do you ever replace the electrical panel?

[Khanh Nguyen]

i've acquired a couple of rental properties now and during every inspection they always suggest replacing the electrical panel, because it's old.    They of course fine, but how often do you guys replace them?  just for the sake of replacing them.

[Travis McCormack]

@Khanh Nguyen

I generally replace every electrical panel that uses the old school screw in fuses. The insurance companies don’t like them and I’ve seen people canceled when the insurance company finds out it’s screw in fuses.

I would replace an electrical panel with breakers if they said it was overloaded, example you have a 125 amp panel and you’re overusing the panel so you should upgrade to a 200 amp panel

I would also replace older electrical panels with breakers if they have a bad history. We got a place with year old old old Federal electrical panels with breakers one time and the panels were known to not trip the breakers when the load was too high sometimes so they were essentially a fire hazard so we changed every one of them out.

Those are the main instances I change a panel, if it’s a fuse panel, if it’s overloaded (fire hazard) and needs to be upgraded, or if it’s a panel that has a history of problems and should be upgraded for the safety of your tenants. I wouldn’t just do an upgrade on an electrical panel randomly