Zinsco Circuit Breakers Problems

The zinsco company was sold to gte sylvania in 1973 which continued to manufacture the zinsco panel design under the name of sylvania zinsco.

Zinsco circuit breakers problems.

Bus bar corrodes easily. This means the breaker can t ever trip even when there s a short or overloaded circuit. 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. Breakers may appear to be off yet internally the panel may be conducting power.

Contact us for all of your zinsco product needs. Learn more here and also here. If your circuit breakers are full size and the connections have not been arcing then you may be ok. It was also sold under the kearney brand name.

The connection between the breakers and bus bar is not solid. Our photo left shows burning at an electrical receptacle on a zinsco protected electrical circuit after the zinsco circuit breaker failed to trip. 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. 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.

Smell of burning electrical devices such as plastic receptacles receptacle covers circuit breakers or electrical wiring. Even if an electrician tells you he can. 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. Secondary problems are failure of the breakers to trip under an overcurrent event and cases of a tripped breaker continuing to be energized.

Problems with certain zinsco panels cannot be seen by the naked eye. Zinsco failure reports though few in number indicate severe failures of zinsco electrical panels circuit breakers including failure of the circuit breaker to trip on overcurrent arcing and burn ups at the breaker to panel bus bar connection and circuit breaker burn ups. The problem of a weakening connection to the main electrical panel buss especially if the panel buss bar has any irregularities. Zinsco used a real junky bar for a lot of their panels that causes the neutral wiring to be sort of pinched.

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. So if there ever is a short or other problems the surge of power melts wires and starts fires in your home.