I have recently moved into a home with an old fuse box. The house is 44 years old and the manufacturer of the box is General Switch. I need to add a 20 AMP breaker for a new sump pump but I cannot tell what circuit breakers are compatible with General Switch. None of the existing breakers show a manufacturer name. Any ideas?

 

Welcome to the forums! I am certain you meant circuit breaker box, rather than "fuse box". Not sure which breakers you have, but if you post a picture of the panel and it's guts, we can probably steer you to the right choice. You can post the pictures on a site such as photobucket.com and copy/paste the HTML code to your reply post.
From the information I located at http://www.pacificcoastbreaker.com/catalog/1673, it appears Siemens, or General Electric may fit, but check to be sure.

 

Looking at Chandler's link it looks like Cuttler Hammer BR breakers will fit your panel. If it does not look right, I oddly think I may have a General Switch breaker in my truck. (I kept be because I never saw one before.) Let me know and I can take a picture of it an see if it matches.

 

Thanks. I will take pictures this afternoon and post them. I appreciate the help.

 

I've never seen General Switch brand breakers either. Perhaps it's a regional brand? Any idea if it was made by a different company?

 

Info from Mike Holt forum. General brand- breaker - Mike Holt's Forum

 

Ahhh Ray..thats cheating! lol

I saw that earlier...but I didn't see any real solid info or links..so I didn't mention it. Guess the company has been gone so long, I couldn't find much more than a mention at a few places.

 

Got back and checked the truck. Lo and behold they are General Switch breakers. I got two 20 amp. Here's some pictures:




If you want bigger picts go here: General Switch breakers pictures by TolynIronhand - Photobucket

The connecting parts look similar to Siemens, Square D Homeline, GE, or Cutler hammer BR's. Ray's post pretty much confirms that the BR's is a direct replacement. However if you are interested in these send me a PM.

 

Too late...wth is up with those chickens feet!?

Believe it or not I had pet chickens as a kid.....until they became possum bait or soup.

 

LOL! That is why I changed it to a new album. I'm not really sure why their feet were like that. I did a bunch of research and it tures out they had Merricks's disease but I don't know if that had anything to do with the feet. They have been "removed" from the flock so no worries.

 

RIR's? We have Buff Orpingtons and Auraconas. Blue and pink eggs, weird.

 

Not meaning to keep hijacking this thread but...

Yup. I got 4 Rhode Island Red's, 3 Red Star, 1 Black Star, 1 Americana, 1 I'm not sure but I thing is a Red Star but it is buff/red colored. I had to "remove" my only Barred Rock and one RIR.

 

I recognize this is an older thread, but it was helpful and I wanted to add my 2cents worth to it. I offer the switch compatibility page from my GS panel (looks like the GE THQL's are acceptable as well as being readily available)

 

As stated by others, we have found Cutler Hammer BR's work best in these. They were actually used towards their end and relabled anyway....Not to be a wet blanket but those used Zinsco type mains, as general never made their own. these are discontinued and hard to find. last company that had the Zinsco style main was T&B and those were sold off when T&B got out of the business. To buy a NOS breaker the cost is well over 250 dollars nowadays....and that is for the plug in style main. A bolt in type is almost non existant. Might look down the road at a total replacement.....when you can.

 

I'd agree that the Cutler-Hammer BR breaker is the one to use and I'd also agree with Jim that you should be looking at a total replacement in the not too distant future.