# Square D breaker shortage



## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

If Home Depot don't sell x amount of stuff that stuff starts saying bye bye. Hard to believe the GE sells more than Square-D though. Eaton is king ding in my parts.


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## 99cents (Aug 20, 2012)

macmikeman said:


> If Home Depot don't sell x amount of stuff that stuff starts saying bye bye. Hard to believe the GE sells more than Square-D though. Eaton is king ding in my parts.


It’s true. One store here cut back on plumber’s pipe because “it wasn’t selling”. The reason it wasn’t selling? They didn’t stock fittings in common sizes. The same store showed EMT in stock but nobody knew where it was.


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## 460 Delta (May 9, 2018)

SH in my parts, WVa Elec, has plenty of QO and Homeline.


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## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

460 Delta said:


> SH in my parts, WVa Elec, has plenty of QO and Homeline.


I see.


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## joe-nwt (Mar 28, 2019)

Sq D breakers are made in Mexico. My wholesaler claims word from head office is plant shut down due to Covid. They had 70,000 breakers on backorder from the factory as of last week.


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## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

joe-nwt said:


> Sq D breakers are made in Mexico. My wholesaler claims word from head office is plant shut down due to Covid. They had 70,000 breakers on backorder from the factory as of last week.


That would explain it. It's mostly the AFCI breakers that are hard to find now. 

I believe the 1 pole QO and Homeline are made in USA.


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## JoeSparky (Mar 25, 2010)

joe-nwt said:


> Sq D breakers are made in Mexico. My wholesaler claims word from head office is plant shut down due to Covid. They had 70,000 breakers on backorder from the factory as of last week.


See what they get for not manufacturing their stuff in Chi-Nah :wink::no:


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## joe-nwt (Mar 28, 2019)

MTW said:


> That would explain it. It's mostly the AFCI breakers that are hard to find now.
> 
> I believe the 1 pole QO and Homeline are made in USA.


I was going to call BS but you're right!

Just checked my shelves, QO215 "Assembled in Mexico", QO115 "Made in USA":vs_cool:

Your single pole factory still up and running?


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## JRaef (Mar 23, 2009)

joe-nwt said:


> I was going to call BS but you're right!
> 
> Just checked my shelves, QO215 "Assembled in Mexico", QO115 "Made in USA":vs_cool:
> 
> Your single pole factory still up and running?


Sq. D and some others will still maintain typically one small production line in the US because of gov't contracts that specify "Buy American" content. They will only make the highest volume parts there in order to amortize the higher cost over greater volume, like, in this case, QO115s and 120s. The Sq. D plant for QOs used to be in Lincoln, NE. I went there back in 1988, but that was before they had any plants in Mexico, so I'm not sure what's left of it. I was there on a tour because at the time, it was the "most automated circuit breaker production facility in the world" and used Square D Symax PLCs, which is what I was assigned to at the time. Square D sold out to Schneider / Telemecanique about 2 years later and jettisoned the Symax PLC line, so if it's still running, it would be a miracle. Most likely they gutted it when they had to upgrade the PLCs and moved it to Mexico.


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## 460 Delta (May 9, 2018)

MTW said:


> I see.


You really should see it.


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## Mobius87 (May 20, 2019)

All kinds of SqD and Homeline stuff (panels and breakers) out of stock here. I've had to resort to buying from the local hardware on occasion. 2-300% markup from the SH price on some of it.

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## Quickservice (Apr 23, 2020)

MTW said:


> Anybody know what's behind the Square D shortage? Supply chain interruption due to ?
> 
> There was plenty of Siemens stuff at the shelf at HD. The Leviton stuff is untouched since they brought it into the store. :laughing: I'm sure Depot has been reporting the lack of sales to Leviton. :yes:
> 
> My supplier carries Eaton BR and CH. No apparent issues there.


A friend of mine has a son who is a distribution warehouse manager in a communist blue State that is still shut down. The health department showed up with the police and informed him that he could not have over 10 employees working at a time. He told them that he could barely keep up with 60 employees. I have not heard yet if that got resolved. I think I would move my warehouses to red states. By-the-way, red state people are moving into our area like crazy.


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## Easy (Oct 18, 2017)

It's unfortunate that there is a shortage of Square-D breakers due to Covid 19. 
I normally go through my supplier for parts and just have them delivered to the job site.
Sometimes if I'm in a rush and need a few things I will go to HD or Lowes. 
I have noticed that these stores are much more crowded these days and I hate to even go there. Because many people are out of work and just at home they seem to be doing lots of home improvements and DYI stuff. Electrical parts in general seem to be getting scarce at hardware stores because of the rush to buy.


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## shocksystems (Apr 25, 2009)

Any relief in sight on this issue yet? In these parts I still see no new circuit breakers and more are out of stock now. This is both at the big box stores and my local Square D supply house


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## Funksparky (Nov 8, 2017)

My supplier told me they had COVID go through a plant in Mexico and in the US of A. 
COVID. I know that’s hard for some of you that don’t believe that it’s a real thing. Or that the government is just shutting them down for political reasons. People got sick. I’m sure they want to get their plants running again. The backlog will take awhile for sure. 


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## 99cents (Aug 20, 2012)

No relief in site. Schneider isn’t even close to filling orders. I managed to find enough QOB’s for existing jobs but I don’t know about anything beyond that. I was preparing to quote Brand X subs off brand new Square D panels.


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## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

Good time to be using anything but Square D. :thumbup:


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## 99cents (Aug 20, 2012)

MTW said:


> Good time to be using anything but Square D. :thumbup:


Around here, they’re pricing on bolt-ins is quite good. Eaton is the killer for me.


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## MotoGP1199 (Aug 11, 2014)

99cents said:


> Around here, they’re pricing on bolt-ins is quite good. Eaton is the killer for me.


Just got quoted $263 from one SH and $305 from another for a 3 phase, 20 amp breaker QOB320. Didn't need it in a hurry and told the SH to go shove it. Found one online for $75 new and will be here in 2 days. I'm all for supporting the local SH but not at that price increase.


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## Forge Boyz (Nov 7, 2014)

MotoGP1199 said:


> Just got quoted $263 from one SH and $305 from another for a 3 phase, 20 amp breaker QOB320. Didn't need it in a hurry and told the SH to go shove it. Found one online for $75 new and will be here in 2 days. I'm all for supporting the local SH but not at that price increase.


We just got a QOB panelboard that had a 3 pole 40 in it. They actually had a price breakdown and I think it was under $50 for that breaker. Their whole pricing structure can be really stupid sometimes

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## JRaef (Mar 23, 2009)

MotoGP1199 said:


> Just got quoted $263 from one SH and $305 from another for a 3 phase, 20 amp breaker QOB320. Didn't need it in a hurry and told the SH to go shove it. Found one online for $75 new and will be here in 2 days. I'm all for supporting the local SH but not at that price increase.


Surplus old stock, "recertified" used (meaning they blew it out with an air hose) or counterfeit in all likelihood.


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## MotoGP1199 (Aug 11, 2014)

JRaef said:


> Surplus old stock, "recertified" used (meaning they blew it out with an air hose) or counterfeit in all likelihood.


They had pricing for both re-certified and new. I chose the new option. I will see when I get it. If its a counterfeit and should be able to tell.


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## Basttrax (Nov 15, 2013)

We’re dealing with the shortage here too with SD. How are the supplies of the other brands?


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## Kevin (Feb 14, 2017)

Basttrax said:


> We’re dealing with the shortage here too with SD. How are the supplies of the other brands?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


I went to buy an Eaton BR 15 amp AFCI breaker the other day and was told Eaton has them on backorder, somewhere around 20 000 already on backorder.

Went to another wholesaler that isn't an eaton distributor and they had some, but won't for long with a shortage.


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## Mobius87 (May 20, 2019)

Kevin_Essiambre said:


> I went to buy an Eaton BR 15 amp AFCI breaker the other day and was told Eaton has them on backorder, somewhere around 20 000 already on backorder.
> 
> Went to another wholesaler that isn't an eaton distributor and they had some, but won't for long with a shortage.


I've heard/seen that as well. I've had to switch to Siemens, as there seems to be plenty of stock for those.


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## Going_Commando (Oct 1, 2011)

We've had to do 2 panel swaps with Siemens recently since we couldn't get enough square d stuff to do it. It's really frustrating since I hate Siemens breakers, but it is what it is. Trying to scrape together panel/breakers at all right now is hard up here. The last square d panel board we did we had to buy it from Zoro since our supplier was 4-6 weeks out on a 3 phase 18 circuit mlo NQOD.


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## nrp3 (Jan 24, 2009)

I have one service upgrade/generator install to do in Mass in a month or so, depends on whats available to put in. I really don't care as long as I can get the whole set of breakers I need. Eaton seems to be in short supply at my primary supply house.


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## Forge Boyz (Nov 7, 2014)

Thats interesting. About a month ago we got a 400A 72 circuit panelboard with no delays other than a few breakers.

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## Forge Boyz (Nov 7, 2014)

Thats interesting. About a month ago we got a 400A 72 circuit panelboard with no delays other than a few breakers.

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## Basttrax (Nov 15, 2013)

Yeah for a bit they could get them in a few days. Now the suppliers are telling us it might be weeks to get certain breakers. Yikes


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## joe-nwt (Mar 28, 2019)

Score!










I love salvage jobs. 2 more SqD panels today!


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## kb1jb1 (Nov 11, 2017)

MotoGP1199 said:


> Just got quoted $263 from one SH and $305 from another for a 3 phase, 20 amp breaker QOB320. Didn't need it in a hurry and told the SH to go shove it. Found one online for $75 new and will be here in 2 days. I'm all for supporting the local SH but not at that price increase.


Years ago I needed 4 - 200 amp, 3 phase shunt trip breakers. I was quoted $1,000.00 each. What the supply house did was buy a complete main lug panel with the breakers installed and the panel with breakers cost $1,800.00. I removed the breakers and through out the panel. It is always cheaper to buy a panelboard with breakers installed.


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## kb1jb1 (Nov 11, 2017)

I noticed that the Homeline panels at HD are about $30 to $40.00 cheaper than the other brands. Maybe there was an unexpected run on the Homeline breakers that HD purchasing did not figure on. Also because of the Covid-19 many homeowners are working on their houses. I see a lot of non electricians buying electrical stuff at the Depot.


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## brian john (Mar 11, 2007)

If it gets to a point where you cannot get QO, QOB CBs, and feel you must sell used CBs, I would test large lots for a price yet to be determined with you covering shipping both ways.


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## MotoGP1199 (Aug 11, 2014)

Holy cow when did MTW get banned?


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## Tony.Jorgenson (8 mo ago)

JoeSparky said:


> See what they get for not manufacturing their stuff in Chi-Nah 😉🇳🇴


Ya I work for a distributor and we are a SQD house. They had a COVID outbreak in their Mexico facility a while back. Are these problems happening across all manufacturers? or is SQD having the most issues?


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## Dennis Alwon (May 9, 2009)

Tony.Jorgenson said:


> Ya I work for a distributor and we are a SQD house. They had a COVID outbreak in their Mexico facility a while back. Are these problems happening across all manufacturers? or is SQD having the most issues?


You are responding to a 2 year old thread but to answer your question it is still a problem and it is happening across the board. It was a sq.d issue at first


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## joe-nwt (Mar 28, 2019)

Tony.Jorgenson said:


> Ya I work for a distributor and we are a SQD house. They had a COVID outbreak in their Mexico facility a while back. Are these problems happening across all manufacturers? or is SQD having the most issues?


For the smaller breakers they seem to be catching back up, at least in my wholesale. Some of the large frame breakers are behind though.


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## Tony.Jorgenson (8 mo ago)

Dennis Alwon said:


> You are responding to a 2 year old thread but to answer your question it is still a problem and it is happening across the board. It was a sq.d issue at first


Haha ya i just joined. I got to this page while looking into supply issues.


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## Tony.Jorgenson (8 mo ago)

joe-nwt said:


> For the smaller breakers they seem to be catching back up, at least in my wholesale. Some of the large frame breakers are behind though.


Got it. Thanks for the reply.


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## kb1jb1 (Nov 11, 2017)

Tony.Jorgenson said:


> Haha ya i just joined. I got to this page while looking into supply issues.


Welcome. We all get caught in old threads. Some are real zombie type but your comment is still very real concern. I have been waiting 6 months for standard 48" wrap LED lights and they keep getting delayed. Many people cannot get the 320 amp meter sets. It goes on and on.


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## TEO (Jan 17, 2020)

I've been using 2 local breaker brokers more this year then ever before, a refurbished breaker is better than no breaker


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## micromind (Aug 11, 2007)

Lowes here in Fernley didn't have any QO 20 amp single poles a few days ago, they had some 15s and plenty of 30s though.........


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