Working in cooperation with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Schneider Electric’s North American Operating Division has initiated a voluntary recall of its Square D brand of arc fault interruption (AFI) circuit breakers manufactured between March 1, 2004 and Sept. 23, 2004.
The products in question, the Square D QO and Homeline 15A and 20A AFI circuit breakers, may not provide arc detection capability due to the failure of a third-party supplied internal component in the electronic detection system. While the breakers will continue to function like a regular circuit breaker by providing short-circuit and overload protection, they may not detect a high-resistance, low-current arcing fault.
The company has sent instructions to its network of distributors, customers, and retailers on how to identify and return these products. After correcting the potential arc fault issue, the company has significantly increased production of these breakers and began shipping new ones on Oct. 5. For more information on the recall process, call (877) 202-9046.