Test your GFCI regularly

[duncan.brown]

Four or five brews ago, I accidentally let the level in my HLT dip below the highest part of my Camco 5500W low-density element. When I lifted the lid to find the source of the steam, I found about 3 cm of the element glowing red. I immediately shut it off and it seemed ok when it had cooled down, and I turned it back on with water on it.

Well, three Fahrenheit from mash out today I heard the pop that no electric brewer wants to hear... the 30A GFCI in my breaker panel tripped. Resetting did no good. It's not my control panel (fortunately) as everything is fine without the HLT element plugged in. However, as soon as power goes to the HLT element, the GFCI trips.

I'm guessing this is related to the dry firing, so I'd recommend replacing any dry-fired element no matter how small the damage. A $30 replacement element is better than a ruined brew day. Fortunately, I can live with a bit lower efficiency in the sparge and since I was mashing at 154F, I'm not too worried that I didn't get all the way to mash-out temperatures.

 

[duncan.brown]

I went to replace what I thought was a dead element today. Before doing the replacement, I ran a few tests:

1. Measure resistance across element: 10.6 Ohms, which is what I would expect for a 5500W 240V element.
2. Measure resistance from first hot wire to ground terminal: Open Loop.
3. Measure resistance from second hot wire to ground terminal: Open Loop.
4. Measure resistance from ground terminal to kettle: < 0.01 Ohms.
5. Measure resistance from kettle wall to electrical ground < 0.01 Ohms.

This didn't look like a dead element, so I filled the kettle with water and fired it up. The element came on and the GFCI didn't blow.

However.... a tiny amount of water seems to be seeping into the steel box that the element connections are housed in! This is a Kal-style build, so it's one of these:

https://shop.theelectricbrewery.com...tric-brewery-heating-element-assembly-diy-kit
It looks like the seepage was enough to create a path to ground and trip my GFCI last weekend. If my GFCI wasn't functioning properly, I could have had a much worse end to my brew day.

This isn't a new build, my HLT is at least three years old and has been working fine. Looks like I need to do a tear down of the HLT element fitting and eliminate the leak.