Electric BBQ breaks GFI 20 Amp breaker yet works fine with non-GFI breaker.

[BoyntonStu]

A 1650 Watt element will go on momentarily but then causes the 20 Amp GFI to break.

I tried it on 2 different GFI breakers.

When plugged into a non-GFI circuit, it works fine.

There are a few possibilities that my meager mind considered:

1> There is some current in the neutral leg. Multimeter does not show anything.

2> Buy a higher Amp GFI.

3> The GFI is more sensitive to a load near its 20 Amp rating. 1650Watts/(20 x 115)

4> And the no-no answer, replace the GFI with a non-GFI breaker.

Any suggestions?

[Jeff]

As the coils heat up they may leak enough current to ground to trip the GFI breaker. Using regular breaker let unit heat up, quickly pull the plug and measure resistance between hot lead and ground lead.

[trader4]

There better be current in the neutral and it better be equal to the current in the hot, or the GFCI will trip.

Unless there are other loads on the GFCI, it's not tripping because of over current. The heater is well below the limit.

Look for a partial short to ground somewhere.

[Doug Miller]

The obvious conclusion is that there is a ground fault somewhere in the machine.

Then you're not measuring correctly. There had better be exactly the same current in the neutral leg as there is in the hot leg.

That will make no difference. GFIs trip at fault currents of about 5mA.

Doubtful, but in any event you're not anywhere near 20A with a 1650W device on a 120V circuit. 1650W / 120V = 13.75A.

You're right, that's wrong. :-)

Find the ground fault and fix it -- or, if the unit is still under warranty, return it to the retailer for exchange or refund.

[Tim Smith]

But if there was exactly the same current in the neutral as hot, then the GFCI wouldn't be tripping...so maybe he IS measuring correctly! :-)

[Doug Miller]

:-)

[Ralph Mowery]

It is doubtful that he has a meter that will detect 5 to 10 ma differance in a 14 amp circuit. That is all it takes to trip a GFCI.

[Jeff Wisnia]

Agreed, and so you know what to look for, anything less than 50,000 ohms is likely to cause that GFCI to trip.

Jeff

[Doug Miller]

Hmmmm....

120V / 50Kohm = 2.4mA, which I think is a bit below the trip threshold. I believe I'd be looking for faults on the order of 120V / 5mA = 24,000 ohms or less.

[mm]

I'm curious how you are trying to measure current in the neutral wire with a multimeter????

[Jeff Wisnia]

Whatever...If it's already as low as 50K then it's probably on its way to getting even lower the next time the humidity rises.

Peace,

Jeff