ISOMAC - Trips circuit breaker at power on. Heating element upgrade?

#1: Post by **12steps** » June 10th, 2014, 2:01 am

Hi,

My Isomac Tea has started tripping the house circuit at power on after doing a strip and descale. (I suspect there may have been some water exposure on the element terminals).

Two questions

1) Ive seen a possible fix by "baking" the element in the oven to remove any moisture and insulating the terminals with an epoxy putty. Has anyone done this, would you suggest this before just upgrading the element

2) If I upgrade the element (its rated at 1350 or 1400w at 240v) would you suggest or advise not upgrading to a 2000w element?

Cheers

#2: Post by **another_jim** » June 10th, 2014, 3:46 pm

Start hunting for a short circuit, hot to ground. The wiring in Isomacs is pretty poor, and even removing and replacing the case can create a short.

If you suspect the heating element, disconnect the leads and measure it with a ohmmeter. It should be around 8 or 9 ohms in 110 land, and 32 to 36 in 220 land. If the ohmage is a lot less, chances are the short is in the sealing area and might be fixable.