Federal Pacific Panel Replaced with a 200-Amp Siemens in Washougal, WA

Some panel swaps are about capacity. This one in Washougal was about what was already on the wall. The old load center was a Federal Pacific Stab-Lok, and Newman Electric replaced it with a 200-amp Siemens, re-grounded and bonded the service, and added a whole-house surge protector while the panel was open.

Why Federal Pacific panels get replaced on sight

Federal Pacific Electric stopped making residential panels decades ago, and Stab-Lok breakers have a long documented history of failing to trip on an overload or a short. A breaker that does not trip is not a nuisance. It is the one safety device in the circuit deciding not to do its job.

You cannot fix that by swapping breakers, because the breaker and the bus are the problem together. The panel comes out.

The tell is usually right on the door:

• A “Federal Pacific Electric Company” label, often yellowed, sometimes under a later paint job
• Stab-Lok branding on the breaker faces inside
• A catalog number like the L124-40 on this one, printed on the label card

If any of those are in your panel, that is worth replacing a Federal Pacific panel rather than waiting for a reason. It is also worth understanding why a breaker trips, or fails to, because a panel that never seems to trip is not a panel that is working well.

Like and kind, done properly

This was scoped as a like-and-kind replacement, meaning the service size did not change. That does not make it a simple swap. Everything that was landed in the old panel has to come into the new one, identified and terminated, and two things that often get skipped had to be done properly:

1. Re-grounding and re-bonding. A panel from that era frequently has grounding and bonding that no longer meets current rules, and a replacement is the moment it gets corrected rather than carried forward.
2. The circuits get sorted, not just moved. The photo of the old panel shows what forty years of additions look like. The new one is landed so the next person can read it.

Surge protection while the panel is open

A Siemens BoltShield surge protective device went in at the same time, sitting right at the bus with its status indicators visible through the dead front.

The argument for doing it during a panel swap rather than later is purely practical: the panel is already open, already de-energized, and already being worked. Adding it as a separate visit means paying for the access twice. Our take on whether whole-house surge protection is worth it covers what it does and does not cover.

Got a Federal Pacific or Zinsco panel in a Washougal or Camas home? Call 360-828-7143 or get the Federal Pacific panel quoted and we will tell you what the replacement involves.