ausdoug wrote:
This morning I put the new heater that was tripping the GFCI breaker back into the heater sleeve and powered it up. it was heating for maybe 15 minutes when I left for church. When I got back it had tripped the kitchen breaker. The heater was still slightly warm to the touch. So, I reset the breaker and tired it again and it ran about 5 minutes and tripped. I reset the breaker again and it tripped within couple of minutes. I repeated this again and it tripped the breaker.
When the heater is warm or cold it still reads 44.2 ohms resistance.
I've pulled it out and will call rvmobile tomorrow and see if they will ship me a new one.
If I put my meter on one lead and the other on the heater house, I get no continuity.
I believe it was Tim who said I might have a slight fault that is triggering the GFCI. I expect if I were to bypass the breaker it would heat the refrig.
My old heater doesn't have a problem.
Thanks for all of the posts.
After the testing you've done, I'll have to backtrack and suggest your conclusion on getting another replacement is the way to go.
It appears the the coil material inside the element is expanding through the packing just close enough to the element housing to set up a field and tripping the GFCI. Years ago, when there were no GFCI's in RV's, that would have probably generated a direct short to ground after continued use, or at least gone unnoticed unless the coil actually touched the casing.
Yours is not that common a scenario, from my experiences, but I stand corrected on this one. Good find.
