Old breaker panel nearly took my hand off yesterday

Was swapping out a 20 amp single pole in a 1980s Pushmatic panel. The bus bar arcs when I pull the old one, damn near welded my screwdriver to it. Anyone else run into these death traps or is it just me?

2 comments

2 Comments

charles_green15d agoMost Upvoted

Man, I gotta call you out on this one. I've swapped breakers in Pushmatic panels a bunch of times and never had a problem that wasn't my own fault for not flipping the main off first. You probably just weren't being careful enough or it was a fluke thing with a bad bus bar connection that made it arc worse than usual. I mean yeah, it's an old panel so it's got some quirks, but calling it a "death trap" feels like overkill when half the houses in my neighborhood still run on these things just fine.

terryj4515d ago

My dad had a Pushmatic panel in his basement that threw sparks like a 4th of July sparkler.