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Federal Pacific Electric (FPE) Panel Fire and Failure Photos involving FPE Stab-Lok Equipment FPEaPedia © Enter your search terms Submit search form   Search This Website - InspectAPedia.com

• Field reports of FPE Stab-Lok panel or breaker incidents
• Field photographs of FPE Stab-Lok equipment failures

Consumer Note: replacement FPE Stab-Lok circuit breakers are unlikely to reduce the failure risk of this equipment. We recommend replacing the Federal Pacific Electric Stab-Lok panel entirely. 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 inspect-ny.com/appointment.htm.

This document provides field reports and photographs of Federal Pacific FPE Stab-Lok equipment fires, overheating, trip-failures, burn ups and other dangerous failures. Readers of this article should also see Federal No-Trips: Anecdotal FPE Failure Reports (separate document) Email from Electricians, Home Inspectors, Building Owners, Others - U.S. and Canada, and The Federal Pacific Electric FPE Panel/Breaker Hazard Summary - the main FPE Hazard Website. More in-depth, un-biased, expert information on Federal Pacific Electric Stab-Lok equipment hazards and on building defect inspection, diagnosis, & repair can be found at © Copyright 2008 Daniel Friedman, All Rights Reserved. Information Accuracy & Bias Pledge is at below-left. Use the links at page left to navigate this document or to go to Other Website Topics. Green links at left show where you are in our document & website.

Field Reports of FPE Incidents and FPE Stab-lok Failure Photographs

• FPE Overheat Field Report: FPE breaker fails to trip, meltdown (photo at left)
• FPE Fire Field Report: FPE breaker results in Ohio fire, December 1999
• FPE Overheat, Photos, Landlord Action Letter Jan 2006 Field Report
• Federal No-Trip: FPE equipment that failed to trip
• Federal No-Trip2: FPE equipment that failed to trip
• Federal No-Trip3: FPE equipment case blowout, wire burn up
• Federal No-Trip4: FPE F-bus arc-melt 10/2005


• Federal No-Trips: Large Collection of Anecdotal FPE Field Failure Reports (separate document) Email from Electricians, Home Inspectors, Building Owners, Others - U.S. and Canada


• Readers who have FPE field failure cases to report (failure to trip, overheating, fires, falls out of panel, panel bus meltdowns, case side explosions, etc.) or cases of proper FPE panel and breaker operation to report, and other professionals or inspectors who can contribute text descriptions, photographs or actual failed equipment are invited to contact the author.

FPE Overheat Field Report: FPE breaker fails to trip, meltdown

Federal Pacific panel bad neutral bar connection. I went out on a service call because the cable guy said there was power on the grounding system at his junction point to the house. I heard a sizzling noise when I pulled off the panel cover and traced it to the grounding locknut arcing. The neutral was shot so the current was using every path possible and the grounding locknut was not connected real well. I got a couple great digital shots - yes the orange glow on the middle picture is arcing! -- J.S. to DJF by email 8/28/2005

Photographs of source of overheating, glowing electric panel, and FPE equipment that failed to trip

• Bad neutral connection, 1 - panel overview
• Bad neutral connection, 2 - glowing electrical panel!
• Bad neutral connection, 3 - bad neutral wire

FPE Fire Field Report: FPE breaker results in Ohio fire, December 1999

Last week I was working on an electric furnace which is in a mobile home. This home has a 200 amp FPE entrance panel in it, with a 100 amp breaker for the furnace. As it turned out, the breaker was weak and would not hold. The customer called around and to my surprise was able to find a 100 amp FPE breaker at a home improvement/lumber yard in the next town. They went and bought it and I installed it. All 4 banks of heaters were at 21 amps while running and the blower was at 6 amps for a total amp draw of 90 amps. This morning they called in and said the fire dept. just left. I went over and found that something had caused a short on the terminal block for the electric entering the furnace and the new breaker in the panel never tripped. Thankfully he was up and heard the noise and was able to turn off the main breaker and extinguish the fire before any structural damage occurred or worse.

The main electrical panel is a FPE panel with FPE breakers. This is in a mobile home that has an electric furnace in it. Now, the short occurred before the two breakers in the furnace (service shut-off breakers that are another brand) but should have been protected by the 100amp FPE breaker which was feeding the electric to the furnace. The service shut-off breakers, at least the one, seems to have functioning properly. The short inside the furnace actually melted a hole in the bottom of the box and a piece of a screw fell across a connection below and tripped the one breaker. However, the FPE 100amp breaker in the panel NEVER tripped. -- T to DJF by email 12/28/99

FPE Overheat, Photos, Landlord Action Letter Jan 2006 Field Report

The following text is from a tenant's letter to his landlord, documenting the FPE Stab-Lok hazard with text and photos of the actual panel in the subject apartment. This letter, which documents the general FPE Stab-lok hazard and also specific evidence found in the apartment panel, was successful in convincing the property owner of the need for prompt action. G.G. Seattle, WA, to D.F. 1/24/2006 [Edits by DJF to shorten text, preserve anonymity, and to generalize the "FPE Stab-Lok Electric Panel/Circuit Breaker landlord action notice letter".]

[Moving into my new apartment] I spotted a 30-amp breaker in the electrical panel marked as bedroom lights. Lighting circuits and outlets generally are 20-amp and wired with 12-gauge wiring. It was over-fused which is a fire hazard. I googled Federal Pacific Electric (FPE) the maker of the panel to find if a [replacement circuit] breaker was available. [See www.inspect-ny.com/fpe/fpepanel.htm.] I also noticed that the panel was missing three breaker punchouts leaving holes in the panel in which fingers could easily fit. I removed the panel cover and discovered a meltdown of a circuit breaker had previously occurred.

• Photo #1. 1552 panel with cover on
• Photo #2. inside of the box and the overcrowded wires
• Photo #3. 1540 area around the melted stab-lok connector and the over fused 30amp breaker
• Photo #4. 1540 close up of the burnt stab-lok connector this is 1540 enlarged
• Photo #5. 1557 missing breaker punchouts in panel
• Photo #6. 1558 close up of the FPE Stab-Lok panel label inside panel cover door

Federal No-Trip1: FPE equipment that failed to trip

Photographs of source of short circuit also depicted.

• Heater Breaker Burnup
• FPE 100-A Circuit Breaker "protecting" heater circuit: FPE 2-pole 100A breaker failed to trip on overcurrent in heater panel
• Federal Pacific Panel Identification
• Heater Circuit Breaker Panel-source of overcurrent
• Heater Circuit Breaker Burnup on feeder wires: breaker in main panel failed to protect this circuit
• Heater Control Panel short circuit
• Heater Control Panel burned-through
• Heater Control Panel burned-through, other side

Federal No-Trip2: FPE equipment that failed to trip

Contributed by Mark Cramer, ASHI inspector, educator, Tampa, FL.

• Overheated FPE circuit breaker failed to trip

Federal No-Trip3: FPE equipment case blowout, wire burn up

Contributed by Roger Hankey, ASHI inspector, educator, Minnesota. " The load on this circuit was a medium sized refrigerator./freezer and a counter top (est 1000w) microwave. As you can see the breaker was still ON. Hankey and Brown home inspectors, Eden Prairie, MN, technical contribution by Roger Hankey, prior chairman, Standards Committee, American Society of Home Inspectors - ASHI. 952 829-0044 - hankeyandbrown.com 11/06, 07/07.

[Follow up from J.A. - Looks more like a termination overheating problem than a circuit breaker problem. Looks like copper wire (green corrosion products). The wire leading away from the terminal does not show any signs of overheating - it is localized at the terminal. Also, the refrigerator & a microwave would not likely trip the breaker or overload the wiring. -- Aronstein]

• FPE circuit breaker case blowout wire burn up

Federal No-Trip4: FPE F-bus arc-melt 10/2005

Contributed by Douglas Hansen, ASHI inspector, educator, California.

• FPE F-bus burn up arcing failure

More Information on Federal Pacific Stab-Lok Electrical Defects and Hazards and More Information on Building Diagnostic Inspections and Repairs

• 1995 Federal Pacific Electric Panels: Fires Waiting to Happen, Debate Waiting to Be Ended - original text article from which this summary was extracted.
• Federal Pacific Electric FPE Panel/Breaker Hazard Summary - main FPE Hazard Website
• Home Inspection Reporting Language for FPE Stab-Lok electric panels and circuit breakers
• CPSC Calibration and Condition Tests of Molded Case Circuit Breakers, Final Report December 30, 1982, summary pages, indicating failure rates found for FPE Stab-Lok circuit breakers
• 1999 Home Inspection Reporting Language and discussion for FPE panels
• 1997 Schneider Canada Federal Pioneer circuit breaker recall
• 1983 CPSC Investigation of FPE Circuit Breakers Safety Information for Consumers
• 1982 Reliance Electric Co. SEC Quarterly Report: Note C. reports litigation between Reliance and UV Liquidating Trust and contends that "... improper and deceptive practices were employed for many years to secure UL listings for Federal Pacific's circuit protective products..."
• 1980 Reliance Electric Co. Press Release: improper practices improper practices used to obtain UL Listing for most of FPE's circuit breakers and notes testing which indicates "possible defects." 1980, Reliance Electric Co.
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