Can I safely remove the handle tie from a 2-pole breaker?

Question

The 15 amp thin GE series 2 pole breaker comes with a handle tie.

Can I remove this so that they can trip independently rather than shutting down 2 independent circuits?

Answer 1

TL;DR Get 2 x THQP115 instead of 1 x THQP215

Half-size breakers are usually purchased in pairs. After all, you are usually getting them to put more stuff in your panel, and no one can eat use just one. And you can't leave a blank space, even a half space.

However, they don't have to come in pairs. With some brands/types you may not have a choice. But there are some oddball situations. For example, what if you want to replace 2 full size breakers with 4 half size breakers? When you do that, you could have a bunch of different possibilities, including:

• Four individual circuits
• Two individual circuits plus one 240V or 240V/120V circuit (water heater, MWBC, clothes dryer, etc.)
• Two 240V or 240V/120V circuits

In addition, a pair of breakers can be a "pair" in two different ways:

• Handle tie - makes sure that if you turn off one circuit then you also turn off the other circuit (or the other "half" of the one circuit). Also known as common shutoff
• Common trip - makes sure that if one breaker trips that the other breaker in the pair also trips.

Common shutoff does not require common trip. But there is very little downside in most circumstances. But if you do have common trip then you definitely also want common shutoff. Otherwise you could have a trip, manually reset one of the breakers in the pair and have a situation where you are working on fixing a problem and have other wires in the same box live. Not good.

So if you manufacture a breaker pair for use with an 240V/120V 15A or 20A MWBC or for a 30A 240V circuit or whatever, then you generally want to provide common trip (because some of those situations require it) and common shutoff (because all of those situations require it). You could just build a double-breaker that has a big handle going across. But that would hide the fact that it is truly two breakers in one, which is important to know. So instead you make it with two half-size breaker handles, which you already have a mold for from making single half-size breakers - the THQP115, and factory install a handle tie. That double half-size breaker is the THQP215.

Now where it gets really interesting is how you design and sell these things. Going back to the above examples:

• Four individual circuits
• Two individual circuits plus one 240V or 240V/120V circuit (water heater, MWBC, clothes dryer, etc.)
• Two 240V or 240V/120V circuits

and the key information that any 240V or 240V/120V circuit must be either the "inner" or "outer" pair, not "top" or "bottom" pair, you end up with the following possibilities.

You can do this basically with:

• Doubles and quads - Example: Eaton BR

  • Four individual circuits - use two doubles, each of which does not need to have common trip/common shutoff
  • Two individual circuits plus one 240V or 240V/120V circuit - use a quad that has everything ready to go with common trip/common shutoff on the inner pair
  • Two 240V or 240V/120V circuits - use a quad that has everything ready to go with common trip/common shutoff on the inner pair and also on the outer pair

or

• Singles and doubles - Example: GE

  • Four individual circuits - use four individual breaker - like the THQP115
  • Two individual circuits plus one 240V or 240V/120V circuit - two individual breakers like the THQP115 on the outside and a common trip/common shutoff on the inner pair, like the THQP215
  • Two 240V or 240V/120V circuits - use a quad that has everything ready to go with common trip/common shutoff on the inner pair and also on the outer pair. But in reality you may find, and I believe this is the case with GE, that you can't get common shutoff for an "outer pair". That is, the outer breakers are always singles. However, you can make a string of breakers - e.g., single, double, double, single - 3 spaces, 6 half-spaces, 2 common shutoff/common trip pairs, 2 separate independent single breakers.