Obsolete Crabtree Polestar Breakers

In the late 1980's Crabtree were looking to replace the outdated (but still widely used) C50 range. What they came up with was the Polestar range and it was a great success in commercial and industrial applications.

The Polestar range of breakers was unique because they had a higher than usual fault rating of 16kA where standard breakers at the time were 6kA and 9kA. What this meant was that Polestar could be used in areas where a high kA was required without having to use Moulded Case Breakers (MCCB's) or HRC fuse carriers. Crabtree Polestar breakers are also unique in that they are much wider (25mm) than a standard mcb (18mm). This extra width was needed for the bigger arc splitter to allow for a higher kA rating.

Initially the range was made to BS3871 standards so Types 2 & 3 were available from 6A up to 63A in single and triple pole. RCBO's were also available but they were initially referred to as MCB/RCD units as the term RCBO was not really established as yet.

After 1994 the British Standard of BS60898 came into effect and the range was changed to Types B, C & D and now included double pole mcb's as well. RCBO's were now being widely used and theses were available in Types B & C although it's rare to see Type B in use as most installations were commercial.

Crabtree manufactured the range until around the early 2000's then it was phased out. They did hold quite a bit of stock but this was largely held for TFL (Transport for London) as part of an agreement to hold stocks for spares and ongoing developments etc.

A new range of Polestar was launched in 2012 and called Polestar Compact. Although the new range was 16kA rated due to advances in technology it was significantly slimmer and is not interchangeable with the older style.

Crabtree Polestar is still widely used today and we have plenty of stock available from our website.