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[Free Mr. Tony]

My friend says his hot rod isn't heating up at all, and it's brand new. He has had multiple replacements over the last couple years, and it eventually just starts tripping the gfic. This time though is the first time he says it won't heat at all.

I'm going to look at it tonight, but figured I'd throw the question out there if anyone has ran into this?

[Bar-B-Lew]

Can't help other to than to offer a plan B like I use on my Blazn.  Remove the hot rod.  Throw some pellets in the pot and light them up.  Once you have a nice fire going a about 4-5 inches above the firepot, turn on the grill.  Sometimes, the fan blows out the fire, but most times it will not if you have the fire raging enough before turning on the grill.  Once it looks like the fire is still going, put all the guts back in the grill, set the temp, and get cooking.

[Free Mr. Tony]

Can't help other to than to offer a plan B like I use on my Blazn.  Remove the hot rod.  Throw some pellets in the pot and light them up.  Once you have a nice fire going a about 4-5 inches above the firepot, turn on the grill.  Sometimes, the fan blows out the fire, but most times it will not if you have the fire raging enough before turning on the grill.  Once it looks like the fire is still going, put all the guts back in the grill, set the temp, and get cooking.

Thanks. I did show him that trick the last time so he has been using it, but I appreciate the response.

[Free Mr. Tony]

I opened the lid and the first thing I thought of was the rtd being covered. He doesn't ever clean his grill, and it was completely covered with about an 1/8th inch of gunk. Scraped it off, and it fired right up.

This didn't fix the long term issue he has though. It always trips his breaker no matter what. It has to be a short or something.

[Canadian John]

I opened the lid and the first thing I thought of was the rtd being covered. He doesn't ever clean his grill, and it was completely covered with about an 1/8th inch of gunk. Scraped it off, and it fired right up.

This didn't fix the long term issue he has though. It always trips his breaker no matter what. It has to be a short or something.

Could be the GFIC itself.

 Have him try plugging into an other outlet to see if that cures his problem....If using an extension cord, especially if it is lying on the ground, dampness may be causing a short

resulting in a tripped GFIC.

[JoeGrilling]

The first thing that comes to mind when I read this was that he may be over tightening the screw holding the hot rod.  Damage to do to over torquing the screw could kill the hot rod or turn it into a "walking wounded" part.  I never took one of these guys apart but always assumed there was some kind of ceramic insulator protecting the heater coil from the outer metal case.  Breaking the insulator could make a the device leak current to ground causing a current imbalance between power and neutral thus causing the GFIC to shutoff power.  The only other thing I can think of is the insulator was already broken prior to installation.