PID TO HEATING ELEMENT

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The refractory material in the heating element can absorb moisture over time in different circumstances. This will put it in a low mega-ohm state (5 Mohms or less) that can and will cause nuisance GFCI breaker trips. You can test this by running the heating element for a period of time and measuring the insulation value again. It should now be 20 Mohms or higher. This should get rid of the nuisance GFCI trips. If after this test, you still have GFCI trips, plug unit into another GFCI outlet and if that trips, I would conclude that the insulation of your heating element has degraded to an unsafe point and should be replaced. If it does not trip, I would say you have a stressed GFCI outlet and should replace it.


JC :emoji_cat:
 
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The repair shop did test the ohms and he said it was 30. At least from your explanation I know what he was talking about. And I can replace the GFI but it works for everything else I use it with. Its my only one. I have no problem buying a new element but don’t want to waste money if the same problem occurs. Thank much for sticking through this and helping me.
 
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Sounds like he measured the resistance of the heating element itself. Did he measure from the element to the case?
 
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No I took the elements to his shop.

I meant from one of the power terminals to the outside of the heater element.

The element itself will be low ohms.

The element to ground should be in the mega ohm range....

As others have posted, safety first. I think you can answer your question about the usefulness of that element with the two performance tests I outlined.

Wishing you success!
 
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I'll bet they didn't check for leakage with a "megger" (high voltage megohmmeter). They probably just ohmed the elements to see if they were "open".

What I'm concerned about is that your GFCI tripped when you had the mounting bracket tied to ground.

Unless you had something connected wrong when you did that test, the GFCI saw leakage current within the element.

When you later tried that same element mounted in the smoker, did you have its mounting bracket electrically connected to the frame of the smoker?

If so, was the smoker grounded, too?

Because if the heating element's bracket was electrically connected to the smoker chassis, and the smoker chassis was connected to ground, then the same thing should have happened (the GFCI should have tripped).

So my concern is that the GFCI didn't trip, but it should have. So I think something wasn't properly connected when you had the element in the smoker.

I hope that makes sense.

Edit To Add:

I need to stop reading and especially posting to this forum from my phone. I did not see a number of posts that took place above this post before making this post.

It looks like JC in GB JC in GB already covered a lot of this very well.

I agree that if the mineral insulation in the heating element absorbs moisture, that could create a leakage situation. And because heating the element may well drive enough moisture out of the element's insulation to lower or eliminate that leakage, I can imagine a scenario where the first test-heating of the element drove out enough moisture that when it was later installed in the smoker, it was dry enough to be safe, and no longer trip the GFCI.

I'd still make sure that the element's bracket is grounded to the smoker, and the smoker is grounded properly. But if, with things properly assembled, the element doesn't trip your GFCI, then everything may be just fine.

If it was me, I'd reassemble things and then measure the resistance from the sheath of the heating element to the ground pin of the smoker's ground pin. That resistance should be very low. Ideally, below one ohm.

If you've got good continuity from the heating element sheath through to the ground pin of the smoker's power cord, then you should be good to go. And if the system doesn't trip your GFCI, then that's excellent!
 
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Hi...most of them use infrared spot lights or heat lamps? Using resistance wire your heating places that don't need the heat. My youngest son worked for a while at a company that did both roto molding and vacuum molding. They used infrared heating elements, like a Calrod. Toaster ovens from second hand stores are a good source for them.
 
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