# Old panels



## WronGun (Oct 18, 2013)

Does anyone recognize these push breaker panels ? I’m assuming they don’t make them anymore










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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

They are Bulldog Pushmatic panels. Very common in some areas. THey are old so I replace them often. Some people say that they are decent panels, but anything that old is pushing it, IMO.


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## WronGun (Oct 18, 2013)

I need to add a bunch of circuits to this building , looks like I’m changing panels first 


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## telsa (May 22, 2015)

The backer board looks beautiful.


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## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

telsa said:


> The backer board looks beautiful.


Love the pipe wrench hanging on the EMT..


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## daveEM (Nov 18, 2012)

Try eBay for the breakers.You can find some new in ox stock although getting tough to find. As Hack said '*pushmatic*' search works.

It's a bolt in panel so quite nice actually. << My opinion.


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## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

They are rare here. 

I was in central Ohio several years ago and I remember that literally every house I visited had a Pushmatic panel. Turns out the factory that made them was in Bellefontaine, OH which was within a half hour of where I was visiting. Funny how having a local manufacturer around influences what people install.


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## chicken steve (Mar 22, 2011)

WronGun said:


> I need to add a bunch of circuits to this building , looks like I’m changing panels first
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


After market breakers ain't no sin WronGun.......:no:~CS~


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## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

MTW said:


> They are rare here.
> 
> I was in central Ohio several years ago and I remember that literally every house I visited had a Pushmatic panel. Turns out the factory that made them was in Bellefontaine, OH which was within a half hour of where I was visiting. Funny how having a local manufacturer around influences what people install.


I'm sure they gave all the local suppliers a good break due to low shipping costs.


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## Voltron (Sep 14, 2012)

A guy at work hangs on to those pusmatic breakers from demos and sells them on eBay. They're getting harder to find/get, It sounds like he does pretty well on them.


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## J F Go (Mar 1, 2014)

I've got a **** load of those breakers and I think I've got a panel or two as well. I will look out in the shop, on Monday, and let you know. These are really reliable panels and breakers. If you are interested send me a PM.


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## Drsparky14 (Oct 22, 2016)

Do a line side tap with shark bites and land a new small panel with its own main breaker. That or the better solution, convince the owner to have you swap out all of those junk panels as it will be safer and leave more ability to add circuits in the future. 


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## btharmy2 (Mar 11, 2017)

You can buy pushmatic breakers at Menards stores here in Indy. They also sell them on their website.

https://www.menards.com/main/search.html?search=pushmatic


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## btharmy2 (Mar 11, 2017)

They are the only bolt in, single phase, residential load centers I know of.


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## active1 (Dec 29, 2009)

I don't know of anything wrong with Pushmatics.
Like said it's the only former common resi bolt in breaker panel.
Some home inspectors have ITE/Bulldog/Pushmatic/Gould panels on their hit list.
IMO they are probably way better than whats made today.
Except they're old. When a panel is 50+ years old like most I seen, you just don't know what condition the breakers are in.
Just like commercial panels, over the years one person had to cross thread or leave one of the breaker screws loose.

The breakers were bigger. Only fit about half the breakers compared to the common panels today even using full size breakers. The 40 circuits I seen were in 2 panels. Maybe there was some tall commercial gear that had 40 in 1 panel. I don't remember.


If I had that job I would look for another spot on the wall to start over with the service. At some point they will need AF. You would need new panels for that. They made pushmatic GFI breakers. But just like the other pushmatic breakers, they are expensive.

Final reminder. The breakers are arranged so left is all "A" and right is all "B". So to run a network circuit you need a breaker on the left and one on the right. They made 2 poles but I don't know about handle ties. Another modern problem with the panel.


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## Signal1 (Feb 10, 2016)

They were good panels/breakers in their day, but for the reasons stated above, sell the upgrade.


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## JRaef (Mar 23, 2009)

One thing to keep in mind, if you do anything that now requires an AFCI, you will not be able to get that in Pushmatic. They had GFCIs, but were long gone before AFCIs came along.


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## WronGun (Oct 18, 2013)

The panels are thin which makes a quick swap out a little difficult . 

The one that definitely needs to be changed in order for current breakers is all the way on the left which has more space around It 

Starting on a new wall is a good idea considering these will all be changed out at some point, but may not be possible...

I service multiple commercial locations for this client and every single property has these same exact panels. 


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