The most common Refer heating element is a 325 Watt element for 120VAC. The resistance should be about 44 ohms across the leads from the heating element and zero ohms from either lead to ground.
It's important not only to check the resistance of the element by measuring between each lead (unattached from the control board) but also to check each lead to the outside metal case of the heating element to insure there is no connection (meg ohms or infinite resistance).
Thanks for that info! Those are the type of numbers I would expect. Far from what I am seeing. But obviously you must mean infinite resistance to ground as zero ohms is a dead short.
Also obvious is that my ground fault was more serious than I thought. The heater element must have shorted to ground after it broke. Now I can believe the problem was a short on the AC line as the generator probably saw it as close to being a dead short, but I would expect a low voltage alarm before a missing 1 second of AC after 14 seconds. But it had to be well above a normal load. I wonder if a code 27 can set from an overload.
I just checked the service manual. The very FIRST thing it says to check for a code 27 is the AC voltage. But IIRC, I did and it looked normal during the time I had the issue.
Perhaps when I plug in to the house with no GFI that blew the element apart enough to get rid of the excessive load or short to the generator.
This is all speculation, of course, but an overload shutting down the generator I can make SOME sense out of.
I wonder if I should start a new thread. I have no idea where to start to replace the AC element in my refrigerator. But I think I do have some tech info on my refrigerator that I will read first, just in case there is a clue how to replace the element.
I am now going to consider the big mystery as solved, after finding such a big issue right on the AC line. It sure explains the ground fault issue, it had nothing to do with the rain.
BTW, all this would have been obvious if the refrigerator's outlet had GFI. I will plug in one of those GFI thingies into that outlet after I repair the refrigerator and plug the genny into it.
-Don- Auburn, CA