I have seen Homeline breaker panels that were probably 20+ years old with no issues. We (company I work for) have installed them for nearly 15 years with only one ever failing that I can remember, and that was because there was a "leak" where water ran into the basement through a crack where the porch concrete sat on the block wall at the house. The water literally ran right through the panel, causing the neutral bar to become severely corroded.
We have installed outdoor panels many times with no issues ever.
On the flip side, I have seen QO breakers fail because of the "stab clamp" (for lack of a better term) on the breaker itself becoming loose. In turn, that burns out the stab on the panel busbar, rendering it useless. It seems like the HOM "clamps" stay tight longer, possibly partly due to how the breaker is built. E.g. QO clamp "sticks out", while HOM clamp is "sandwiched" between the sides of the breaker. Also, the HOM breaker seems to me to actually have almost more surface contact than the QO....
Personally I have seen more issues with QO than I have with HOM and I have not worked with tons of QO. We use QO whenever we are working with 3 phase and/or 480V, or if a customer has existing QO panels that we are adding to.
Most electricians will think I'm off my rocker if they read my comments here, and see me vouching for HOM, but hey, I'm just sharing what I have seen.
At the end of the day these panels are both made by Square D and I feel they are both quality built panels!
