New Big Chief Smoker keeps popping GFI's

[steelhead_fishn]

I just bought a new house and a new smoker. There not working together properly My outdoor plugs appear to be on the garage circuit, which is protected by a GFI. Most of the other plugs near windows where I can get power out of the house are on the kitchen GFI circuit. Every time I plug in my Big Chief smoker to smoke some fish it pops the GFI. At one point I actually took all of the other load off the circuit and plugged the smoker in all by itself. It still popped the GFI. Any idea why this is happening? Are there any workarounds where that allow me to keep the GFI plug in the circuit? Currently the only things I can think of are

1. Remove the GFI plug from the garage circuit, but then I have outdoor plugs without protection.

2. Run an extension cord through the darn house from a non GFI protected circuit( I have a 2 year old, this idea won't work very well)

- The smoker is a 450 watt appliance

Jeff

[steelhead_fishn]

Oh, the circuits that are available to me near the exits all seem to be 15A circuits.

Jeff

[freespool]

I had my power cord short out on mine. Melted the plastic plug on the cord and shorted out the heater element. Replaced both and all is good. Be very careful to plug the wire into the smoker,keep it straight and all the way in before you plug the power in. I'd try another GFI circuit in your house and if it still pops take it back. Hair dryers draw 800-1000watts so try one of those in the GFI and see if it holds.


salmon hugger

[Gus Orviston]

Even with a 250W element you are only drawing 2amps, so by itself you should be fine.
-edit note: I see you have a 450W,so the amps would be 4..still fine for you breaker...but then again your breaker or the element could be bad,,,easy enough to debug.

I found that I had a GFI downstream from another, I found this because it was prematurely tripping. Apparently somebody miswired it.

Maybe there is something wrong with the element? and things are working like they are suppose to. Try other GFIs and then maybe replace that one...it might be bad.

gus

[ 01-08-2004, 01:24 PM: Message edited by: Gus Orviston ]

[steelhead_fishn]

The element in the big chief I have is 450W. I purchased a big chief yesterday, and traded it in for the one I have now (before I reliazed that it was my GFI's popping). They were both behaving identically, and they came from different fred meyers. I plugged the big chief into a 15A non GFI circuit in the tv room and it appeared to be functionally sound at least for 5 minutes.

Get a new GFI outlet and try that I have a week one that trips on my smoker that needs to be replaced. It also trips on my drill.

[Woody]

GFI stands for Ground Fault Interupter. They are required on any circuit that is outside or near water. They are there so you don't get electrocuted if there is a fault in the ground on the device you are using, for instance,if you are trying to use a poorly grounded hair dryer while standing in a puddle of water. They are very sensitive and are designed to trip in milliseconds after detecting a problem. My guess is that the Little Chief is grounded to the aluminum case. The case is making contact with a wet surface outside and BINGO the GFI trips. Try setting the smoker up on some bricks and isolating it from the ground.

[ 01-08-2004, 03:54 PM: Message edited by: Woody ]