Electrical – How to add a two pole 40A breaker with corner tab(s) to Challenger panel

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I'm adding a 40A breaker to my panel and I'm confused with the corner tabs. I can buy left or right tab breakers that use only one bus bar. I'm guessing the two pole 40A breaker has two tabs, one in each corner/side to catch both bus bars, but I can't see both sides of the breaker in the picture (see link for the breaker below pls). It also looks like I need to move a 15A breaker from the right side to the left to make space but that would make the number of breakers uneven so I would need a plastic cover like the one installed on the right. I'm including pictures of the panel with and without cover, as well as, close up of top and bottom breakers sections. BTW the panel is Challenger and the wiring for the 40A breaker will be going to the bottom of the panel.

Thanks

Link to breaker: https://www.connecticut-electric.com/40-amp-two-pole-ubitba240

panel with cover
panel no cover
zoom in top
zoom in bottom

Best Answer

Stop faffing with the Challenger breakers, pull out the bottom right 15A breaker, and install a BR115 bottom left and a BR240 bottom right

Buying "new old stock" or newly made Challenger-style (UBI/Connecticut) breakers is an expensive and frustrating exercise, so why are you insisting on trying to go through it? Eaton BR breakers are cross-listed and cross-labeled as type C (or type A for BD/BQ tandem/quadplex breakers) and can be safely and legally used in Challenger panels, as per this letter from UL to C-H (and see my answer here for more details); never mind that a BR240 is $10 and available anywhere in the USA, while the 40A UBI Challenger-style breaker is $50, harder to find, and probably not as good as the Eaton breaker (UBI seems to have...issues with breaker QC and QA).

If you really insist that the bottom left slot stay free, you can get a single, quadplex, BQ2402115 breaker and use it to replace the 15A breaker bottom-right as well as provide the new 40A circuit and a 15A spare. This is costlier than using the two full-size breakers, but still more reliable than the UBI breaker, and no costlier than the UBI part for that matter.