It carries a continuous current of 250 A at 40 °C, with a thermal derating curve that drops to 200 A at 70 °C — so if your panel ambient runs hot, you need to account for that reduced capacity, not the nameplate 250 A. Breaking capacity is the headline: 187 kA at 240 V, 121 kA at 415 V and 440 V, 75.6 kA at 500 V, and 4.5 kA at 690 V. That 187 kA at 240 V is high enough for most secondary distribution applications with large fault-current potential; the steep drop at 690 V means this breaker is not your first choice for 690 V motor circuits unless you've confirmed the available fault current stays under 4.5 kA.
Trip range and adjustability
The thermal-magnetic trip adjusts from 375 A to 2 500 A full-scale, with an initial setting of 50 A. No undervoltage release or voltage-trigger function is fitted on this variant. If your circuit requires undervoltage protection, you'll need a different order code within the 3VA family that includes that auxiliary release.
The breaker ships with 2 auxiliary switches (HQ type) pre-installed. No auxiliary release is included; if you need shunt trip or undervoltage, order the release separately and snap it into the accessory slot on the left side of the mechanism.
Maximum power loss is 48 W at rated current.
The 70 °C operating ceiling matches the thermal derating endpoint — the breaker can run at that temperature, but at a derated 200 A. No IP rating is listed in the spec table; in a wet-well or washdown environment, it would need a separate enclosure rated for the ingress level. The basic switch variant order code is 3VA2225-5JQ32-0AA0 — that's the core switching mechanism without the auxiliary switches. If you already have that base unit and need to add the HQ auxiliaries, the 0AC0 version is the drop-in replacement with them factory-installed.