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ELECTRICAL INSPECTION, DIAGNOSIS, REPAIR
FPE Stab-Lok HAZARDS & REPAIRS WEBSITE
SUMMARY OF the FPE Stab-Lok PROBLEM
FPE HAZARD ARTICLES, STUDIES
FPE Stab-Lok TECHNICAL REPORT
HOW TO IDENTIFY FPE & FP
REPORTS OF FPE FAILURES
HOW TO REPORT FPE INCIDENTS
FPE REPAIR ELECTRICIANS
FPE REPLACEMENT BREAKERS
FPE REPLACEMENT PANELS
FEDERAL PIONEER in CANADA
  What Are Federal Pioneer Panel Concerns?
  Federal Pioneer Warranty Alert
  Federal Pioneer Electrical Circuit Breaker Recall
  Field Reports of Federal Pioneer Problems
  Other Federal Pioneer Concerns
  Are Recent Federal Pioneer Stab-Loks Safe?
FPE Stab-lok: FIRES WAITING TO HAPPEN
FPE HISTORY
ADVICE TO HOME BUYERS w/ FPE PANELS
HOME INSPECTION LANGUAGE for FPE Stab-Lok
IAEI LETTER
FPE Stab-Lok Hazard Summary Page for Public Use

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Photograph of a Federal Pioneer electrical panel Canadian Federal Pioneer Electrical Hazards Website
InspectAPedia®  -    

  • Federal Pioneer (Canadian) Electrical Panels & Circuit Breaker Hazards
  • Federal Pioneer Electric Panel Recall
  • 1997 Federal Pioneer electrical panel warranty alert
  • Are recently-manufactured Federal Pioneer Stab-Lok Electrical Panels Safe?
  • Federal Pacific Electric (U.S.) Stab-Lok panels
  • Field reports (a few) of Federal Pioneer electrical panel failures
We recommend that residential FPE Stab-Lok electrical panels be replaced entirely or the entire panel bus assembly be replaced entirely, regardless of model number or year of manufacture. We recommend against replacing individual FPE Stab-lok circuit breakers. We do not sell circuit breakers nor any other products. Our site offers impartial, unbiased advice without conflicts of interest. We will block advertisements which we discover or readers inform us are associated with bad business practices, false-advertising, or junk science. Our contact info is at InspectAPedia.com/appointment.htm.

This article discusses possible hazards of the Federal Pioneer Stab-Lok electrical panel, a Canadian version of the Federal Pacific Electric Stab-Lok equipment. The FPE website explains the hazards associated with the American product: Federal Pacific Electric Stab-lok circuit breakers and service panels, provides a history of the issue, recounts research on FPE failures, and recommends replacement of the panels.

Readers should also see HOW TO IDENTIFY FPE & FPfor help in identifying Federal Pioneer old and more recently-manufactured Stab-lok products, and see Are Recent Federal Pioneer Stab-Loks Safe? for a discussion of the safety of older and more recently made Federal Pioneer equipment. These discussions pertain only to the Federal Pioneer Stab-Lok electrical equipment brand made in Canada, not to the Federal Pacific Stab-lok brand made and installed in the United States.

Electronic copies and reproduction of this information at other websites are prohibited. Readers are welcome to make and distribute printed copies of our articles about FPE Stab-Lok equipment provided this web page is cited and provided that the content is not edited or changed. (Contact us to suggest edits, changes, corrections, updates).

© Copyright 2010 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.

What Are Canadian Federal Pioneer Electrical Panel or Breaker Concerns?

Photograph of the interior of a Federal Pioneer electrical panel

 

In May 1999 I learned from Schneider Canada that Federal Pioneer circuit breakers sold by that company are re-named from Federal Pacific circuit breakers and that two 15-amp single-pole models NC015 and NC015CP made between August 1, 1996 and June 11, 1997 have been recalled. The Schneider recall notice is available at this website.

Note that this is a very specific recall. It did not pertain to the entire Federal Pioneer product line nor to other products manufactured by Schneider Electric.

By telephone call I asked the engineer with whom I spoke at Schneider if he could tell me if Federal Pioneer and Federal Pacific components sold in Canada were made in the U.S. or if tooling used to produce them was identical with that used in the U.S. If this is the case (as one might expect based on economies of production) one should consider the possibility that other defects reported in the U.S. may also appear in Canadian installations.

While the engineer was polite and friendly at the time of our telephone call, the company never responded to this information request.

Federal Pioneer Warranty Alert - 1997

The Warranty Alert was issued by the Ontario New Home Warranty program in October 1997 and provides for circuit breaker replacement. Schneider Canada is an electrical supplier whose product lines combine those previously marketed under the names Federal Pacific Electric, Federal Pioneer, Square-D, Tele Mechanique, Modicon, and Merlin Gerin.

The attorney who researched FPE failures (the American version of this product) for the New Jersey class action suit explains that since a portion of the safety defect with FPE breakers may be due to variations during manufacture, and since Canadian breakers may have been and may continue to be be manufactured in a different plant from those made in the U.S., it is possible that the field performance of Canadian breakers is different than the U.S. design.

Schneider Canada, the Federal Pioneer parent company, has not provided information regarding the original breaker and panel design or manufacturing line changes over the U.S. design, nor provided test result data regarding the Canadian product.

Federal Pioneer Electrical Panel Recall

A 1997 Schneider Canada Federal Pioneer circuit breaker recall was issued in 1997, addresses Schneider Canada NC015/NC015P Circuit Breakers, and is reported in the article at that link. In some circumstances these breakers may not trip. In other cases, the breakers will continue to protect anticipated overloads and short circuit currents. If the circuit breaker does not perform as intended, there is potential for property damage and/or personal injury. There [were, at the time of the recall in 1997] no reports of injuries or fires as a result of the potential problem.

Field Reports of Federal Pioneer Electrical Problems

As of May 2007 we have had just a few reports of failures in the Canadian Federal Pioneer (Stab-Lok) equipment and also reports of failures of "replacement" FPE circuit breakers installed in U.S. panels. We do not know whether this is due to better electrical work in Canada than in some U.S. locations, thus calling on the breakers to trip less often than in the U.S., different manufacturing runs of the product, different levels of reporting between the two countries, or other factors.

Canadian reports of Federal Pioneer electrical panel or breaker field failures are included with the FPE failure reports at REPORTS OF FPE FAILURES but are clearly identified as FP, not FPE.

Canadian homeowners, electricians, home inspectors who encounter Federal Pioneer electrical panels or those who encounter problems with them are asked to report them to us for tabulation. Contact Us to report this equipment. If you encounter failures, also please report them to the CSA and the US CPSC.

Remaining Safety Concerns in Federal Pioneer Electrical Panels and Circuit Breakers

Having inspected a few (less than 10) Canadian FPE (Federal Pioneer-brand) electric panels, I observed two ongoing concerns:

  1. The same circuit breaker bus design was used as in the U.S. equipment. I've seen very poor retention of breakers in the bus - in one house the breaker was held in place by duct tape, as the spring design in the contact of the breaker where it plugs into the special opening in the bus appears not to have held the breaker in place. I have also seen breakers modified with their inserting pins bent and modified to fit a breaker into a slot where it did not belong - a step that is impossible with other breaker designs.

  2. A similar or identical panel design may expose consumers to panel arcing and fires regardless of changes in the circuit breakers themselves.

Federal Pacific Electric "Stab-Lok" service panels and breakers are a latent hazard and can fail to trip in response to overcurrent, leading to electrical fires. The breakers may also fail to shut off internally even if the toggle is switched to "off." Some double-pole (240-Volt) FPE circuit breakers and single-pole FPE Stab-Lok circuit breakers simply do not work safely.

There are other Federal Pioneer / Federal Pacific electric panel-defects independent of the breaker problems, panel and panel-bus fires and arcing failures in some equipment. The failure rates for these circuit breakers were and still are significant. In some cases failure to trip occurs 60% of the time - a serious fire and electrical shock hazard. Failures are documented in the CPSC study and by independent research.

Additional independent testing and research are on-going and are reported here. FPE Stab-Lok electrical panels (the American product) should be replaced. Do not simply swap in some replacement breakers (in either the American or the Canadian product).

Federal Pioneer Electrical Panel Field Reports Requested

We invite building owners, electricians, fire marshals, manufacturers, or independent testing laboratories to report to us on the field performance or field failures or product testing results for this product and we will publish here any updates we are able obtain.

We’d also like to see photos of the bus design itself – an electrician can open the panel – remove the cover, and if necessary pull a breaker to expose the bus and breaker connectors – that might tell us if visible changes were made even if we don’t know if internal breaker design changes were made.

No Conflicts of Interest at InspectAPedia.com concerning FP and FPE products

Because Schneider Electric has at other website and forum postings represented inaccurate information on our role in reporting on Federal Pioneer Electrical panels and circuit breakers, we emphasize here that we have not in the past and do not now sell any product or service whatsoever concerning electrical panels, equipment, home repairs, or anything similar.

Our policy on conflicts of interest is summarized on our home page InspectAPedia.com

And our accuracy policy is further elaborated in detail at Accuracy & Privacy Policies

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Technical Reviewers & References

Use links just below or 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.

Readers who own a Federal Pioneer electrical panel should see:

Details, public documents, and test reports concerning Federal Pacific Electric and the Stab-lok electrical paneland circuit breaker design are at:

  • Note: as we didn't add this reviewers list until 2007, this list of technical reviewers is incomplete; we have received comments and suggestions regarding this topic, edits and remarks included, from engineers and management from the US CPSC, electricians (many listed at our page on field reports of FPE failures), home inspectors, licensed electricians, and electrical engineers, and even a few attorneys and real estate agents, since 1986. Technical review, critique, content suggestions, questions, or clarifications are invited and where a contributor wishes, credit and links will be provided to that source. Contact us to provide feedback.
  • Dr. Jess Aronstein, electrical engineer, Poughkeepsie, NY, forensic engineering services, independent laboratory testing for various agencies
  • Alan Carson, Carson Dunlop Associates, Toronto, Ontario. Mr. Carson is a home inspection professional, educator, researcher, writer, and a principal of Carson Dunlop Associates, a Toronto home inspection and education firm. Mr. Carson is a past president of ASHI, the American Society of Home Inspectors
  • Mark Cramer Inspection Services Mark Cramer, Tampa Florida, Mr. Cramer is a past president of ASHI, the American Society of Home Inspectors and is a Florida home inspector and home inspection educator.
  • Carl Grasso, Esq., Herzfeld & Rubin, New York, NY. Mr. Grasso is an attorney who managed a plaintiff's class action litigation against Federal Pacific Electric in New Jersey.
  • William King, US CPSC Director of Electrical Engineering (Ret).
  • Licensed Electricians: FPE Fire and Failure Reports includes electricians who have provided cases and photographs of field failures of FPE equipment at this website.
  • Homeowners, Home Inspectors, Electricians: Federal Pacific Electric (FPE) Panel Fires and other Failures includes anecdotal field reports provided by a range of contributors including electricians (and some home owners or home inspectors) who have provided cases and photographs of field failures of FPE equipment at this website.

Books & Articles on Building & Environmental Inspection, Testing, Diagnosis, & Repair

  • Our recommended books about building design, inspection, and repair, and about indoor environment testing, diagnosis, and cleanup are at the InspectAPedia Bookstore.
  • ...
FPE Stab-Lok HAZARDS & REPAIRS WEBSITE

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