Just bought a “new” breaker from Canada Breakers and its condition doesn’t exactly instill confidence. It looks dusty and used. The silver contacts are not shiny and have a matte white coating on them (I suspect oxidation?). Is this normal?
If that's a squareD breaker like I think it is, hard no. They come with blue tape over that side that pulls apart as a security device to show it's been opened, but the tape is entirely gone, so it's been cleaned off with a solvent and repackaged. That being said, breakers don't tend to fail unless some moron tampered with the internals.
Thank you, appreciate your response. Yes, this is a homeline CHOM115PCAFI. Would you say it’s worth trying to return/exchange it? I’d rather avoid the hassle, but I also wouldn’t want to attempt cleaning it and risking damaging it (not to mention the principle of buying new and getting a clearly used one)
Absolutely, I would not install this. Breakers are a safety device.
For those in the Electrical trade