Square D Co. QO120M100C Main Breaker Load Center Review

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(More customer reviews)Square D QO120M100C Main Breaker Load Center
Square D offers two styles of load centers & breakers: QO and Home Line. Some time ago, Square D purchased the company that made Home Line products, and now, Square D offers both styles of breakers under their name. QO product identifiers start with QO, and Home Line products start with HOM. The QO and HOM Load Center "box" and cover/door are virtually identical, but with different breakers and assemblies the breakers connect to. The two breaker types are NOT interchangeable. I.e., QO load centers only accept QO breakers; HOM load centers only accept HOM breakers.
Eaton does the same, with it's two different styles of breakers. Eaton bought out Cutler Hammer, and continues to sell Cutler Hammer breakers (products start with CH), and Eaton breakers (products start with BR).
GE, Siemens, and others, also make load centers.
In my opinion, Square D QO breakers and Cutler Hammer CH are roughly equal, quality wise, and may be the best load centers and breakers available. QO and CH breakers "lock" into their respective assemblies with certainty but are quickly removable, and they also snap between off & on with authority. Both brands of breakers stay put even without the cover/door attached, they don't wobble, giving a sense of quality, and their cable-tightening screw design is excellent. I'd give the nod to QO, however, because when a QO breaker trips due to an overload, an orange bar is visible on that breaker, making it easy to find on a crowded (with many breakers) panel. Both types of panels and breakers are widely available at the big box home centers and electrical supply houses.
HOM and BR breakers don't lock into their assemblies as firmly, and the BR in particular, wobbles so easily, it feels downright cheesy. BR breakers also have a wimpy snap between off and on. The only BR load center I ever purchased was returned after close examination of breaker quality.
This particular load center, the QO120M100C, comes with a 100 amp feeder breaker installed. The red and black [hot] feeds connect to it. When that breaker is off, power is cut to all breakers in the panel, making this panel somewhat safer to work on than those without that feature. (However, don't forget that those red & black wires will still be hot unless power was shut off from whatever feeds THIS box.)
The QO120M100C, like any decent load center, can be mounted with the door opening to the right or opening to the left (with main breaker on top or bottom), depending on the need. I.e., flip the whole thing 180 degrees for mounting, to reverse door hinging. The door on this load center opens all the way, unlike the door on that BR load center I tried, which inexplicitly wouldn't go past the half-way point.
Like all good load centers, the cover extends over the load center "box", so you can mount it flush on a finished 2x4 or thicker wall, or surface mount the load center on an unfinished wall.
One advantage Eaton/Cutler Hammer load centers have over Square D load centers, is the former allows isolation of the included grounding bar from the neutral bar by simply removing the included neutral bonding strap. That strap "bonds" together, the neutral and ground bars. Square D load centers require you to separately purchase an additional ground-bar and install it inside the load center (see customer images). This is an issue when a load center is used as a sub-panel to a main load center, since the [bare] ground wires from the various circuits connected inside that sub are not to be attached to the same bus-bar as are the [white] neutral wires. I.e., they must be attached to a separate ground-bar, machine-screwed to the inside of the load center, with the ground wire from the feed cable going to that ground bar. This is a National Electrical Code requirement intended to reduce the chance of you getting shocked.
You can't go wrong with Square D QO load centers. I have three of these in my own house, plus a larger Square D [main] load center.

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Type QO load center with main breaker installed. Single phase, 3 wire. Shielded copper bus bar, 3 ground bar locations. 10,000 A.I.C. Cover included. UL listed. model No. Q0120M100RB, Q012030M150RB, and Q012040M200RB Available Only At Waco; model Q0140M20

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