My GE box is full and I got a quote for a new 200AMP service box, new weather head and line down the house (about 70 feet),a 40 circuit 200 amp panel, ground and bonding all would be new, etc. Price comes in close to a $1000, the company uses Cutler Hammer boxes, but can get me a GE box for an additional $100, $200 more for SquareD, anyone have any experience on the differences or benefits. Sorry I don't have exact model numbers for comparison. I am just worried if I go with the cheaper I might have to hunt for breakers and not find them locally at Ace or HomeDepot or Lowe's easily.

The electrical guy was stating specifics of the cutler hammer box as having all copper main bus, etc. So it sounded good, but I am at a loss to really know what is good or better. I have a GE and I know the name and know I can get those and the local hardware stores as mentioned.

Any feed back would be greatly appreciated.

If you expect to be doing minor jobs in the future, say a new A/C requiring a different breaker or a new outlet somewhere, you may want to think about the GE. On the other hand, if you will call in a professional, chances are the local supply houses stock a good selection of the CH and he will have no problem finding the breaker you need.

Cutler Hammer is a fine old name in electrical switching equipment. I do not have the experience to choose one over the other.

The building supply houses often carry different brands than the hardwares and home centers.

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Originally Posted by lionfoxx

My GE box is full and I got a quote for a new 200AMP service box, new weather head and line down the house (about 70 feet),a 40 circuit 200 amp panel, ground and bonding all would be new, etc. Price comes in close to a $1000, the company uses Cutler Hammer boxes, but can get me a GE box for an additional $100, $200 more for SquareD, anyone have any experience on the differences or benefits. Sorry I dont have exact model numbers for comparison. I am just worried if I go with the cheaper I might have to hunt for breakers and not find them locally at Ace or HomeDepot or Lowes easily.

The electrical guy was stating specifics of the cutler hammer box as having all copper main bus, etc. So it sounded good, but I am at a loss to really know what is good or better. I have a GE and I know the name and know I can get those and the local hardware stores as mentioned.

Any feed back would be greatly appreciated.

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... local stores as you indicated. Just purchased a Homeline from Home Depot (SquareD) and can vouch for them. You are on the right track by buying into a panel that you can find parts for. I expect a copper bus is a plus but unless I am mistaken, all are copper with some plating (silver?) as what else would they be? I might imagine aluminum is still out there but doubt it due to the issues with marrying copper and aluminum together. G.E. is a very good name and one to stick with as long as you know where to find breakers. Spend the extra $$ and no need to worry.

lionfoxx brings up a good point that I was wondering about. Taking it from the postings, you should not mix brand name breakers? If they have GE in there already, I should go with GE? I have not checked my panel to see what breakers are in there yet. The other things I noticed is the size of the breaker. Any reason why say a single pole might come in different widths?

There may be a couple of reasons for the different sizes. Newer designs often do the same job with less material. There is also the half size breaker trick. If the box is full, but you need a few more circuits, remove one large breaker and replace it with 2 smaller ones. This avoids the expense of a new box or subpanel. Of course, you are still limited to 100 amps in a 100 amp box. My neighbor put in a 200 amp box, and was still short power. Unfortunately the electricity company refused to upgrade his incoming service.

Some brands and models of boxes and breakers mix and match. Not all breakers will fit in any box the maker builds. Years ago, I had trouble finding half size breakers to fit my GE box. If a breaker fits mechanically, it should be OK to use it regardless of the brand.

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Originally Posted by labman

There may be a couple of reasons for the different sizes. Newer designs often do the same job with less material. There is also the half size breaker trick. If the box is full, but you need a few more circuits, remove one large breaker and replace it with 2 smaller ones. This avoids the expense of of a new box or subpanel. Of course, you are still limited to 100 amps in a 100 amp box. My neighbor put in a 200 amp box, and was still short power. Unfortunately the electricity company refused to upgrade his incoming service.

Some brands and models of boxes and breakers mix and match. Not all breakers will fit in any box the maker builds. Years ago, I had trouble finding half size breakers to fit my GE box. If a breaker fits mechanically, it should be OK to use it regardless of the brand.

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... breaker mounting method. Liked the Homeline panel but couldn't find any breakers that 'hooked' in the way their breakers did except in the Homeline brand. Go figure!

From my original post, I would be getting a whole new box, and all new breakers, if I went with GE and could use some of my previous ones down the road I would possibly use those, but everything would be new from the start and matching.

If I get the Cutler Hammer it would be a cutler hammer box, and all cutler hammer breakers.

I did find Cutler Hammer at Lowe's, and Its odd all the 200 AMP boxes, Siemens, SquareD(homeline) and GE are about $20 less than the Cutler Hammer box, even online the Cutler Hammer is a higher priced box, not sure if this is due to better quality or not as much demand thus a higher price.

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Originally Posted by lionfoxx

From my original post, I would be getting a whole new box, and all new breakers, if I went with GE and could use some of my previous ones down the road I would possibly use those, but everything would be new from the start and matching.

If I get the Cutler Hammer it would be a cutler hammer box, and all cutler hammer breakers.

I did find Cutler Hammer at Lowes, and Its odd all the 200 AMP boxes, Siemens, SquareD(homeline) and GE are about $20 less than the Cutler Hammer box, even online the Cutler Hammer is a higher priced box, not sure if this is due to better quality or not as much demand thus a higher price.

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... may get a discount from Cutler Hammer.

The guys brought the Cutler hammer, but it wasn't the copper bus model, they messed up at the warehouse, and low and behold could not get the cutler hammer box I was suppose to have, but got me a siemens box which looks identical to copper bus I was suppose to get,
There was no up charge for this box.

I did some price comparison, and this is a more expensive box, if its better or worse, I don't know, I know I can get breakers locally and it sold for more money when I shopped around, so I am happy with it.

Before you spend the money make sure that
A: the electric company will increase your drop to a 200 or you will have spent for naught.
B: half or full size breakers will only allow the total amps alloted or delivered by the electric drop.
C: you should be able to check on the prices of breakers by getting from the person putting in the new box, the name and model number. BE AWARE that as someone said about a box they got that was a more expensive box, the older or out of business manufacturers equipment will have harder to find breakers and they will definitely be more expensive.
ESPECIALLY THE MAIN BREAKER which could run into the low hundreds figure later, if you can find it.
IF NOT FOUND YOU HAVE TO REPLACE THE WHOLE BOX AGAIN.