GFI is it really needed ?

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shutupjojo

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I have been brewing for a few years with a 3 wire system running 2 5500 w elements with the ground connected securely to the keggles. No GFI just a few 40 amp breakers , ssr's and 2 pids. I am still alive and my system works great and I am very confident about it. If your brew pots are grounded, are you safe ? Do you really need a GFI breaker ? I am no expert on this but I am familiar with 220 volt 3 wire . I have a hardwood floor business and all my sanders are 3 wire and run safe. I understand that brewing pots are full of liquid but if they are grounded then isn't that enough ? Is a GFI breaker really just a safety seat ?
 
Just get one and install it, don't try to outsmart the technology as it only takes one instance to ruin your day/life, etc. Do you have kids who might run into the area you are brewing and happen to lay a hand on a piece of metal at just the wrong time when something goes crazy? Do you let them ride in the car without seat belts? My early years I rode in cars without seat belts cause we didn't have them, doesn't mean I don't wear them now.

btw - do you come up to Portland for your business? Going to need to do my floors one of these days.
 
Like a lot of safety equipment, it is rarely "needed" until it is. I'm sure hard hats are rarely actually needed on construction sites, but they provide cheap reduction of the consequences of a low probability, high consequence event.
 
Like a lot of safety equipment, it is rarely "needed" until it is. I'm sure hard hats are rarely actually needed on construction sites, but they provide cheap reduction of the consequences of a low probability, high consequence event.

i think that sums it up. wont need it till you do, and then you will wish you had it.
 
My first heatstick I built kept tripping the GFCI during the initial test. Just to see if it was working, I plugged it into a non-gfci circuit. It worked; but I stayed FAR away while it was plugged in. I found the problem, it works fine now plugged into a GFCI. Yes, you need a GFCI!
 
Of course it is not really needed, this could example of real-time Darwinism.
 
The GFCI protects you if you come in contact with a live wire and touch a grounded object. How necessary this is depends partly on how well you have constructed your electrical system, how often you plug and unplug things, and have spills. As a general rule, when we work with electrical appliances in wet environments we should use a GFCI because the water makes a good grounding path that can easily kill you, should you touch a wire. The chance for a lethal shock is a lot higher in wet environments. Home made electric breweries seems to me to be the obvious place to have a GFCI.
 
I'm really conservative when it comes to spending money, but my a$$ is worth a lot more than 50 bucks.
 
There are a lot of things we don't really need in life. We don't need helmets, seatbelts, safety rules, etc. But, those things are there because the consequences of the chance that you are in some sort of accident outweigh the cost of the protection.

I really enjoy homebrewing, but its not worth dying for.
 
If you have plugs on your electrical devices and they are in a possibly wet environment, you need GFCI by code.. The reason your hot water heater is not required to have GFCI is that you are not plugging it in to use it... If you decide to not use GFCI, your grounds should be really, really good and inspected often, and you should not ever plug things in with the outlets energized... a main contactor with an e-stop on it would serve this purpose. If you use GFCI, I highly suggest doing a wet run with no grain *all the way through*, I can imagine there would be nothing like a GFCI constantly tripping to ruin your day and tempt you to take a shortcut...

Then again, I am an electrical engineer and I can't count how many times I have shocked myself... never while making beer, though...
 
Thank you everyone for stressing the importance of having a GFCI
protecting you . I installed a spa panel and feel much safer now.
For $50.00 it's a no brainer , what was I thinking ? :drunk:
 
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