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This website discusses the electrical, fire, and shock hazards associated with Zinsco electrical components, circuit breakers, electrical panels, including certain Sylvania electrical panels and breakers which are in fact of the same product design and origin.

© Copyright 2009 Daniel Friedman, All Rights Reserved. Information Accuracy & Bias Pledge is at below-left. Use links at the left of each page to navigate this document or to view other topics at this website. Green links show where you are in our document or website.

ADVICE FOR OWNERS - Zinsco Electrical Panel Advice for Homeowners and Home Buyers

Zinsco and Zinsco-Sylvania circuit breakers of the design described here do not offer the level of overcurrent and fire protection provided by most other electrical panels and circuit breakers.

With the exception of the more seriously failing FPE Stab-Lok electrical panels, we have not received any significant number of field failure reports concerning other eletrical panel brands that also use aluminum parts and that are or were priced in the same range as Zinsco. This means homes with this equipment are at greater risk of fire or other electrical hazard.

Photo (left) of a burned and failed Zinsco main circuit breaker, courtesy of J. P. Simmons - Mr. Electric. Simmons adds: "In this case the failure damaged the main wire to a mobile home also (you can see the melted wire to the left of the main). This is a good example of why I do not like to see anyone remove these breakers. You can not tell how bad they are damaged by looking at them.

Where Zinsco and Zinsco-Sylvania electrical panels are discovered in buildings they should be replaced to reduce some very real fire and shock hazards. Building owners or electricians encountering problems with this equipment are asked to contact us to add that information to our electrical failure data base in an effort to develop accurate safety information which is then shared with appropriate federal and state agencies. Thanks to Mr. James Simmons, a licensed electrician with extensive field experience and the contributor of most of the photos and case reports at this web page.

Where Zinsco electrical panels and Zinsco circuit breakers are in use, arcing, contact-point burn, and even circuit breaker case blow-out have been observed in the field.

A principal Zinsco™ circuit breaker (or Sylvania™ or GTE-Sylvania™ or Kearney™ electrical panel using this circuit breaker) point of failure appears to be at the point of contact where the circuit breaker contacts clip onto the electrical panel bus, combined with the use of an aluminum electrical panel bus. As described at HOW TO REPORT ELECTRICAL FAILURES, expert testing on this equipment has shown that circuit breakers do not trip about 25% of the time when exposed to overcurrent - risking overheating, fire and other hazards. The failure rate of competitive-brand circuit breakers is much less than 1%.

Readers wanting to read specific advice on what to do if their building contains a Zinsco electrical panel should first read ADVICE FOR ZINSCO OWNERS, then also see HOW TO REPORT ELECTRICAL FAILURES to homeowners when a Zinsco Sylvania™ electrical panel is observed by a contractor, home inspector, or electrician.

In addition to advice on identifying Zinsco™ panels, inspecting Zinsco electrical panels, and repair/replacement advice, we provide field photographs of circuit breaker failures: overheating, burnups, failures to trip, overcurrent protection failure. This document includes field reports of failures and additional anecdotal evidence. See ZINSCO FAILURE PHOTOGRAPHS and ZINSCO FAILURE REPORTS.

Repair advice (replace the equipment) is provided at REPLACEMENT ELECTRICAL PANELS and at REPAIR ELECTRICIANS we list electricians who have informed us that they have specific experience with this equipment. Lots of other licensed electricians are also qualified to replace electrical panels; it's best if your electrician is one who is familiar with this issue.

As a not-for-profit activity, we have been collecting information and field failure reports for Zinsco/Sylvania electrical components since 1996 in an effort to develop credible failure-rate information which is then shared with the U.S. CPSC and with other electrical failure researchers and educators.

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ZINSCO SYLVANIA ELECTRICAL PANELS
ADVICE FOR ZINSCO OWNERS
  ZINSCO SAFETY PRECAUTIONS
  SIGNS OF ZINSCO GTE SYLVANIA TROUBLE
IDENTIFY ZINSCO ELECTRICAL PANELS
IDENTIFY GTE SYLVANIA-ZINSCO PANELS
IDENTIFY KEARNEY PANELS
GTE-SYLVANIA-ZINSCO FAILURE MECHANISM
ZINSCO FAILURE PHOTOGRAPHS
ZINSCO FAILURE REPORTS
HOW TO REPORT ELECTRICAL FAILURES
  REPORT TO WEB AUTHOR
  REPORT TO THE US CPSC
  ZINSCO INSPECTION REPORT LANGUAGE
REPAIR ELECTRICIANS
REPLACEMENT ELECTRICAL PANELS
  OPTION #1 RETROFIT KIT
  OPTION #2 REPLACEMENT
  OPTION #1 vs OPTION #2
REPLACEMENT PANEL COSTS
ZINSCO WARRANTY & CONTACT INFO
REPAIR ELECTRICIANS

• Personal communication, J. Aronstein to D. Friedman, 3/6/2006
• James P. Simmons: Personal communication and photographs used in this article series, J. Simmons to Daniel Friedman, 3/4/2006, 2/19/2008. Photographs contributed to this website by Jim P. Simmons, Mr. Electric, Licensed Master Electrician, 1320 Dayton Street SE, Olympia, WA 98501, 360-705-4225, Fax 360-705-0130 or by email to mrelectricoly@msn.com
• Thanks to various electricians, home owners, and home inspectors for contributing the Zinsco Sylvania-Zinsco electric panel and circuit breaker field failure reports cited above.
• Thanks to David Osborn, an alert home inspector, for helpful critique regarding the need for Zinsco/Sylvania electrical panel replacement, 4/27/06
• Thanks to Joe Funderburk, Alpha & Omega Home Inspections, Hickory Grove, SC for his photos of a Kearney electrical panel. Mr. Funderburk is a NACHI member and home inspector who can be reached at aohomeinspection.com
• Thanks to Texas electrician Jeff Weissman for contribution of photographs of burned Zinsco circuit breakers. 03/06/2007. Mr Weissman can be reached at jeffweissman@gmail.com or by telephone at 713-666-6605

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