Eaton Corporation CH22B100CP Main Breaker Load Center

You looking to find the "Eaton Corporation CH22B100CP Main Breaker Load Center" Good news! You can purchase Eaton Corporation CH22B100CP Main Breaker Load Center with secure price and compare to view update price on this product. And deals on this product is available only for limited time.

Price: $103.19    

Product Feature

• Main Breaker Load Center
• main breaker load center single phase circuit panel box

Product Description

Single phase, 3 wire; factory installed main breaker and combination surface flush outdoor cover included. Straight in wiring, top, or bottom. Pre attached neutral bonding strap. Solid copper bus and branch fingers. 120 240V AC; 100A load centers rated 10,000 AIC. 150A and 200A load centers rated 25,000 AIC. UL listed.

Eaton Corporation CH22B100CP Main Breaker Load Center Review

This review was first posted in July 2010, not the date shown above.

Cutler Hammer CH22B100CP Main Breaker Load Center

This load center is suitable for service entrance or sub-panel applications.

Eaton bought out Cutler Hammer years ago and continues to sell Cutler Hammer load centers and breakers (products start with CH), and Eaton products (start with BR). CH and BR load center "boxes" and covers/doors are virtually identical, but with different breakers and assemblies the breakers connect to. The two breaker types are NOT interchangeable. I.e., CH load centers only accept CH breakers and BR load centers only accept BR breakers.

Square D is similar, offering two styles of load centers & breakers: QO and Home Line. Some time ago, Square D purchased the company that made Home Line products, and now, Square D offers both styles of breakers under their name. QO product identifiers start with QO, and Home Line products start with HOM. QO load centers only accept QO breakers; HOM load centers only accept HOM breakers.

GE, Siemens, and others, also make load centers.

In my opinion, Cutler Hammer CH and Square D QO breakers are roughly equal, quality wise, and may be the best load centers and breakers available. CH and QO breakers "lock" into their respective assemblies with certainty but are quickly removable, and they also snap between off & on with authority. Both brands of breakers stay put even without the cover/door attached -- they don't wobble, giving a sense of quality, and their cable-tightening screw design is excellent.

HOM and BR breakers don't lock into their assemblies as firmly, and the BR in particular, wobbles so easily, it feels downright cheesy. BR breakers also have a wimpy snap between off and on. The only BR load center I ever purchased was returned after examination of the breakers.

The CH22B100CP load center uses an [included] 100 amp feeder breaker. The red and black [hot] feeds connect to that breaker. If the total draw of all the circuits in the load center exceeds 100 amps, the feeder breaker trips, cutting power to all breakers in the panel. If the feeder breaker is manually turned off, power to all breakers is also cut. This makes Main Breaker Load Centers somewhat safer to work on than Main Lug Load Centers, which do NOT include (or allow) a feeder breaker. However, even if the feeder breaker is off, the red & black wires will still be hot unless power was shut off from whatever feeds THIS box.

If this product is used as a sub-panel, the circuit breaker on the service entrance main panel that feeds this panel must be sized according to the cable size used. E.g., in our county, a standard copper 6/3 (with ground) cable uses a 50 amp 240 volt breaker, while 4 gage wire would have a 60 amp breaker. The largest cable that will fit in the entrance clamp slot is 1/0 gage.

The CH22B100CP, like any decent load center, can be mounted with the door opening to the right or opening to the left (with main breaker on top or bottom), depending on the need. I.e., flip the whole thing 180 degrees for mounting, to reverse door hinging. In fact, the load center could be mounted sideways, as I've seen done in Canada. The door on this load center opens all the way, unlike the door on that BR load center I tried, which inexplicitly wouldn't go past the half-way point.

Like all good load centers, the cover extends over the load center "box"; for mounting flush on a finished 2x4 or thicker wall, or surface mount the load center on an unfinished wall or for example, on a piece of 3/4" plywood attached to a wall.

An advantage Cutler Hammer load centers have over Square D load centers, is the former allows isolation of the included grounding bar from the neutral bar by simply removing the included neutral bonding strap. Takes about 30 seconds. That strap "bonds" together, the neutral and ground bars. Square D load centers require you to separately purchase an additional ground-bar and install it inside the load center. This is an issue when a load center is used as a sub-panel to a service entrance main load center, since the [bare] ground wires from the various circuits connected inside a sub-panel may not be attached to the same bus-bar as the [white] neutral wires. I.e., they must be attached to a separate ground-bar, machine-screwed to the inside of the load center, with the ground wire from the feed cable going to that ground bar. This is a National Electrical Code requirement intended to reduce the chance of you getting shocked.

An advantage of the Square D QO is when a breaker trips due to an overload, an orange bar is visible on that breaker, making it easier to find on a crowded (with many breakers) panel.

Both types of panels and breakers are widely available at the big box home centers and electrical supply houses. Cutler Hammer makes other versions of this sub-panel (see last letters of the model number), and you'd be hard pressed to find differences. However, the model numbers all start with CH22B100.... (Cutler Hammer, 22 circuit slots, Break load center, 100 amp bus bar.)

You can't go wrong with CH load centers. A few years ago, I installed two of these in a house that was being renovated, and product quality and performance was superb.

Most of the consumer Reviews tell that the "Eaton Corporation CH22B100CP Main Breaker Load Center" are high quality item. You can read each testimony from consumers to find out cons and pros from Eaton Corporation CH22B100CP Main Breaker Load Center ...