Zinsco panels
Breakers can weld themselves to the bus, so the switch reads off while the circuit is still live.
Installed roughly 1950 to 1970, with Sylvania-branded stock installed into the 1970s. Labelled Zinsco, GTE-Sylvania Zinsco, Sylvania Zinsco, Magnetrip.
What actually goes wrong
The connection between the breaker and the aluminium bus bar degrades and overheats. Two things follow. The breaker can fail to trip on a fault, and it can melt into the bus so that moving the handle to off no longer disconnects anything. The second is the one that injures people: someone switches off a circuit to work on it, tests nothing, and the conductor is still energised. Damage to the bus itself is why this is a panel problem rather than a breaker problem.
Is there a recall?
No CPSC recall was issued. Zinsco stopped manufacturing in the 1970s and the brand no longer exists, which is part of the practical problem: nothing is being recalled because there is nobody left to recall it, and new breakers are not manufactured.
How to tell if this is what you have
- The panel or breakers read "Zinsco", "GTE-Sylvania" or "Sylvania".
- Breaker handles are often coloured, blue, red, green or yellow, rather than uniform black.
- Breakers slide in flat against the bus rather than clipping over a stab.
- Visible browning, rust-coloured staining or a melted appearance on the bus bar behind the breakers, which is a reason to call someone rather than investigate further.
- Common in homes built or rewired between roughly 1950 and 1975.
All of that is readable from the panel door or the label inside it. Do not remove the cover. The service conductors behind it stay live with the main breaker off, and an electrician can confirm the brand in minutes.
What usually forces the decision
Same insurance and inspection exposure as FPE. The additional trigger is parts: no compatible new breakers are made, so if a circuit needs a new breaker, or you want to add one for an EV charger or a heat pump, there is often no lawful way to do it without replacing the panel. Refurbished breakers exist and inherit the same design.
What replacement costs
Generally $1,500 to $4,500 for a like-for-like service change, more if the service is being upsized at the same time. Since Zinsco panels are usually 60 A or 100 A and the owner is often replacing them precisely because they want to add load, the realistic case is a replacement and an upsize together, which is where the upper end of that range comes from.
There is no federal tax credit to offset this. The 25C credit covered up to $600 of a panelboard, but only alongside other qualifying work rather than for a standalone replacement, and it expired for property placed in service after 31 December 2025. State and utility programmes may still help, particularly for income-qualified households, and those vary by where you live.
Work out what size service you should replace it with →Sources
We are not electricians and nothing here is a substitute for an inspection by someone who is. What this page is for is making sure that when you have that conversation, you already know what the actual documented issue is and what it is not. How we source this.