I have a 10-15 year old Premium that trips the GFCI when the boiler kicks on. It just started this morning, when hot, but also does it now when cold. I plugged it into a non-GFCI circuit to fill the boiler to rule out those parts. Now it turns on and then, a couple seconds later, the red boiler flickers as the GFCI trips.

I've read through every article mentioning GFCI on home-barista. This seems the only one relevant:

Starbucks Barista is tripping my GFCI!

So the positive end of the heating element has a weak connection to ground now? Is it a simple matter of replacement or is it fatal? Is there more diagnosing I should do ?

thanks!

If it is the element it is usually fatal. But, don't jump to conclusions. First disconnect the element and fire up the machine. If the GFCI does not trip then suspect the element. If it still trips, then look for evidence of a leak onto a connection, not necessarily onto the element terminals, but usually. It does not take much rust or other deposit to cause a GFCI to trip (six milliamps). generally, the culprit will be on the mains circuit side (120-Volt circuits in North America), as opposed to switching and sensing circuits.

Thanks Nunas.

I disconnected the power side of the SSR and it did Not trip. But I wondered if maybe that was too far upstream. I followed a dark blue wire from the bottom of the boiler to what appeared to be a thermal cut-off at the top of the boiler. I disconnected Both ends of this element. With the SSR Re-connected, it Did trip.

[The following is an edit. Hopefully no one replied in the last minute.]

According to a circuit diagram, the black wire from 2T1 of the SSR runs *to* the heater and the other side - a blue wire - runs up to the cut-off. So if disconnecting this black wire fixes it, but disconnecting the blue wire does not, that implies that the issue is indeed the heater, ya?

I've not seen the inside of your machine, but, yes, sadly, it sounds like the heater. Do you see any corrosion on or around the heater terminals that could be cleaned off? Or do you see any damage between where the power connects to the heater and the element itself; some elements have a whitish ceramic between the terminal wire and the outside, metal part of the heater. Is there any damage there? If so you might try to clean that up and reseal with high temp silicone. If all looks well, then another failure point of heaters is inside the element itself. The outside metal cover becomes damaged and water gets into the heater. The easiest thing is to just replace the heater and see if that fixes it.

As far as I can see, it's immaculate down there. Very odd. Perhaps the heating element is covered in something which gave?

I'm reading in the hundreds of kilo-ohms between black wire and green wire.

I also have an Andreja Premium and early this year it began tripping the GFI. I discovered that the problem was that the pressure relief valve (that vents the air from the top of the boiler as it heats until the boiler pressure rises enough to close that valve) was dysfunctioning, released quite a bit of water droplets and vapor into the electronics inside the case. I understand that the Andreja can short through the ground wire connected to the steel case and that would trip the GFI. Evidently enough water droplets and water vapor coming from the pressure relief valve can create a short if that valve misbehaves (clogged, weakened spring, or just old age) and too much water accumulates inside the case.

I am neither an electrician nor plumber, so I may not be using the exact correct terms or descriptions, but in my case, replacing the pressure relief valve with a new one (that now has a tubing nipple on the top) and adding a piece of high-temp tubing to take that moisture directly into the water reservoir solved my problem and it has been working fine for a couple of months now.

I got the new part from Chris's Coffee....

I hope this helps.... good luck.

Hi Orcasite,

Thanks for the suggestion, but mine trips the GFCI even when dry. I replaced that valve maybe a year ago, so it's been pretty dry all the time, much more after it's been sitting open all day. However, this doesn't mean that it didn't corrode earlier, when it leaked. Unfortunately, that doesn't explain why it decided to fail today. That points more to the heater.

Just a follow-up: The hesitation here is obviously that, to even look at these connections, much less cleaning them or replacing the heater requires removing the boiler. Of course, it has about a dozen pipe connections, which will take a week to disconnect and re-connect, and half of which will leak when done. Thus, the calculus would appear to favor buying a new machine.

But then I thought of a crazy idea: I could cut a large-ish hole in the bottom and inspect, clean and replace through it.

Has anyone heard of anyone doing this? I'm not exaggerating the time it will take to replace the boiler, right?

cheers