Zinsco Circuit Breakers Problems

Breakers may appear to be off yet internally the panel may be conducting power.

Zinsco circuit breakers problems.

Problems with certain zinsco panels cannot be seen by the naked eye. If your circuit breakers are full size and the connections have not been arcing then you may be ok. Contact us for all of your zinsco product needs. So if there ever is a short or other problems the surge of power melts wires and starts fires in your home.

The problem of a weakening connection to the main electrical panel buss especially if the panel buss bar has any irregularities. Smell of burning electrical devices such as plastic receptacles receptacle covers circuit breakers or electrical wiring. The connection between the breakers and bus bar is not solid. The zinsco company was sold to gte sylvania in 1973 which continued to manufacture the zinsco panel design under the name of sylvania zinsco.

Bay breakers stocks zinsco circuit breakers new used and obsolete with a full 1 year warranty. Zinsco used a real junky bar for a lot of their panels that causes the neutral wiring to be sort of pinched. This can cause issues where the wire looks like it is under the set screw but in reality it is going off into left field and you can have an open neutral or burning. It was also sold under the kearney brand name.

The zinsco brand had it s share of problems and still do for some electrical services that may have the older aging twin or tandem zinsco circuit breakers. Secondary problems are failure of the breakers to trip under an overcurrent event and cases of a tripped breaker continuing to be energized. Bus bar corrodes easily. Learn more here and also here.

If you know or suspect you may have a zinsco brand panel most experts in the field of electricity today recommend the panel be replaced. In fact one expert warns that as many as 25 of all zinsco circuit breakers could fail to trip in response to an overcurrent or short circuit and create a possible hazardous situation. Even if an electrician tells you he can. Our photo left shows burning at an electrical receptacle on a zinsco protected electrical circuit after the zinsco circuit breaker failed to trip.

Yes there is a history of problems with some of the zinsco breakers mostly having to do with the twin style circuit breakers that can have arcing problems at the connection with the main panel buss. We specialize in hard to find zinsco breakers as well as popular breakers like the r3820 rc3820 rc3830 qcal100 and q20.