# GE Breaker Panels



## 460 Delta (May 9, 2018)

I'm an industrial guy at heart so I'm wondering what the hate is all about with GE? There stuff seems as well made as any other brand excepting CH Cutler Hammer so what am I missing? 
Where I'm at GE isn't really a player anyhow, just Cutler Hammer and Siemens.


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## joebanana (Dec 21, 2010)

What hate? I don't have a problem with them. But as far as I'm concerned, just about any combopanel will work. Except FPE, or Zinsco.


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## ppsh (Jan 2, 2014)

460 Delta said:


> I'm an industrial guy at heart so I'm wondering what the hate is all about with GE? There stuff seems as well made as any other brand excepting CH Cutler Hammer so what am I missing?
> Where I'm at GE isn't really a player anyhow, just Cutler Hammer and Siemens.


GE, "Good Enough"

Spectra panelboards are ugly as sin, unpainted cans.
Have to order lug kits and mounting kits with nearly everything you order form them. Never really feel to great about how "securely" the breaker is mounted.

They also cant seem to make a can that doesn't have sheared edges sharper than my razor knife.


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## B-Nabs (Jun 4, 2014)

Hardly ever see them around here, but the little exposure I've had to them makes me feel they're junky. I also hate Siemens. I like Eaton and Square D. 

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk


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## 460 Delta (May 9, 2018)

I'm not really sure, just people claim the quality stinks and I really do not see the issue. I see them in our job trailers and some of the older plant MCC panels, and they seem to be holding up well. I just thought I would throw this out there and see if it is just me dreaming this up or if you hear the same things.
Federal Pacific was a staple here, that and Pushmatic, don't think I've heard of a fire caused by a non trip around here, but it always seemed to be a wobbly design.


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## 460 Delta (May 9, 2018)

B-Nabs said:


> Hardly ever see them around here, but the little exposure I've had to them makes me feel they're junky. I also hate Siemens. I like Eaton and Square D.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk


Eaton, yeah I still want to call them Cutler Hammer, had a hard time switching from ITE to Siemens.
I called to order a 1 3/4 size Furnas starter and was scolded by the counter guy, it's been Siemens for 15 years! Hmm time flies. I still call them Furnas, just to be that guy.:biggrin:


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## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

460 Delta said:


> Eaton, yeah I still want to call them Cutler Hammer, had a hard time switching from ITE to Siemens.
> I called to order a 1 3/4 size Furnas starter and was scolded by the counter guy, it's been Siemens for 15 years! Hmm time flies. I still call them Furnas, just to be that guy.:biggrin:


Hard to keep track of it all, but when you deal with a lot of old stuff like I do, you have to know what's what. It's common for me to run into Bryant, Challenger, Westinghouse, Cutler Hammer and now Eaton all with the span of a few weeks of doing small day jobs. Likewise, it's also common to run into ITE, Murray, Crouse Hinds, Gould and Siemens too.


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## 460 Delta (May 9, 2018)

Was it Bryant that had the green and red and blue handles? The only ones I’ve seen were in job trailers so you know they were the highest quality. 😏


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## tjb (Feb 12, 2014)

Yes that was Bryant. 

GE just don’t seem to fit together well. Their larger gear, MDPs, switchgear, the panels are always a bear to put together after you’re done wiring them. The holes don’t line up well etc.


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## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

460 Delta said:


> Was it Bryant that had the green and red and blue handles? The only ones I’ve seen were in job trailers so you know they were the highest quality. 😏



Yes among other colors. Those old breakers are still identical to modern Eaton/CH BR breakers, other than the handle color now.


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## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

My major concern with GE anything is a lack of supply houses carry GE around here. I can get resi breakers in the hardware stores. 3 phase? EBAY or Amazon.


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## 460 Delta (May 9, 2018)

Supply houses won’t keep anything they don’t sell a train car load a week. Oh well we can order it, yeah so can Amazon. 
The best places to buy from are mom and pop shops where the owner waits the counter with the rest of the staff and knows what to keep for what season and how much to keep. 
If you have one around, they are the ones that will sell you the next days supplies even if you are 15 minutes after closing. Rant over.


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## matt1124 (Aug 23, 2011)

I HATE those wafer breakers. The losers that put in GE around he jam them in as many as will fit to avoid buying a MLO to put right next to it and a dang breaker to feed it


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## Jlarson (Jun 28, 2009)

We get the most OOB failures with GE breakers then any other brand. I got a case of 20a SP's on the last GE job that was all just case and handles, no guts. :laughing:

The ground bar design was clearly done by a ****** too.


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## brian john (Mar 11, 2007)

In their MDPs adding a breaker kit is a royal pain.

Infrared Scanning them is a royal pain


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## JoeSparky (Mar 25, 2010)

Neutral/ground bar screws are made from a really soft metal. Always have issues removing old stuck neutrals and grounds. Sometimes have to cut them off and abandon that terminal


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## micromind (Aug 11, 2007)

I've seen far more GE motor starter failures than any other brand. Even the NEMA ones don't hold up. 

It seems like a lot of GE stuff in designed and assembled by different departments that do not communicate with each other, sort of a hodgepodge of stuff bolted together. 

I recently installed 3 GE soft-starts, 1 - 500HP, 1 - 300HP and the other was a canned pump rated at 262HP. 

The factory wiring on the 500HP model was 1 - 350 copper. Wonder how long that would have lasted.......

The smaller ones were no better. 

If there were 2 parallels, it would have been about right. It took quite a bit of time and effort to convince GE that their starters were not built correctly. Every rep I talked to tried to convince me it was ok. 

I've also had a number of cross-threaded screws where the breaker attaches to the bus. 

The bus extensions on their switchgear never line up with the breaker holes. 

A few places I work at want every breaker tested. Anything over 50 amps, we hire a test company. Smaller breakers we test ourselves. It's fairly rare but I've tested GE 20 amp breakers that would not trip no matter how much current I hit them with. 

Other brands will fail too but it's much more rare than GE. 

I don't like how the ground bus attaches in their bolt-on panels, it seems flimsy and cheap. Plus it takes longer to screw in than any other brand. Also, stranded wire is difficult to get all the strands through both sides of the bus. 

My favorite is Square D QO or QOB.


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## micromind (Aug 11, 2007)

I've seen far more GE motor starter failures than any other brand. Even the NEMA ones don't hold up. 

It seems like a lot of GE stuff in designed and assembled by different departments that do not communicate with each other, sort of a hodgepodge of stuff bolted together. 

I recently installed 3 GE soft-starts, 1 - 500HP, 1 - 300HP and the other was a canned pump rated at 262HP. 

The factory wiring on the 500HP model was 1 - 350 copper. Wonder how long that would have lasted.......

The smaller ones were no better. 

If there were 2 parallels, it would have been about right. It took quite a bit of time and effort to convince GE that their starters were not built correctly. Every rep I talked to tried to convince me it was ok. 

I've also had a number of cross-threaded screws where the breaker attaches to the bus. 

The bus extensions on their switchgear never line up with the breaker holes. 

A few places I work at want every breaker tested. Anything over 50 amps, we hire a test company. Smaller breakers we test ourselves. It's fairly rare but I've tested GE 20 amp breakers that would not trip no matter how much current I hit them with. 

Other brands will fail too but it's much more rare than GE. 

I don't like how the ground bus attaches in their bolt-on panels, it seems flimsy and cheap. Plus it takes longer to screw in than any other brand. Also, stranded wire is difficult to get all the strands through both sides of the bus. 

My favorite is Square D QO or QOB.


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## tjb (Feb 12, 2014)

Could you please repeat that?


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## 460 Delta (May 9, 2018)

The last GE starter I repaired was on a plant ran off a RPC. The coil was torched and closer investigation showed the voltage was almost 300 volts in the made phase. So much for quality installation. I did think that the fit and finish on the starter was a little lackluster to be honest. 
It was a far cry from the 50’s era MCC at my first job in the 80’s.


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## matt1124 (Aug 23, 2011)

Went and put in a dryer outlet a few hours ago. Rolled up to a GE 100 amp outdoor. What a hunk of junk.


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