grounding a cooler eHLT

I may in the future build a eHLT that the Pol and others have constructed. I have seen on other sites that people have put copper rings around the heater element wiring and others have not. I break down my set up after each use to put away and I am wondering what if anything I am going to need to do to safely operate the hlt. It will most likely rest on a concrete step and the element is going to be plugged into a GCFI plug. Any thoughts, suggestions, or idea?

thanks.

bump......

ground it! copper ring or some folks also feed the stranded ground wire inside the large nut that threads onto the element thereby grounding the wire w/ that nut. I have also seen someone drill and tap a small hole in the element base for a groundscrew that the wire can be grounded at.

Probably an over kill, even though I don't know exactly what you are describing. GFI's are pretty much fool proof, if,they are working correctly. If all of the equipment is working as it is suppose to, there will be no current leakage and the gfi will not trip. Are we talking about home made stuff here? Is this installation permanent? if it is, all metal should be bonded. Can you point me to some pictures?

I drilled and tapped a hole in the body of the element to attach a screw for a ground wire.

I know I have some pictures at home if you're interested in seeing them.

I put the heating element in a copper tube so it is external from the cooler. You can then ground to the body of the copper tube easily. Of course then you need a pump to move wort through the tube.

Linc

lustreking said:

I drilled and tapped a hole in the body of the element to attach a screw for a ground wire.

I know I have some pictures at home if you're interested in seeing them.

Click to expand...

yeah if your can find them i'd be interested in taking a look.

sparkyaber, its a clone of this... or this. The difference is I wont have a dedicated stand to ground to.

The copper ring seems like an awful lot of trouble. Why not just get a bonding locknut? Assuming there are enough threads on the element.......

interesting idea bernie