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Hobart mixer HL200 Keeps tripping the gfci after running for a couple minutes.
Hobart HL200 Legacy
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17 Replies
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Maybe the controls, the VFD or the motor has gotten wet during cleaning.
Have you plugged it into a different GFCI to see if you get the same results?
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Like Ectofix said, there is a bleed of electricity to the ground system somewhere. We are talking Milli-amps here. Finding the source can be a bit daunting. It can be some dust or flour that has some moisture to it. Oil track, The use of a Megger can help if you know how to use one. Other wise a quality ohm meter and individual isolation of elements will work.
To eliminate a bad GFIC, go inside the machine power connection cable and open the ground wire to place a milliamp meter in series of the ground curcuit.. If you see over 5 milliamps, Then you need to find it inside the machine. Less than 5ma means your GFIC is bad.
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Great points! I would like to add that a GFCI trips when the cumulative leakage for all the connected appliances goes over the threshold (5ma). If there are other things plugged into the same GFCI the HL200 might just be the “straw that broke the camels back”.
My preferred method for finding leakage current is to use a clamp meter that can read milli-amps and then clamp around the hot wire and the neutral. Any measured milli-amps from this test would be leakage.
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I forgot to mention one important point that often is overlooked. That’s where the GFI is at. If close to the load, not a problem. But if it’s a long distance away you can get induced current in the ground wire. I have seen over 300 volts on a support wire for overhead before the telephone company installed ground stakes at every pole. I’ve also seen farm fences with high induced voltages that run parallel to power lines. There are higher value GFI’s available for commercial use. Up to 8 ma.
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Hi…GFCI’s watch how much squeeze is returning contrasted with what amount is going out. On the off chance that more goes out than returns, it trips. I assume that your stage converter is changing over to 3 stage. I figure this would bode well more going out than returning. It is additionally prescribed to not plug anything refrigeration related into gfci’s as the “inrush” current the blower and all that jazz pulls when they start can trip some GFCI’s.
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I think the idea of checking in series is the best way to start, I’ve never thought of doing that when getting nuisance trips, but seems like it would help you figure out where to look.
Otherwise I had a hot box (kind of not related but kind of related) which had a nuisance trip every couple of days or every week or whatever, it was random and it would trip the GFCI, turned out to be one of the convection fans was leaking to ground, didn’t find it before because I would reset it, and it would be fine, figured it was moisture or something odd, started sealing up all kinds of places but it would still happen.
Then eventually it wouldn’t reset and I narrowed it down to that motor, replaced it and it hasn’t been a problem since.
Sometimes it can be odd things, that’s why I think narrowing it down is well worth it’s time before you start throwing parts at it.
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I just had a similar problem with a HL200. It would start, and run for a few seconds, then the GFCI would trip.
I opened it up, had a look, everything seemed to be in order. I have the ‘newer’ model which has a plastic sheet around the motor and VFD (to protect it from trips, I think).
Checked all the connections and wires, wiped up a very small amount of residue on the motor casing and mylar sheet, put it back together and it works!
So not sure what the problem was but it appears to be working now.
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Just humidity will do it with something like flour dust to create a electrical current path.
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Yeah makes sense.
I’m having this problem again now, trips the GFCI after running for a few seconds. Tried it on different GFCI outlets to make sure that it’s not the outlet gone bad.
It appears to run fine with no load, but then with some thick ingredients in there (ie resistance to the motor) then it trips.
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Also it has been running fine under the same conditions for about 9 years, and only just now having this problem.
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I’ve replaced the motor (at great expense!) and still have the same problem. So at least now I have *two* good motors…
Next plan is to open up the transmission, clean it out, install a new worm gear wheel (which is insulated), and put in fresh grease (in case there are some contaminants in the grease).
We’ll see how that goes.
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