Smoker trips gfi breaker

[jeff_smoke]

Just started doing this. I unplugged the oven and the
puck feeder trips the breaker by itself. The fuse looks fine.
We did have some lightning recently and the oven was plugged
in at the time on my porch but was not turned on.
Thoughts?

[tskeeter]

The gfi is tripping because it is measuring a very small imbalance in the current between the hot side of the circuit and the neutral side of the circuit. 

I'd open up the smoke generator and check the wiring for insulation wear. 

Some questions.  Does the gfi trip when the puck feeder cycles, or does it trip when the puck burner is heating up?  If it only trips when the puck feeder cycles, I'd suspect that the arm between the motor and the shuttle has rubbed against a wire and worn through the insulation.  If the shuttle operation doesn't affect the gfi,  I'd look carefully at the wiring to the puck burner.  If I still didn't see anything, I'd look carefully at the rest of the wiring in the smoker generator.

It is also possible that the gfi was damaged by your recent lighting storm.  If you can't find a problem with the smoke generator, I'd replace the gfi and see if the problem goes away.

[beefmann]

i agree with  the  imbalance between the  hot and neutral.. you  may  have  something grounding its  self out,, ot leaking voltage to  ground... open the  smoke generator  clean =it throughly and check all connections