That is what seems to be happening. Since no one has pointed out anything I might be doing incorrectly on initial power up after repair, all signs point to the heater coil itself. With an ordinary ohm meter, prior to installation, both replacement coils measured infinite resistance (at room temperature) between either power tab and the jacket. After removal, post GFCI tripping, they measure about 30kOhms. I've now had two out of two new coils fail, so it's hard to imagine that WLL isn't getting deluged with problems on these coils. If they are not, the only explanation is that the techs doing the repair for other forum members are not properly diagnosing the problem and blaming it on folklore like "These machine don't like GFCI outlets" or other such nonsense.
I have one more coil to try, but I don't hold out much hope of getting more than a month out of it. The problem is that even with a free replacement, swapping the heater is big job since I have not been able to unscrew the heater without first removing the boiler. When this last heater dies, I'm done with the machine, which is a shame. The idea of retiring a perfectly good espresso machine (especially at the over $1500 cost) because it's not possible to get a reliable replacement part is hard to take. But that appears to be the basic fact of the matter. On Saturday, March 8, 2014 4:44:45 AM UTC-8, bg wrote: > > The heater element is a simple part, but it must be well crafted. It is a > tube into which is placed a heating coil. Slight traction is meant to > straighten the wire and center it in the tube, after which the insulating > compound is pumped in to fill completely, insulating the coil from the tube > itself. After hardening, the tube is rolled into a coil as needed and the > assembly completed. If there is any failure of the process of centering > the wire or of the insulating compound, the coil will fail, either > initially or after heating cycles. The unit may test normally when cold, > but when heated, the wire may move in degraded insulating material to the > point that the GFCI will trip, even though no direct short is present.when > tested cold. If there is leakage from the heating wire to the outer coil > on testing, then the insulation failure may be more complete, allowing > contact or near contact in the cold state. It would seem that the > manufacturing process for these heating coils is less than perfect given > the frequent failures noted in the forum; perhaps Expobar could find a > higher quality supplier for these parts, or, WLL will continue to supply > free or cheap replacement. > > > > *From:* [email protected] <javascript:> [mailto: > [email protected] <javascript:>] *On Behalf Of *Len Sherman > *Sent:* Friday, March 07, 2014 11:30 PM > *To:* [email protected] <javascript:> > *Subject:* Re: CFGI outlets > > > > I know this is a somewhat old thread, but I wonder if these unresolved > GFCI problems could be related to the problem I've been having. This is > still ongoing: > > https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/brewtus/CHNJqggTxJY > > > > As a general response, THERE IS NO WAY that a properly functioning Brewtus > should have a problem with GFCI, except maybe if water drips on the > electrical connections. If the GFCI trips, something is wrong. In my case > it seems to be directly traceable to the heater. I'm wondering if the units > that had GFCI problems after getting repaired might have had heaters > replaced, and if the recent replacement heaters are somehow prone to > electrical leakage. > > > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Brewtus" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] <javascript:>. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] <javascript:> > . > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/brewtus. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Brewtus" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/brewtus. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
