That job site in Phoenix taught me to NEVER trust a dated breaker panel

I was doing a kitchen remodel for a client off Bell Road. Went to plug in my saw and the breaker tripped instantly. Popped it back up and it sparked so bad I saw black smoke. Called an electrician buddy and he said the whole box was from 1985 and needed a full swap. Cost me 2 days of downtime and $850 out of pocket. Has anyone else walked into a house with a panel that looked fine but was actually dangerous?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_daniel3d ago

@david920 I hear you, but man, a buddy of mine had a similar setup in his place off the 17 and it almost burned his garage down. He thought it was just a loose breaker too, kept flipping it back on for his table saw. One day he smelled something weird and looked up to see the main lug was actually melting, like the plastic was dripping. His electrician said the whole bus bar had corroded from years of heat cycling and a few of the breaker slots were basically dust inside. So yeah, not every old panel is bad, but that spark and smoke you saw is a big red flag (especially with an '85 box) and I'd be real careful about trusting it.

kellyallen2d ago

Yeah, what finally worked for me was just having an electrician do a full thermal scan.

david9203d ago

Hang on, I gotta push back a little. An 850 dollar panel swap and two days downtime sounds rough, but a 1985 panel isn't automatically a death trap. My own house has a box from the late 80s and my electrician just laughed when I asked about replacing it. He tested the breakers, checked for corrosion, and said to leave it alone unless I was adding a big load. That spark you saw could have been a loose connection on a single breaker, not the whole panel being junk. What exactly did your buddy say was wrong with the box itself that made it unsafe?

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