Accidentally ran my element partly dry and my gfci tripped -- is it toast?

[samtriesnottodie]

So, like I said, my GFCI tripped. After waiting for things to cool down I figured out the likely cause was this running dry -- due to me accidentally putting it in vertically instead of sideways. Is it toast? Is there likely some internal damage to it or something that caused the ground fault, or did it just leak some current because it got so hot through some mechanism i don't understand?

 

[day_trippr]

If you have an ohm meter, check from one of the connector pins to the exterior metal. It should read infinite resistance.

 

[samtriesnottodie]

If you have an ohm meter, check from one of the connector pins to the exterior metal. It should read infinite resistance.

Ah makes sense, just tried it-- from either connector to the element surface reads as an open circuit, from the ground pin to the element surface reads as 0 resistance.

I guess i'll boil some water with it tomorrow and see if the GFCI trips again.

 

[passedpawn]

the proper test is resistance from two terminals to threaded base. Less than 10 ohms is bad.

 

[day_trippr]

Admittedly I don't know anything specific to this type of heating element, but why would there be a low impedance path to the threaded base (which is presumably ground) from either non-ground lug?

I believe that "10 ohms" is the series resistance of the element - which would be tested from one non-ground lug to the other non-ground lug...

Cheers!

 

[mongoose33]

This sounds exactly like what happened to me back in March, when I accidentally dry-fired my element. The next time I tried to brew, the GFCI breaker was toast.

And so, of course, was the element.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

Why is nobody asking the important question?? How did the beer turn out?

 

[bracconiere]

How did the beer turn out?

if it went dry i'd imagine like a can a cooper's.......

 

[samtriesnottodie]

Why is nobody asking the important question?? How did the beer turn out?

No beer today, I was uh... purifying water and making essential oils.

 

[bracconiere]

i used to drink a lot of purified water with essential oils when i was a kid.....but strangley it was called beefeater......

 

[passedpawn]

Admittedly I don't know anything specific to this type of heating element, but why would there be a low impedance path to the threaded base (which is presumably ground) from either non-ground lug?

I believe that "10 ohms" is the series resistance of the element - which would be tested from one non-ground lug to the other non-ground lug...

Cheers!

If the element is tripping the GFCI, then I suggested he look for short ckt between the hot wire and the ground. It seems to me that is not what he was doing. I might not have been clear in last post - was typing from an iPad (agh).

 

[samtriesnottodie]

Update: measured from hot to ground and it looked good. Boiling some water now and everything is holding up fine. Happy the GFCI tripped when part of it was dry firing, glad nothing seems damaged.

 

[SalParadise]

I like that you enlisted the help of your cat in your inspection of the element