Down to earth elements.. Any Ideas???

[whiskeyjack6058]

I have managed to aquire a job load of various fan and grill elements (all above board).
They have been stored in a concrete garage in plastic storage boxes and sadly most of them are down to earth on my megger and when I run them in my workshop which is on a RCB it trips after running them for a min or so..
If I remove the earth they they run fine. I have tried hanging them up while running with the earth disconnected for maybe 30 mins or so and they are still down to earth. Think I might be flogging a dead horse here but if anyone has any ideas I would be very interested and greatfull.
Thanks,
Robert.

[Phidom]

Re: Down to earth elements.. Any Ideas???

Try putting one or two in your own oven and heating them that way. Perhaps the dampness is in the ends near the terminals.

[spimps]

Re: Down to earth elements.. Any Ideas???

First put them in a room for a few days with a dehumidifier then in the workshop you could connect up without earth and run for 10 minutes,then check insulation.You can connect a meter to monitor the voltage leak to earth,it will drop as the heater dries out although not all will respond favourably.
Sometimes the voltage goes up before it starts to drop.
Doubt you will get them back to as new/infinity etc though but some will recover.

[Martin]

Re: Down to earth elements.. Any Ideas???

whiskeyjack6058 wrote:I have tried hanging them up while running with the earth disconnected for maybe 30 mins or so and they are still down to earth. Think I might be flogging a dead horse here

Indeed you are flogging a dead horse with the examples you gave I’m afraid. Firing them up with the earth link removed for just a few moments can often cure dampness ingress. But in the majority of the cases it doesn’t simply because they were inherently duff in the first place! 🙁

[lee8]

Re: Down to earth elements.. Any Ideas???

I bin elements with this problem, there not expensive to buy and really not worth the hassle when they fail again.

[spimps]

Re: Down to earth elements.. Any Ideas???

whiskeyjack6058 wrote:I have tried hanging them up while running with the earth disconnected for maybe 30 mins or so and they are still down to earth. Think I might be flogging a dead horse here

Why didn’t I see that,for the bin then,which one though,are they recycled or land fill,latter probably.

[bigchrisoioi]

Re: Down to earth elements.. Any Ideas???

burn them , and claim on the insurance!!!!!

[burns]

Re: Down to earth elements.. Any Ideas???

Used one van stock (been on the van a few weeks) picked up two more and used an alternative off the van all were 3 – 4 Meg ohm and didnt get past the first 3 mins before going dead short.
Took two back and binned the rest. The oven wasnt worth any more time and decided to bin the job. The oven cost £52 off Ebay. Did get a labour charge at least but not much job satisfaction there.

[Author]

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