I have a 20 yr old Jenn-Air Refrigerator, bought new, with freezer on top. About a week ago we found that we had an electrical problem in the house that was causing a low grade current to pass through everything that had metal in it, eg, bed frames, coils in mattresses, furniture etc into the people which felt like a constant low grade current. We had an electrician in on Wednesday this week who found and repaired, a few loose ground wires in the breaker panel and a couple of outlets that needed the ground wires tightened. He also checked several outlets in the kitchen to make sure they were grounded but did not check the outlet the stove or fridge were plugged into.

Thursday night, I had my hand on the counter beside the sink and reached across to the fridge door while continuing to hold the counter and got an electric shock from the fridge door. I did not get a shock when only touching the fridge. My son also got a shock from the fridge after holding the counter and touching the fridge door.
As long as we touched nothing else, we did not get a shock from the fridge. I called the electrician Friday but was unable to reach him.

Friday night I was holding the fridge door and reached for a towel that was hanging on the handle of the stove and got a shock when I touched the wet towel. Again if I was not touching two things at the same time I did not get a shock and have not received one since because I have been careful not to touch anything else when I am touching the fridge door.

Is it possible that the fridge is the source of my problem, or the outlet the fridge is plugged into. At no time before Thursday night did we receive a shock when touching any appliance or the counter.

As you may know this is a holiday weekend in Canada so I will be unable to call anyone until Tuesday. Do I call an appliance repair man and have them look the fridge over, or call the electrician to check all the circuits in the kitchen? At this point I am totally confused with all this. Please help me

Thanks Jerry for your answer. I was never able to reach the original electrician so I called a new company that checked the outlet the fridge was plugged into. Apparently the outlet had some crossed wires in it and he plugged the fridge into another outlet that was alone on a separate circuit behind the fridge. (I have no idea how it got plugged into the other outlet but the only thing that comes to mind is last spring 2011, we unplugged the fridge and let it defrost completely for 24 hours and it may have been plugged back in to the wrong outlet. However, that is one heck of a long time to have it plugged into the wrong outlet before having problems) But NO more shocks afterwards!

Then about 2 weeks later the light in the fridge blew. I thought it was only the bulb but there was a black charred mark on the door of the fridge at the level of the light and after changing the bulb I found the lighting circuit was dead. Not sure what happened that caused this to happen but now I have no light in the fridge but I`m not getting shocks from it either and the fridge itself seems to be working fine with the exception of the light.

Actually in September 2011 we had our water heater changed, however it is a gas water heater and I don`t think it has any electrical parts but I may be wrong.

We have had some weird electrical things happening in the house in the last 2 months eg: go to use the washer and the breaker has blown. On a different day, go to use the dryer and the breaker is blown there. All we did was reset each breaker without further problems with either appliance. But I am now worried about what the heck is going on with the appliances in this house. The washer and dryer are less than a year old and as far as I know are on separate circuits from the rest of the house. I do know for sure that the dryer is on a separate circuit I`m just not positive about the washer. My problem is that I am disabled and can`t do the testing on the panel to find out exactly what is on each breaker.

I just wonder if the fridge is still a problem even though it is no longer giving shocks to anyone. Have you ever heard of the lighting circuit in a fridge blowing? Should I call an appliance repair person? I just think given the age of the fridge, they will just tell me to replace the fridge and not really check out if the problem is repairable.

At this point I don't know where to look or who to call to find and fix the problem. The second electrician charged me $600 to unplug the fridge and plug it into another outlet that was already there. They did check the breaker panel too, but as far as I know they did nothing else for the $600 other than give me a long spiel about how qualified they were to do the job.

Thanks Jerry so much for your input. I was leaning toward calling an electrician instead of an appliance repair person just because it seems to be so widespread throughout the house. The washer and dryer are in the back of the basement on a totally different circuit from the fridge that is in the front of the house, upstairs in the kitchen. (it is a raised bungalow style house built in 1957) has been rewired and new breaker panel installed about 8 years ago. For brevity's sake I didn't mention in my last post that the fire department were also here during that period doing an inspection of the wiring for possible fire hazards, and they didn't find the problem either.

The second electrician did disconnect the bad outlet and tied off the wires to it while they were here but I agree with you there is definitely a problem still going on and it's probably electrical.

My biggest problem with this whole thing is that I can't pin down any incident that happened shortly before it started and I'd think I should be able to remember something that started the series of problems. Our last problem was 2 weeks ago when the dryer breaker had blown for no apparent reason. Resetting it, appeared to fix the problem. The previous week, the washer breaker went out and was reset without further problems.

The one and only thing that happened in this house, shortly before this all started was I had a Smart Meter installed by hydro. They have categorically refused to come out and examine the installation to make sure it was done correctly and the other thing that happened within a week or so of that happening was the water company came and changed their meter too. I don't know if a water meter has an electrical hook up or not, but the Smart Meter is put in the panel. Short of hydro coming, the installation has been inspected by every electrician and the fire dept and I was told the installation was correct. I think I need to find an electrical forum to talk to some electricians.

Thanks a lot for all your input, it has been very helpful if for nothing else than to rule out the fridge as the source.

Hi Jerry
I forgot to ask you if the wiring circuit for the light in the fridge can be replaced when the fridge is close to 22 yrs old?

I'll look for it tonight and let you know thanks!