I asked the same question some time ago. Never did get a really satisfactory
answer.
Maybe the Homeline series was introduced to compete with the less expensive
GE breakers, and similar.
Maybe the QO are better built, but how?
Dave


"Wade Lippman" wrote in message
...
I needed a SquareD 15a/15a breaker. The local store had three designs for
$7.50 (homeline), $12.80 (QOT), and $16.50 (QO). Sadly, my box required
the
$16.50 kind.

Other than that they can get it, is there any reason for the radical
pricing
differences? Is my $16.50 breaker somehow better than the $7.50 kind

"Wade Lippman" wrote in message
...
: I needed a SquareD 15a/15a breaker. The local store had three designs for
: $7.50 (homeline), $12.80 (QOT), and $16.50 (QO). Sadly, my box required
the
: $16.50 kind.
:
: Other than that they can get it, is there any reason for the radical
pricing
: differences? Is my $16.50 breaker somehow better than the $7.50 kind
:
The costlier ones really are far more heavy duty in both load capacity and
overall construction.
The cheap ones will fatigue far sooner and cause a lot of nuisance trips.
(Yeah, circuit breakers actually do "wear out" over time.)

You might try thinking in terms of comparing Black & Decker tools to
Milwaukee tools.
(You want to buy a lot of replacements or just one that's going to keep
doing the job for the l-o-n-g haul?)
--
Steve
www.ApacheTrail.com/ww/
Mesa, AZ
Penury Is the Mother of Invention

QO is simply better made (you can tell that by just flipping them on and off
and comparing with the HomeLine).

Whether it's worth 2x as much is another question.

-Tim

quoting:
I needed a SquareD 15a/15a breaker. The local store had three designs for
$7.50 (homeline), $12.80 (QOT), and $16.50 (QO). Sadly, my box required the
$16.50 kind.

Other than that they can get it, is there any reason for the radical pricing
differences? Is my $16.50 breaker somehow better than the $7.50 kind


My personal experience with big box stores is SquareD breakers are the best
quality brand. I've always had great luck with them. Do not buy their
no-name breakers. They are junk. I learned the hard way when they
frequently wouldn't properly fit or develop problems later.

What's "homeline"? Is SquareD changing their breakers? I don't remember
that brand name at Home Depot. I hope they're not lowering the quality
because SquareD was just fine the way they were!

"JM" wrote in message
...
quoting:
I needed a SquareD 15a/15a breaker. The local store had three designs
for
$7.50 (homeline), $12.80 (QOT), and $16.50 (QO). Sadly, my box required
the
$16.50 kind.

Other than that they can get it, is there any reason for the radical
pricing
differences? Is my $16.50 breaker somehow better than the $7.50 kind


My personal experience with big box stores is SquareD breakers are the
best
quality brand. I've always had great luck with them. Do not buy their
no-name breakers. They are junk. I learned the hard way when they
frequently wouldn't properly fit or develop problems later.

What's "homeline"? Is SquareD changing their breakers? I don't remember
that brand name at Home Depot. I hope they're not lowering the quality
because SquareD was just fine the way they were!

Homeline is made to be interchangable with GE, Murray, and the like. They
are priced competitively.

Homeline is SquareD's lower priced series primarily aimed at residential
market, the Q0 is the original, heavier duty line.

The Q0 panels use a copper bus with a plastic cover that shields most of the
exposed bus. The Homeline panels have an exposed aluminum bus.

The Q0 breakers have the "visi-trip" window. It's a bright red/orange
indicator when the breaker trips. Makes it easier to find the tripped
breaker.

Also, since the Q0 series are smaller, a Q0 panel with the same number of
breakers will be slightly smaller than a Homeline. The 30 space Homeline
panel is 33.8", the 30 space Q0 is 29.7"

Just as a personal opinion, the Q0 breakers seemed more solid.

The Q0 series and Homeline breakers are NOT interchangable. The Q0T
breakers are tandem Q0's.

I recently went through a lot of research on this when I replaced our 35
year old rusty 100A Federal Pacific(!) panel. I went with the 200A Q0
series because of the features mentioned above. When the city building
inspector did his inspection we talked about the choices I made. He told me
that I made a good decision and that in his opinion the Homeline series was
significantly inferior to the Q0.

Also, even though it's more expensive up front, it's not like you'll be
replacing the breakers often.

Just as a note, I have no connection with SquareD or any sales outlet.

Mike O.

"Wade Lippman" wrote in message
...
I needed a SquareD 15a/15a breaker. The local store had three designs for
$7.50 (homeline), $12.80 (QOT), and $16.50 (QO). Sadly, my box required
the
$16.50 kind.

Other than that they can get it, is there any reason for the radical
pricing
differences? Is my $16.50 breaker somehow better than the $7.50 kind

The Q0 series and Homeline breakers are NOT interchangable. The Q0T
breakers are tandem Q0's.

No, you are wrong about this. Check the HD website; they have both QO1515
and QOT1515 tandem breakers, for $15 and $24. (Geez, the place I bought
mine was only $17 and I thought that was high). The QO has a clip to attach
to the buss bar and a hook to engage the box. The QOT has a clip for the
box.

"Wade Lippman" wrote in message ...
The Q0 series and Homeline breakers are NOT interchangable. The Q0T
breakers are tandem Q0's.

No, you are wrong about this. Check the HD website; they have both QO1515
and QOT1515 tandem breakers, for $15 and $24. (Geez, the place I bought
mine was only $17 and I thought that was high). The QO has a clip to attach
to the buss bar and a hook to engage the box. The QOT has a clip for the
box.

When I did the research for my panel replacement last May, I saw the
info from SquareD that listed the tandem breakers as Q0T. Since I was
planning enough spaces not to need tandem ones, I didn't really look
at those items too much.

I went back an looked in the info I downloaded from SquareD. The Q0T
are listed as "Tandem Breakers". The Q01515 is listed under
"Replacement tandem breakers" for "Old-Style non class CTL Q0 load
centers". The current Q0 load centers have some spaces that have a
notch in the bar where the breaker clips on. The Q0T breakers will
only fit in those spaces.

As I understand it, class CTL is a UL standard designed to keep people
from overloading their panel. A "CTL" panel has a limit on the number
of tandem breakers. Of course you could still load it up with non-CTL
tandem breakers..

HD has the Q0T at $14.26, the other Q0 Tandem's at $25. It sounds
like SquareD wants to push everyone to the new models.

Mike O. (posting from another location).

"Wade Lippman" wrote in message
...
I needed a SquareD 15a/15a breaker. The local store had three designs for
$7.50 (homeline), $12.80 (QOT), and $16.50 (QO). Sadly, my box required
the
$16.50 kind.

Other than that they can get it, is there any reason for the radical
pricing
differences? Is my $16.50 breaker somehow better than the $7.50 kind

This is turtle.

You have the original real square D type and they want more for them and the
name. there is a breaker made by a company that will fit this old type
square D type and it is called a G & B breaker or the company name is i
think [ Glass & Babcock ] . They are 1/3 cheaper than
the old square D type but will look idenical to the old sguare D type and
slide right in there. Now you have the Home / Seimrns, and G/E that will fit
the [ new Square D by Home ] .

Let me know if you need the breaker discussion ---- Discussed in great
detail.

TURTLE

On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 18:31:12 GMT,
(JM).remove-rdk-this wrote:

quoting:
I needed a SquareD 15a/15a breaker. The local store had three designs for
$7.50 (homeline), $12.80 (QOT), and $16.50 (QO). Sadly, my box required the
$16.50 kind.

Other than that they can get it, is there any reason for the radical pricing
differences? Is my $16.50 breaker somehow better than the $7.50 kind


My personal experience with big box stores is SquareD breakers are the best
quality brand. I've always had great luck with them. Do not buy their
no-name breakers. They are junk. I learned the hard way when they
frequently wouldn't properly fit or develop problems later.

What's "homeline"? Is SquareD changing their breakers? I don't remember
that brand name at Home Depot. I hope they're not lowering the quality
because SquareD was just fine the way they were!
--- Synchronet 3.10L-Win32 NewsLink 1.52
* Time Warp of the Future BBS - Vancouver, Washington - telnet://Time.Darktech.Org

Homeline is budget line from SquareD.