Dry Fired Element

[reuliss]

Hi folks. Need some help diagnosing a problem. I set my 5500 W heating element to boil water in order to test a new exhaust hood and forgot all about it. About an hour later, I heard a bang and knew what it was. I found the heating element glowing red, completely dry above the mostly boiled off water. I also figured out that my circuit breaker tripped. After resetting the circuit, I tried to heat a new batch of water to see if anything is ruined. No dice. Element was not putting out heat.

Here's my question. I don't know if this mistake ruined my heating element so that it's no longer working, or perhaps that it burned out the SSR in my Still Dragon element control box while my heating element is still good. Perhaps both are ruined. Any tips to help me identify what I need to replace here?

 

[ba-brewer]

If you are comfortable using a multimeter that will give you some information.

With the element disconnected from the power source measure the resistance of the element, it should be around 10 ohms. R=240^2/5500

Set the multimeter to AC volts and measure the output of the heating element outlet without the element. You should get your line input voltage. If your controller can regulate power, adjusting the power on the controller should change the element outlet voltage.

 

[golfindia]

Throw element in trash. Get new element. Only thing that can happen to SSR is that it gets stuck on (or off). Live to fight another day.

 

[Genuine]

Throw element in trash. Get new element. Only thing that can happen to SSR is that it gets stuck on (or off). Live to fight another day.

I think I've dry fired mine a good 3 times max of 30 seconds before it broke in half during the boil.

 

[passedpawn]

If the breaker tripped, you fried the element. Time to replace.

FWIW, I intentionally dry fire my element after every brewday. Cleans it up perfectly. But I only let it go for about 10 seconds, just until it's cherry red. This only works with the ULWD (ultra low wattage density) elements that are made of the standard incoloy material (I only use the ubiquitous Camco 2963 5500W element). Don't do this with a stainless steel element.