Englander pellet grill, have a short, testing help please.

Englander pellet grill, have a short, testing help please.

Folks, I have had the englander pellet grill for a few years now and for no apparent reason it started tripping the GFCI every so often. Weird. I plugged it into a nonGFCI outlet and everything worked fine for several cooks. Then I popped the 6 amp fuse on the control board. Uh oh, this isn't good. I checked all wires for pinching or chafing, removed all pellets from the auger tube and verified that everything is free to move. Replaced the 6 amp fuse. Put a small amount of pellets in the burn pot and test fired the stove. Popped the GFCI, so I moved to the nonGFCI plug, stove finished igniting itself and ran as normal before shutting off. 6 amp fuse popped again.

At this point I think I need to test the motors. There's not much to this pellet burner. Ignitor, combustion fan, auger motor. Short wires that are all visible.

Please offer any advice, Thanks!

 

Hello
Sounds tome like one of the parts is drawing more current than normal. I have seen this on a wood pellet stove when the igniter burns out and also pops the 6 amp fuse. I would change the igniter and if that fixes it then install a 5 amp inline fuse holder on the igniter so if it happens again then you will know because the 5 amp fuse blew and it needs a new igniter.
The auger motor or convection fan could also cause the same problem but not very likely.
That is just my guess?
Let us know
Thanks

 

I feel like it must be the igniter even though it works as normal until the fuse blows. Just a hunch though. Can I completely unplug it and test fire the stove by igniting the pellets with a torch?

I like your idea of adding a 5 amp inline fuse to the ignitor. Is one of the two ignitor wires always grounded? I would want to add the fuse to the hot line right?

 

The igniter is AC so it does not matter which wire, if there is a Black and white neutral wire that the igniter plugs into then add the fuse to the black hot wire.
Yes you are correct, if you unplug the igniter and light the pellets with a torch then we will all know it is the igniter causing the problem if the grill runs normally.
Good going!

 

I ordered an igniter from pelletheads. Not very expensive. I also measured a ground fault through the old igniter even though resistance between the leads was proper at 45 ohms.

Unplugged igniter and gfci stopped popping. Ran without igniter plugged in and no main board fuse popping.

I did make a fuse holder and used a 3 amp fuse since the igniter is supposed to be 300 watts. Seems like a good idea.

 

Excellent!
How did you measure a ground fault?

 

With an ohmmeter between the unplugged igniter and chassis ground. I measured continuity, though with high resistance. Is that not right?

 

Yes, that sounds right.
The reason the ground fault was invented is in case the black or hot wire in an appliance breaks and touches the metal case of the appliance. When this happens the case is hot and if a person touches the case, then the electricity will take the least path of resistance to ground and go right through the person! If you touch the counter with the other hand, then the least path of resistance going from the hand on the appliance to the hand touching the counter is through the eyeballs and can cause permanent blindness! There are documented cases where a women touches the controls of an old kitchen stove with no proper case grounding and wiping the counter with a wet sponge! This is why all new kitchen stoves are either 3 wire or 4 wire! I changed my 220 kitchen stove outlet to the new 4 wire configuration for maximum safety!!!
New stoves have the outside metal skin all connected to the ground wire, however the 3 wire kitchen stove outlet connecting cord just connects the neutral wire and ground wire in the bottom of the stove. The new 4 wire outlet cable runs the wire connected to the stoves outside metal skin Or case directly to the circuit box in the basement creating the least path of resistance and if the neutral wire breaks, a safe way of grounding any electrical charges!
Our very old glenwood kitchen stove used the control panel screws to run the neutral to ground and when they got rusty, a person wiping the counter and touching the controls made a better ground! Fortunately we had no mishaps, but something serious could have happened and thankfully we avoided all that!!
Going back to your case, if the resistance is not high enough then current will flow and pop the gfci and circuit board fuse.

 

I’m not a prime guy so I will have to wait a week for this igniter to get here. Until then I’m using my little portable Weber Q propane grill. Yuk! Good thing it’s been raining all week.

 

Can't you use a torch to light the grill?

 

Yes. If it was a grilling emergency. I would have to remove the actual cast iron grill grate, the flame shield, then light the pile of pellets, and then try to reassemble all of this on top of the burnpot while it is burning. It's not quite as easy as manually lighting a pellet stove but it is possible.

The gas Q grill is actually pretty great for a portable but it's a shame to use it when I own a nice pellet grill.

 

I hope that it’s just the igniter. It’s kind of an educated guess and the part is cheap and is known to be a wear item so fingers crossed!

I’m obviously new to pellet roasters.

 

Success, the new igniter was an exact fit. Easy swap. Cooked chicken on it tonight with no issues at all. The bad one looked fine on the outside.

 

Good job.
Did you put an inline fuse on it? Then when the igniter fuse blows you will know what the problem is.
How old was that igniter?

 

Yes, I have a 3 amp fuse inline with one of the igniter wires now. It’s inside the case of the bbq so hidden but if it blows I will know that it’s time for another 15$ igniter.

This is the original igniter. I’m not sure how long I should have expected it to live in a bbq application. I bought this grill two or three years ago and I use it all year about once per week.

 

2-3 years is about average it seems. That fuse will also protect the circuit board better being a lower amperage. Also is your grill plugged into a good surge protector? It is no different than a pellet stove and should be protected from AC surges.
The new BBQ Direct Drive Grills with DC motors do not need a surge protector as much.

 

This grill is stored outside and is plugged into a GFCI outlet only when it is being used. No surge protection. If this was a more expensive, more permanent, indoor appliance I might consider it.

 

Guess what’s cooking? Glad to have the pellet roaster back.

 

Looks like a pretzel?