose of an inspection is not to point out every annoyance found in and around the house. If that were the case then the inspector themselves should be listed among them. You can make a note of it and Im sure the homeowner will appreciate the heads up but it really doesnt fall within the home inspector’s purview. The rails and how the breakers mount onto them are somewhat universal, there really only is a small handful of different configurations and you’ll know if the breaker doesnt match one because you’ll never get the breaker to make contact or get the cover back on the panel… the issue is that some manufacturers use different sized plastic dividers between the breaker slots which im pretty sure they only do so you have to buy their brand of breakers unless you are smart enough to figure out how to get around it. If you are that concerned about the publics welfare your time would be better spent going after these manufacturers for their shady and unnecesaary tactics they use to squeeze an extra dime out of their consumers because if they dont care about the welfare of their consumers then its not your job to intervene on their behalf.
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Do you feel better now?
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The purpose of an inspection is to identify systems and components that are not functioning or not functioning as intended. A breaker exhibiting the issues that you described above is not functioning properly.
Who’s the home inspector that shit in your Wheaties?
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I realize this is a necro thread, curious if you ever figured it out.
I’ve had SquareD tandem’s similar to that. Instead of the black sticker with a logo, it was a white sticker with Schneider on it.
But those don’t even say Schneider on them.
It could be one of those things that when the first shift ends, someone goes out and flips the shingle over on the door from Schneider to Santos’s Electric and ships out the cheap versions.
Not for certain but I think I finally found where Square D actually made these for a few years. where I found most of these where in manufactured homes. And I also later was able to view the “bottom” side of one of these suspicious breakers that had the Square D sticker affixed… Not visible with the dead front cover on and not that easy to Safely see without my plastic handled mirror.
I dug one out of my old breaker collection. These were Non-CTL breakers made for Square D QO panels. Yes they’re legit. I took some photo’s so you can see the markings:
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ICYDK…
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Perfect, Thank You Robert !
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You’re welcome just in case you didn’t notice the Square D breakers in my photo are QO type and yours are Homeline but you can see the handle similarities between the two.
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UL has classified some makes to be used in competitive panels Eaton CL, is one and Eaton & Siemens both make a classified breaker for some SQ D, QO panels, plus the classified breakers for Zinsco, FPE, & Pushmatic panels, under no circumstances are SQ D Homeline breakers allowed in competitive panels according to Schneider Electric.
I sure wish we could be done with the CTL nonsense.
It never made sense to try and limit the amperage with a little tab, just added confusion that persists to this day.
Your wish may come true. Eaton has all but abandoned the CTL/Non-CTL nonsense.
That is a defect in my book. But you do you.
Thumbs up, we’re not totally there yet. I’m looking for the day when double pole main breakers can be replaced with tandems more readily. This is for adding EV charging or solar backfeed near the main. For example if the meter is 100A, the main breaker 50A, putting in a 50A/30A tandem and peeling off 30 for the EV or solar or RV or welder or whatever.
The CTL rule legacy is still in the way for many panels.