The most common problematic panel is the “Federal Pacific” stab lock panel. Federal Pacific Stab-Lock panels and their breakers are trouble prone and unreliable. Problems not only include breakers that fail to trip, but also arcing at the bus bars. The connections between the bus 
bars and the breakers sometimes loosen with age, and use, this can cause arcing. This arcing is on the back of the breakers and can’t be seen without removing the breakers. The parts for these panels are expensive and hard to find.
I have had FP Breakers pop out of the panel when I removed the dead face, to inspect the panel. This will take you by surprise, but when the breaker leaves the buss bar, it is no longer energized and can not shock you.
These panels are unreliable and should be replaced with modern, reliable equipment. In the 1980’s, from 1983 to 1987, the Consumer Product Safety Commission conducted extensive testing of these breakers with an aim to determining whether they represented a significant threat to homeowner safety. CPSC never issued an official ‘finding’ that the panels constituted a hazard, because their investigation was suspended due to lack of funding. However, the testing completed did find that a high percentage of these breakers failed during testing.
As home inspectors we will all see some of theses panels and when we do, at the very least, they should be reported as having a history of failure to trip when needed and be evaluated by a licenced electrician.
I found Daniel Friedman's site to be the very best source of information on Federal Pacific panels, and I highly recommend reading it if you are in the business of home inspecting, or if you have a FP panel in your house.
More on FP Panels tomorrow.
bars and the breakers sometimes loosen with age, and use, this can cause arcing. This arcing is on the back of the breakers and can’t be seen without removing the breakers. The parts for these panels are expensive and hard to find.I have had FP Breakers pop out of the panel when I removed the dead face, to inspect the panel. This will take you by surprise, but when the breaker leaves the buss bar, it is no longer energized and can not shock you.
These panels are unreliable and should be replaced with modern, reliable equipment. In the 1980’s, from 1983 to 1987, the Consumer Product Safety Commission conducted extensive testing of these breakers with an aim to determining whether they represented a significant threat to homeowner safety. CPSC never issued an official ‘finding’ that the panels constituted a hazard, because their investigation was suspended due to lack of funding. However, the testing completed did find that a high percentage of these breakers failed during testing.
As home inspectors we will all see some of theses panels and when we do, at the very least, they should be reported as having a history of failure to trip when needed and be evaluated by a licenced electrician.
I found Daniel Friedman's site to be the very best source of information on Federal Pacific panels, and I highly recommend reading it if you are in the business of home inspecting, or if you have a FP panel in your house.
More on FP Panels tomorrow.
P.S. The pictures were sent from "Scully and Mulder".
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