That service call in Oak Creek this morning made me think twice about panel labeling

I pulled an old GE panel apart today to find a breaker for a dead outlet. The legend was written in pencil, half of it was wrong, and the homeowner said 'nobody ever labels these right anyway.' Took me 45 extra minutes to trace everything back. Just a reminder that spending 10 extra minutes labeling a panel right the first time saves everyone headaches later. Anyone else deal with panels so bad you just walk away?

2 comments

2 Comments

eric_carr29d ago

...and people wonder why us sparkies drink on the job, am I right? I swear half the panels I open look like a kindergartner got loose with a crayon and a bad attitude. Pencil? That's luxury, I've seen ones labeled with a dry erase marker that smudged into nonsense in a week. The other day I opened a panel and the "label" was literally a sticky note that said "stuff here" and a little smiley face. Honestly, at that point you just gotta laugh and start pulling breakers one by one like it's a game of electrical roulette.

-1

the_tara29d ago

I once opened a panel in a 1970s apartment building and the only label was a faded piece of masking tape that said "lights" with a question mark after it. There were 20 breakers in that box and about 8 of them had tape on them, but every single piece was so old and crusty you couldn't read a thing. Ended up spending two hours flipping breakers with the owner calling up the stairs every time something turned off. Made me miss the days when they'd at least use a sharpie.