Electrical Problems with New SMO25 Smokette Elite

They say to run off a non GFCI outlet for the seasoning. After that you should be fine.

Frustrating to be certain but nothing to worry about. During the manufacturing process there is often just enough grease around some of the electrical contacts to cause your GFCI to trip. CS will tell you this is a relatively commom occurance. 1 or 2 cooks (non GFCI outlet) just about always takes care of the issue. You may need to run an extension cord from a non GFCI.

I have an SM040 and had this very issue. Like you I wondered if there was a larger problem but the good folks at Cookshack reassured me and since then I have not had any more problems when powering through a GFCI outlet (about 1 year now). Sorry I didn't see this yesterday, I could have saved you a phone call! Let us know how it works out for and have fun with your new Cookshack.

Thanks for the tips. great service by the tech folks at cookshack. Appears I had a premature element failure --- they are sending me replacement element -- assured me it would solve the problem -- absolutely great team and customer service.

When I saw this I thought, as sprocket and Slim did, it would be the old GFCI thing which is annoying but not a big deal.
You were wise, one way or the other, to call Cookshack to check it out.
Unfortunately, as you said, they determined you had a premature element failure.
I know I hate it when I fall in the “stuff happens” category.
The important thing is they were able to fix you up and you were happy with their response.
I hope this gets you back up and running.
Please keep us posted so we know how it turns out for you.

You’re gonna like the way you smoke

I just went through this on my dedicated 20 amp circuits in my garage. It was a heating element on my Amerique. IT runs on a 50 foot extension chord now on my 20 amp dedicated circuits and even my 15 amp circuit as well.

"most" not all of the time, when a GFCI trips it's because of a grounding issues in the element. That's why the suggestion is to season it on a non-GFCI. After the element is "seasoned" (whatever that means) then it seems to work fine.

The only other time I see GFCi trip is when the element goes bad, after the smoker has been in use. Something happens and the grounding because corrupted. Not all elements do this, but when the GFCI trips, that's the first thing to check.