Robobrew giving off electric shock

[Wheatsheaf]

Hi there. I am wondering if anyone else has encountered this problem: my robobrew started to give off an electrical charge on my last brew. I noticed about half way through that my thumbs would get a bit of a tingle when I touched the Robobrew sides. By the end, I was definitely getting a slight shock, and I would unplug in every time I needed to touch it (this was for cooling - so not a big deal).

I have a v3 Robobrew. The circuit board recently burnt out and I replaced it with the v3.1 circuit board and display (as was recommended). My first brew afterwards worked fine - aside from the pump stopping part way through (pump is not attach to circuit board). I took the robobrew apart to make sure the pump was not clogged - it was not). I did a second brew yesterday day and now I am getting an electric shock off it. It makes me nervous. I wondering if this could relate to the circuit board replacement (I followed a diagram that came with the replacement board - but it is black and white and only shows where the wires attach - not where the wires originate so it is determine if I had the right wires). I am assuming the electrical charge is separate from the pump not working, but I do wonder if they are related due to the timing.

Anyway - any advice/guidance would be helpful. Having just dumped another $80 on the circuit board, I do not want to junk the robobrew, not do I want to shell out for a new pump if the unit is going to be giving off shocks. More importantly, it makes me wonder how safe the Robobrew is.

 

[passedpawn]

Exposed metal should be earth grounded. That is, if you use an DMM (ohm meter) you should find continuity between the metal body and the earth prong on the cord. If not, then something is wrong and you should stop using it until that gets corrected.

It's also possible that there is an electrical problem in your house. Use a ckt tester to check that Line/Neutral/Earth Gnd are all in order in the outlet you're using.

If any of this is foreign to you, ask away. I realize most people don't do electrical stuff for a living, and I do, so some of that might not be clear.

 

[day_trippr]

Though it's scary to think that matters, given the board swap perhaps the neutral and hot were swapped?

Cheers!

 

[Wheatsheaf]

Exposed metal should be earth grounded. That is, if you use an DMM (ohm meter) you should find continuity between the metal body and the earth prong on the cord. If not, then something is wrong and you should stop using it until that gets corrected.

It's also possible that there is an electrical problem in your house. Use a ckt tester to check that Line/Neutral/Earth Gnd are all in order in the outlet you're using.

If any of this is foreign to you, ask away. I realize most people don't do electrical stuff for a living, and I do, so some of that might not be clear.

Thanks PassedPawn. I appreciate the suggestion and your willingness to be subjected to my uneducated questions.
So if I understand correctly, the DMM will test to see if the robobrew body and cord are working properly. Is there a particular place I should test - at the electrical cord? on the metal body? each attachment to the circuit board?

As to your second point - It could be an ungrounded outlet. I believe an electrician once mentioned that there was a few ungrounded outlets and I was a basement outlet that is almost never used. However, I did use this outlet once before for brewing but that was with an extension cord. Would the extension cord have made a difference and shield the robobrew?

 

[Wheatsheaf]

Though it's scary to think that matters, given the board swap perhaps the neutral and hot were swapped?

Cheers!

Thanks Day Trippr. How can I tell which is the neutral and the hot? When replacing the connections to the circuit board, I followed the picture which only showed the top of the wires where they connect but not where they originate so it is difficult to identify which black wire connects where.

 

[passedpawn]

Thanks PassedPawn. I appreciate the suggestion and your willingness to be subjected to my uneducated questions.
So if I understand correctly, the DMM will test to see if the robobrew body and cord are working properly. Is there a particular place I should test - at the electrical cord? on the metal body? each attachment to the circuit board?

As to your second point - It could be an ungrounded outlet. I believe an electrician once mentioned that there was a few ungrounded outlets and I was a basement outlet that is almost never used. However, I did use this outlet once before for brewing but that was with an extension cord. Would the extension cord have made a difference and shield the robobrew?

The easiest way to check your outlets is to have one of the following. They cost less than $10 at Staples, Home Depot, any hardware store. If you had a floating ground, you could have the problem you're experiencing. BTW, DMM is digital multimeter, and it could also test the outlet, but I'm not going to go into how to do that now. But if you could borrow one, you'd set it to ohms (or continuity check) and put one probe on the the metal parts of your brewing machine, then the second probe on the ground lug of the plug for the machine. Anyway, check out that outlet, good chance that's your issue.

 

[passedpawn]

Thanks Day Trippr. How can I tell which is the neutral and the hot? When replacing the connections to the circuit board, I followed the picture which only showed the top of the wires where they connect but not where they originate so it is difficult to identify which black wire connects where.

Normally, neutral is a white wire and hot is black. That's for AC. It's possible (and likely) that AC was downconverted to some lower DC voltage (i.e, 12V or 5V). In that case, the wire colors could be something very different.