Noticed a big shift in how new guys handle panel labeling over the last 5 years

I've been doing residential service calls for about 12 years now and around 2018 I started seeing a lot more apprentices skipping the sharpie and using those little handheld label makers instead. Back in the day you'd just write on the panel cover with a fine tip and call it done. Now these kids are printing out these tiny font labels that peel off after a few months in a hot garage. Had a callback last week where the homeowner couldn't find the main shutoff because the label fell off and got stuck behind the dead front. I get that it looks cleaner but the durability just isn't there yet. Any other old timers noticing the same thing with their crews?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_wyatt14d ago

I had a guy on my crew back in 2019 who went all in on the label maker thing. Spent two hours making labels for every single breaker in a 40 slot panel. Three months later, half of them were curling up. Like @kelly968 said, the thermal ones fade too. I ended up having him go back with a fine tip sharpie on the inside of the dead front, which is what I've been doing for 15 years now. It's not fancy but it stays readable and nobody's tripping over a missing label when they need to kill the main.

fiona_clark15d ago

Isn't part of the issue that we're just not showing them the right way to stick those labels on though? I've had pretty good luck with the Brady ones as long as you clean the panel first with alcohol.

kelly96816d ago

Read something the other day about how those thermal label makers actually fade in direct sunlight too, not just peel off. Some guy was saying he had to redo an entire panel because the labels turned yellow and unreadable after a summer. I don't get why they don't just teach the new guys to use a sharpie on the inside of the dead front or something, at least that stays put. Had a friend who does commercial work say they're using engraved plates now, which is fine for a big job but overkill for a residential panel. The whole thing just feels like fixing something that wasn't broken.