Here's the deal - I purchased my first Pro-melt in 1981, it is still going strong, problem is due to a blocked spout I was overzealous cleaning out the spout with a drill bit and it developed a nasty "drip".

This is the 240V version BTW

So I've been looking for a replacement Pro-melt ever since. I happened on one in a garage sale last week, it looked very little used (was made in 1984). Took it home, cleaned it up a bit, looks good.

So I plugged it in, it works for 10 seconds and she trips out on earth leakage.

Using a multimeter I find a 2.5M Ohm resistance between the line supply and the chassis of the Pro-melt - definitely a fault as I can't find a fault of this sort on my old Pro-melt.

Nothing daunted I proceed to drill out all the rivets and take the thing apart. Maybe there's a loose wire or something. I got a pop riveter to put it together again.

I unplug the element from the rest of the wiring, test the element, and find a 2.5M Ohm resistance between the element wire and the steel sheathing.

Is the element blown?, and is it available as a spare from RCBS?

My next move must be to take the pot from the new Pro-melt and install it on my old Pro-melt, thus solving the drip problem.

Then I hold a garage sale.......

2.5 meg is a big high for a short, any chance that water got in there, maybe insulation is wet/damp? It doesn't take much. Might try drying it in oven @150-175 for a couple of hrs and see if it goes away. Just a thought.
C.G.B.

No way any water got in there.

The slightest hint of a connection, no matter what the resistance, is enough to trip an earth leakage, esp here in SA with our very light 240V wiring. 110V systems are perhaps more robust, as they have to carry more current.

No matter - I swapped out the lead pots - took the good non leaky pot from the furnace with a dud element and put it in the furnace with a good elemnent - I now have a working, non-leaky furnace. Ive e-mailed RCBS for their input, I need a pot and an element as spares

You got to hand it to RCBS - they really stand behind their stuff.

Bill Reed from the technical side contacted me after I posted a query to them via their website. I told him what was what and even though I live other side of the world they are shipping me a new element and a new lead pot - so I will have 2 working furnaces.

Absolute champions. I love it!

Pete,

How about sending me a PM with Bill Reed's e-mail address ... I have a ProMelt doing the same thing!

Thanks!

I'll post it here:
Bill.Reed@ATK.com

I went on the RCBS website and went to "Contact Us" I posted my problem and Bill got back to me...

I take you have hooked this thing up to a GFI circuit that is tripping out or is the earth leakage detection circuit on the Pro-melt itself? If it's on the unit itself it may just be a faulty detection cicuit. Remove it and hook it up to a source with it's own GFI circuit. This will elimante the problem yet still offer you plenty of protection against electrocution.