How Much Does Circuit Breaker Repair Cost?

Most "circuit breaker repair cost" pages are written for a domestic consumer unit. This one isn't. It is about the 800 to 6300 A air circuit breakers and the large moulded-case breakers in industrial and commercial switchboards, where the cost of getting it wrong is a shutdown, and where the alternative to repair is a four- or five-figure replacement with a lead time.

The short version

Prices exclude VAT. They are the figures we work to; they are not a range designed to look cheap.

What actually sets the price

Frame size. A 1250 A Masterpact NT and a 4000 A NW have the same faults but not the same parts prices. Contact sets and coils scale with frame.

What the strip-down finds. The reported fault — "won't close" — might be a £90 coil or a mechanism that needs a full rebuild. Nobody can quote that from a phone call, which is why we quote after inspection and why any firm that quotes a fixed repair price before seeing the breaker is guessing.

Parts availability. A current-range Schneider or ABB part is a catalogue item. A part for an obsolete Masterpact M, first-generation Emax or Moeller IZM comes from donor stock or re-machining, which costs more per part but is still a fraction of the alternative — because the alternative is a new breaker that doesn't fit the cell.

Trip unit. If the electronics are dead, a modern trip unit engineered into the frame is the single largest line on the quote. It is also the line that turns a condemned breaker into a serviceable one for another twenty years.

Where the work happens. Workshop repair is cheaper than on-site because the bench, the test set and the parts are there. On-site attendance is priced for the visit; it earns its keep when the breaker is fixed-pattern or the site can't release it.

Repair versus a new breaker

A new 2000 A ACB from a major manufacturer is a four-figure item before the trip unit options, and on a lead time of weeks. If the existing breaker is obsolete, the new one won't fit the cradle, so the real cost includes an adapter or a new cradle, busbar work, secondary wiring changes and a commissioning visit — and, on a multi-breaker board, the question of whether to do the whole board for consistency. That is how a failed breaker becomes a board-replacement project.

A repair, even a full overhaul with a retrofitted trip unit, goes back into the same cell with the same wiring. Across a six-breaker board on an obsolete range, the difference is not a percentage; it is the difference between a maintenance invoice and a capital project. When to repair and when to replace sets out how we call it.

When we tell you not to repair

Safety-critical damage — a cracked frame, arc damage to the insulating structure, a breaker that has cleared a fault beyond its rating. Parts that can't be sourced or made economically. Small MCCBs where a new unit costs less than the labour. In each case we say so at the diagnosis stage and, where it helps, our sister company can supply a tested replacement from stock. The diagnosis fee is the only cost.

What's included in our price

• Full strip-down with photographs and a written findings report
• The parts named on the quote, with their source stated — OEM, donor stock or re-manufactured
• Secondary injection test across every protection element, contact resistance per pole, insulation resistance and timing, on a certificate against the serial number
• 12-month warranty on the work

Send the nameplate and a description of the fault to info@circuitbreakerrepair.co.uk or use the enquiry form, and you'll have a diagnosis quote the same working day.