Zinsco Circuit Breakers
The whole reason I have started this website is because I am in the financing portion of remodeling my home. It’s not just a remodel though as there are several problems that are not critical, but do need to be dealt with. One of them is my faulty Zinsco Electrical Panel.
Zinsco was a circuit breaker and electrical panel manufacturer that started in the 1930′s and was subsequently sold to the Sylvania group in 1973. You can still get parts for Zinsco panels but they are expensive and not very common. The original Zinsco panel design has been discontinued and is known in the industry to be unreliable and have issues that can potentially be a fire hazard.
It is my luck that the house has a Zinsco Electrical Panel. We recently discovered that the circuit breaker for the air conditioner has been arching and welding itself to the bus bars of the panel. This causes the lights in the house to flicker and has caused the fan motor of my air conditioner to prematurely die. ITS A HUGE PAIN having a zinsco. Buying zinsco replacement circuit breakers is expensive but its also getting to the point to where the electrical panel is becoming unsafe, so this has become the number 1 priority of this remodel. I am actually going to be paying cash to have the entire panel replaced before I begin the remodel project. I have an awesome Phoenix Residential Electrician named Brian Selberg (of Selberg Electric) that gave me an awesome price on a new panel installation. He is a really great guy and if you need an honest electrician in Phoenix, he is the guy to call.
zinsco circuit breakers problems
Another annoyance to my panel is that it does not have a main breaker. Its super strange to not have a main breaker. When Bryan comes to take care of it, we are adding a main breaker and also increasing the service from a current 125 AMP service to a 200 AMP service which is necessary these days. We are currently drawing more load than the old zinsco panel can handle so it will be nice having the ability to pull extra juice from the grid. I’ll especially need it if I end up getting a hot tub some day.
I’ll post some pics of the new panel once it is installed. Should be within the next week or two.
