Electrical Shock

[Hollywood80]

Curious about the electrical shock originating from my vendo 81.  It only occurs when the kids touch the machine  after exiting the spa and walking over to the machine with wet feet and trying to vend from it. They are obviously grounding the machine.  It is not an issue otherwise.  The machine itself is in a dry protected area.  I have checked the electrical cord and did use electrical tape to cover a couple of cracked areas on the cord.  I looked in the machine and followed the wires to the compressor/motor and all appears to be in order to me.  "to me" is of course the qualifier here.  Anything anyone can suggest for a simple man to check out would be appreciated.  Thanks. Bob

[rayg]

Bob, What I think is happening is part of the frame is slightly energized, possible do to a bad ground. when the kids are standing with wet feet there is enough of a path to ground due to the potential different (voltage) for current flow thus a shock vs with shoes on etc... Try using a multimeter and clip one lead to a good hard ground i.e. a outlet ground and with the other lead touch at the spots where the shocks are occurring  and see if you measure any voltage. another way to try is run your finger tips barley touching across those spots where the shocks are occurring what you should feel is something close to a slight humming/vibration sensation.  Let me know how it goes.

Ray

[collecture]

I'd spend the $50 and get a brand new harness and rewire it - spend the $150 if the original fans are there too. Well worth the investment when kids are involved!
My six cents....

[Creighton]

Yikes!!
All good advice. Unplug until new wiring in place.
Creighton

[johnieG]

Yep, sound like you've got a voltage leakage issue, high enough to be felt as you've described, but low enough as not to trip a circuit breaker ( I assume it's not on a GFI type outlet which would trip instantly in this instance) Unplug it, rewire it with a grounding line cord / wiring harness & replace both the evaporator & condenser fan motors while you're at it, if your machine has the old heater-resister still in place inside the coindoor , make sure it's electrically disconnected from the line.  also double check the door-light ballast, the old magnetic style ballast's are very prone to electrically breaking down & leaking current to the chassis of the machine, even when the lamp is unlit.   

also make sure the compressors grounding/bonding wire is in place & grounded to the chassis, as the compressor is isolated by it's rubber anti-vibration bushings, the green ground wire should go from the compressors electrical inlet pins area to the mounting plate ( which is grounded via the retaining bolt to the main chassis, assuming it's still there)

[vend_dr]

Unplug the machine and do not use it until the source of the shock is found.The government now requires all new vending machines to be equipped with a ground fault cord due to the death of a 13 year old who came out of a hotel pool went to the vending machine, dropped one of his coins under the machine knelt down and reached under the machine touched the cabinet with his arm and was killed by an electrical shock. The cause of the shock was a faulty ground to the machine.