Are older Federal Electric breakers a fire hazard?

Question

I live in an apartment with a very old circuit breaker box that looks like this:

The panel's description says that it's from the Federal Electric Products Company, Catalog No. 116. According to this answer here, Federal Electric was purchased by Federal Pacific Electric. FPE then went on to make Stab-Lok breakers, all of which should be replaced.

My box looks similar to a panel that's described as being an "early model electrical panel [that] used the "Stab-Lok® " "E" bus and "F" bus designs." However, there are some differences between my panel and this early Stab-Lok panel.

My panel doesn't say that it's a Stab-Lok breaker specifically, and it doesn't look like any confirmed Stab-Lok breakers that I can find online. Does this mean that the breaker doesn't need to be replaced, or should I pressure my landlord into replacing it?

Answer 1

I have never been a fan of stab lock but the earlier versions were safer than the later versions.

The problem was the connection point the earlier breakers did not have the higher failure rate as the later versions and some versions were apparently ok as the Canadians did not have the failure rate as the US From what I have read.

Remember the first versions were fully tested by UL the later modifications that federal pacific made they had falsified the testing and the breakers failing exposed the weaker contact points (weaker and smaller than other brands).

So generally the older versions were safer than the later ones and it may come down to the location. I was not aware of a difference in manufacturing but several sources have said that Canadians did not have the problems to the level the US did.