Thread: ITE (Gould) Pushmatic ?

Ok, ran across a weird hybrid panel.

It was a ITE Gould Pushmatic. Had the BullDog Pushmatic type branch breakers, but a Siemans type Main.

I wrote it up as a Bulldog as Obsolete and to have it evaluated by Sparky, but wanted to find out a bit more about this hybrid panel.

Can anyone tell me more about this Panel for the future?

PS...it was installed in the mid 1970's according the the county inspection sticker.

Ran across a Gould panel that had a weak GFCI breaker. Only one that could be found to replace it was an Emerson.

ITE (Gould) Pushmatic provides best protection for two volt circuits within the space of one standard breaker. Pushmatic and Bulldogs are quite decent breaker. There are no any problem create with this breaker, because they are literally bolt and easy to spabs going for getting loose. They have also very best for "off/on" indication.





Thanks..
Epackpolymers.com

I would like to see the panel with the cover off before making any comments. How was the main breaker mounted to the bus? I don't freak out just because there is a mixture of brands in a panel, even though the manufacturer says not to.

As a rule of thumb, PushMatic panels were solid and reliable except for the opportunity to tap directly onto the bus bar where the breakers are mounted. Otherwise, they are a reliable panel with no bad history like Federal Pacific or Zincso. You would have a very hard time finding an electrician that would call it obsolete or a problem as long as it hadn't been monkeyed with by an adventurous homeowner adding extra circuits after original installation. Aftermarket breakers are still available for replacement or addition (if there were any free breaker slots), though they tend to cost more. Was there an exterior service panel at the meter? Again, would like to see pictures inside the panel.

These are good breakers, however they have no instantaneous magnetic trip so carnage from a bolted fault is much larger. Conductor thermal protection should still be fine though. Just a heads up.


Finding parts and breakers for these panels is very difficult because they have long been discontinued.

But other than age they are good panels.

Originally Posted by Bob Sisson

Ok, ran across a weird hybrid panel.

It was a ITE Gould Pushmatic. Had the BullDog Pushmatic type branch breakers, but a Siemans type Main.

I wrote it up as a Bulldog as Obsolete and to have it evaluated by Sparky, but wanted to find out a bit more about this hybrid panel.

Can anyone tell me more about this Panel for the future?

PS...it was installed in the mid 1970's according the the county inspection sticker.

The 100A ITE Pushmatic panels used a Pushmatic main, the larger ones used a main like shown in the photo, ITE was the 1st to use a 4 pole wide breaker like that (EQ frame breaker), & Gould Inc. bought ITE Imperial Corp. in 1976 & sold them about 1984, it's just a obsolete panel & was the only residential bolt on load center. BTW, Gould/ITE was pushing the Pushmatics during that time based on the adverts in trade mags then.