# Old Cutler-Hammer load center problems..



## McSteve (Dec 8, 2009)

Just wondering if anyone has run into this before... My buddy has a Cutler-Hammer breaker panel, with breakers that say "Type CH" on their labels. A CH series breaker from Home Depot doesn't fit, due to a 1/4" wide metal bar running down the length of the panel over the bus bars.

The existing breakers all have sort of a curved cut-out in them over the bus clips, to go around this bar. Nothing at Home Depot, nor anything I've been able to find online, matches this shape.

I'll try to get some pictures and model numbers to post, but I'm hoping someone out there has run into this before and has a solution.

Thanks in advance,

-McSteve


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## brric (Mar 5, 2010)

What is the breaker listing inside the panel, not on the breakers themselves. Cutler-Hammer CH breakers are not compatible with Cutler-Hammer BR series breakers.


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## McSteve (Dec 8, 2009)

I'll have my buddy send me a good picture of the breaker panel label later today.

All I've got to go on right now is the old breaker we took out of the panel, which says it's Type CH. At Home Depot yesterday, we looked at type CH, premium CH, and BR breakers, none of them are a match.

The new CH type are completely identical as far as size, retaining hooks, and bus clips. They look like a perfect match, except they lack the curved cutout the existing breakers have.

It's definitely some kind of rejection feature, since the aforementioned metal rail down the length of the panel is secured at the top and bottom with one-way screws. The appropriate breakers must be horribly obsolete, since I haven't been able to find them online anywhere so far...


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## plummen (Jan 10, 2010)

simple fix,replace it with a sq-d homeline panel! :laughing:


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## McSteve (Dec 8, 2009)

My friend would love to just replace the panel, but that's just not in the (credit) cards right now. The way the existing circuits are laid out, it'd call for about 12 AFCI/GFCI combo breakers.

So far my searching has determined that Cutler Hammer used to manufacture their CH-Series breakers with a notch in the nose, and install a bar down the middle of the panel, so that 3rd-party CH-Series breakers wouldn't fit. The new CH-Series breakers don't have the notch. It looks like people who ask Eaton/Cutler Hammer directly are told to cut out the bar, so that modern CH-Series breakers will fit. It's just a thin metal strip right down the middle, about an inch or so above the bus bars.

This sounds reasonable to me, I'm just wondering if anyone else here has heard of this before. I dunno how I feel about field-modifying a panel without a bit more confirmation. Any electricians around that have seen this before?


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## plummen (Jan 10, 2010)

im a licensed electrical contractor,i wouldnt modify the factory buss of a panel ! no way id reccomend it either,way too much liability :no:


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## McSteve (Dec 8, 2009)

Well, it's not the bus, a picture would be worth a thousand words here but I don't have one yet. It's a completely separate metal strap screwed in on the top and bottom of the panel. I think I'll call Eaton myself and see what they say about it, rather than relying on the second hand info I've found in my searches. If they say to cut it, we'll cut it. Otherwise I suppose we'll have to disconnect one leg of the garage MWBC and tie the other into an existing unused 15A breaker, until a panel change can be done.

Nothing like getting 99% of the way through a project and hitting the wall :no:


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## McSteve (Dec 8, 2009)

Just for the record, I found another thread here that's talking about the same problem I'm having. Right here: http://www.diychatroom.com/f18/old-style-cutler-hammer-breakers-54318/


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## kbsparky (Sep 11, 2008)

You need a special tamper-proof tool/socket wrench to remove that retainer bar. Cutler-Hammer used to sell those, it resembles a round socket, with 2 flat edges on it. Once removed, throw it away, and any CH style breaker will fit the panel.

You might be able to remove it with a long-nose pliers. Although that would be a difficult task.


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## McSteve (Dec 8, 2009)

Hm, I might have a tool to back out one-way screws around here somewhere. Otherwise I think it's time for the Dremel or the tin snips.


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## andrew79 (Mar 25, 2010)

if they have princess auto stores in the U.S then head over there....they sell just about every type of tamperproof bit that's out there for about 50 cents apeice...no garuntees but it's worth a shot


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