Feeling electricity through hands when using Guten

[nathanvonbeerenstein]

Hey all, did a brew yesterday and noticed a little bit of current going through my hand when I touched the guten.

While heating up the strike water in my 40L vessel purchased last year, I stock my hand in the water to grab out a floaty. When doing do, I immediately noticed the unmistakeable sting and tingle in a little cut I have on my hand from electricity. While not enough to mess with my hearts rhythm, I’m definitely concerned this could get worse and become extremely dangerous.

While not smart or scientific, when I touched my tongue to the units still it was as if I was licking a 9v battery.

Any thoughts as to whether this is within an acceptable range before I get in contact with KegKing directly?

Cheers

 

[Jack of all biers]

Be a bit more scientific (and safe) and test it with a volt meter.

 

[Fro-Daddy]

I've heard of this happening once before with the Guten, definitely contact the seller and get a replacement unit.

 

[Abird89]

I just love that you stuck your tongue in to confirm hahah

 

[Stokesy]

Wow. Don't *** with power, replace it or have it checked by a sparky.

 

[brewgasm]

Do not use the unit, it is faulty and could kill you. Keg King should send you a new unit and arrange for the faulty one to be sent back to them or destroyed.

 

[Big Mick]

I get the same thing in my HLT I assume from the heating element. I've tried troubleshooting a few things / changing out chords etc and even changed the elements but still get it - as you said only when I've got a small cut and also not wearing shoes. Only a minor tingle. In the end I just try to keep my tongue away from it

 

[fdsaasdf]

This is defective and unsafe, KK need to replace the unit.

Disappointing to see, hopefully not a pattern given their track records with the 2200W stick fires... I mean elements

 

[phildo]

This has got to be a gag. It just has to be.

 

[jibba02]

This has got to be a gag. It just has to be.

One would ******* hope so. If he said he put his ball bag on it, that would be believable.

 

[Mya]

I've been shocked from mine while being outside washing it out, while it hasn't been plugged in for over 30 mins.

I believe that the capacitors are holding charge and dissipating when I complete the circuit to earth (standing in wet ground) and holding the wet steel. Either that or the base isn't water resistant and I somehow got some water splashed inside that short circuited it.

There was a time when I was getting shocked using it in my laundry (other appliances were shocking me too but it required the ground to be wet which was common with the guten but uncommon normally) but I determined this was a faulty earth in the laundry (the common earth for the laundry had fallen out of the terminal block). It may pay to check that you are getting continuity between your neutral phase and earth in the wall socket you normally use your guten in, if not you have a faulty earth too.

Also as with any electronic device that involves water I would not use one without attaching an RCD to it. Portable ones aren't great but better than nothing.

 

[nathanvonbeerenstein]

Do not use the unit, it is faulty and could kill you. Keg King should send you a new unit and arrange for the faulty one to be sent back to them or destroyed.

That’s my thinking too; I’ll drop them an email but wasn’t sure how much current was below the RCD’s threshold. Last time I was there about an unrelated issue with the unit, the bloke there just pushed on a little plastic rubber face on the switches, it fell off before I’d gotten back in the car. Looking forward to some refinement in these models rather than a band aid fix.

All our house wiring is only 3-years old, so fairly confident i can rule out the circuit as the issue.

(Won’t be tongue-testing any more appliances by the way, thanks for the smart reminders gents)

 

[malt and barley blues]

The switch cover has to be fitted behind the casing, so the switch has to be popped out to fit it.

 

[nathanvonbeerenstein]

The switch cover has to be fitted behind the casing, so the switch has to be popped out to fit it.

It should be, yes. But the guy in the shop just popped it on the outside. There’s no way for the cover that was given to me to be fitted to the switch any other way, including from the inside.

 

[malt and barley blues]

That is how I fitted mine, I have noticed the new ones have a different switch.

 

[Kev R]

I had a similar problem with 3V electric system. Low tickle similar to the battery thing. Turned out there is some sort of residual current in the house earth system. Tested with a multi, one probe in the wall socket earth pin and the other on a water pipe and had 8 volts.
Earthed all my vessels direct to the house earth stake (dedicated separate wire) no more problem.

 

[Pokey]

I had a similar problem with 3V electric system. Low tickle similar to the battery thing. Turned out there is some sort of residual current in the house earth system. Tested with a multi, one probe in the wall socket earth pin and the other on a water pipe and had 8 volts.
Earthed all my vessels direct to the house earth stake (dedicated separate wire) no more problem.

Yeah, nah that's not right
Water pipe should be bonded to the earth stake/main earth, if it's not you need to get that looked at.