I know a few of you all like to mash overnight in the electric brew systems. I do too, but wanted to encourange folks to give things a good inspection anytime you have the bottom off the thing.
Below are the terminals of a 120v switch on my system. I had the bottom off of it to replace the kettle temp sensor that stopped working and spotted the missing heat shrink, then saw the melted plastic. The heat shrink was in crumbles underneath everything so this thing was really hot. From what I can tell, this was all due to the spade connector loosening up. I had an electric smoker do the same thing a few years ago. Same sort of spade terminal.
It’s not worth naming names because everything out there uses the stupid conectors. It’s makes assembly cheap and fast and every manufacturer does it to stay competitive. Just be super careful where you have these things sitting when you mash. This thing was likely a couple brews away from failing randomly.
Worked in the Electro/Mechanical field for over 50 years. I’ve seen this many times. If you know Ohm’s law it show that if a loose connection has more resistance, the voltage stays the same, the result will be more current. More current = more heat.
I would replace the plug and the push on lugs, Make sure they are a tight fit, head shrink the connections and check on next use. There might be another part further down the line pulling more current.
Good luck!
Weirdly enough, I was just debating whether to post about melting contacts on my Brewzilla last week. The contacts inside the female end of the power supply cord melted enough to make unplugging the supply cord really difficult. Resistance is apparently not futile.
You might want to have a look inside for suspect connectors. As Joel mentioned, there could be something upstream, or downstream from the melted connection which is causing the current to spike. It’s running on borrowed time though, so hopefully you find it before it catastrophically fails.
It really just appears to be a plug failure. None of the components inside of the Brewzilla’s sealed electrical box appear to be affected. My only real issue is that I’ve gotta find a way to clean the carbon off of the post inside the female socket.
Agree with the post by Joel Arnold above. Based on the picture, your problem appears to be a loose connection in the plug and socket. I would not suggest trying to reuse either. Replacing the cable and plug might be the prudent path.
Unfortunately prudent is chafing up against the pressure to make the next batch. I’m not positive about sourcing the socket and already have the replacement cord. I think I can clean the post pretty well with emery cloth glued to a stick.
When I had the same thing happen to my GF30 (for the same reason) - I replaced the cord and cleaned all the melted plastic off the socket and away it went.
