I have a new house and all my circuits are protected. I have the Amerique 066 smoker. I have tried multiple circuits and they all throw the circuit breaker. I ordered a new heating element And installed it. The smoker still throws multiple circuit breakers.
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I had the same problem & plugged it in to an unprotected outlet inside the house via extension cord to let it run for a bit. After that I plugged it back in to the protected outlet & haven't had an issue except 1 time when it got water on the element. Same thing, worked fine again after getting dried out.
These smokers can generate a fair amount of condensation inside from the meat as it smokes in addition to the moisture from the wood itself. Normally, this is not a problem. If your GFCI outlets are overly sensitive, they will trip. Also, and not common, is an mis-wired outlet. Have you connected up another high amp heat generating appliance to the same outlet? Does it trip? How many appliances are on the electrical circuit your smoker is connected to? Are you using an extension cord? and is it in good shape and of same wire gauge of better as the smoker cord? I would look for earth leakage if all else is well.
Also, there could be residual moisture around the element that just sits there between smokes. I suggest, as part of cleaning up, that you wipe down the element where it inters the cabinet and air it out after it cools. Over on another forum I am with, some folks have advised to use a hair dryer on the element because of a similar problem before powering up the smoker and it has apparently solved the issue. I may have mentioned that trick on an earlier post. Good luck.
