You can find all kinds of negative information on blogs, as well as plenty
of law suits against them. When I started in the electrical trade in the
early seventies, most supply companies carried two brands of panels. One
would be the quality brand like Square D or Murray, and the other would be
the cheap brand which was almost always FPE. We as installers generally
hated them and all had stories of how they don't trip, etc etc. The truth is
the panel does carry a U.L. label as do the breakers, and although FPE has
been out of business for many years, circuit breakers for their stab-lok
panels are still being made today. They were being made by the American
Circuit breaker co. which sold out to another company who's name escapes me,
and they too carry a U.L. label



"rile" wrote in message
oups.com...
My son bought my father-in-law's house three years ago. During a
remodeling job, I did some minor electrical work for him and found out
that he has a Federal Pacific breaker box. Now I know that they have
problems especially with double pole breakers. My question is when did
this proble arise? This house was built in the early 1950's and all I
can find out about the problem seems to stem from around the middle
sixties.