Panel repair · Wichita & Sedgwick County · 67206
East Wichita filled out through the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, which is the peak installation window for the two panel makes with the worst safety records. Reading the label on the door changes the conversation here more often than anywhere else we work.
28 min
Typical arrival
67206
East Wichita zip
1950s-70s
Peak FPE and Zinsco era
No
Commission paid to our crew
Houses here look modern enough from the street that owners are genuinely surprised by what sits behind the cover. Of all our coverage, this is the area where opening a panel most often changes what the job turns out to be.
Federal Pacific and Zinsco both went into a great many houses in this build window, and a meaningful number are still in service. Neither was ever formally recalled in the United States, which is worth saying because the word gets used loosely. Neither was ever declared safe either.
Federal Pacific Stab-Lok breakers have a documented history of failing to trip at rates far above what UL allows. Zinsco breakers can weld to the aluminium bus so the handle reads off while the circuit stays live. Different failures, same conclusion: these are replacement items rather than repairable boards.
Open the outer door, which is safe, and read the label. Federal Pacific reads FPE, Federal Pacific or Federal Noark, with breakers marked Stab-Lok, often with a red or orange stripe. Zinsco reads Zinsco, Sylvania or GTE-Sylvania, usually with coloured breaker handles.
Do not remove the inner cover to look. The bus behind it stays live with the main breaker off, and on both of these makes the bus is exactly what tends to be deteriorated. Send us a photograph of the open door and the breaker layout and we will identify it without driving out.
Around twenty-eight minutes from the yard, with same-day slots kept back for boards that are hot, humming or giving off a smell. East Wichita is inside the city, so MABCD permits panel replacement and service work from 271 W 3rd St N, Suite 101 on (316) 660-1840, inspected against the 2023 National Electrical Code, in force since January 1, 2025.
East Wichita covers the residential streets east of Hillside toward Rock Road and the Eastborough boundary.
Reviews
★★★★★
Home inspector flagged double-tapped breakers on our sale. I expected a big number. It was an hour of work and a small invoice, and he re-labelled the whole panel schedule while he was in there without me asking. Sale went through clean.
Doug K.West Wichita
★★★★★
Rust inside the panel from a leak we never knew about. Rather than just cleaning up the terminations, Curtis traced where the water was getting in at the mast and fixed that first. Told me straight that repairing the panel without stopping the water would have bought me a few months.
Priscilla A.East Wichita
No, and it matters to get right. The CPSC investigated the breakers from 1980 and closed the case in 1983 citing cost, without declaring them safe, and clarified in 2011 that the closure was not a clean bill of health. Independent testing has repeatedly found fail-to-trip rates far above what UL allows. No recall is not the same as no problem.
A Zinsco that has never given trouble has never been asked to trip. That is the difficulty: these boards behave normally right up to the moment a fault needs interrupting, which is when a breaker welded to the bus cannot help. It is a reason to plan a replacement rather than a reason to panic.
Yes, and you should. The outer door is safe to open and carries the label. Never remove the inner cover, on any make, because the bus behind it stays live with the main off. Send us a photograph of the open door and the breaker layout and we can identify it before anybody drives out.
Split-level construction put boards wherever the framing allowed, and stairwell landings were common. Existing installations are generally permitted to stay. When the board is replaced, working clearance in front of it has to comply, which sometimes means relocating. We measure it at the assessment so it is in the quote.
Give us the street and the name on the panel door. You will get the next slot running in this area, and a same-day one if the board is hot, humming or giving off any smell.