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Just picked up a new/used garage fridge for $50 bucks and it will only run for about ten hours before tripping my 20 amp GFI. Any ideas?
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To be honest a refrigerator shouldn’t be on a GFI. Is it tripping the GDI or the breaker? If it runs for 10 hours and then trips the GFI I would think it is in the defrost circuit. The only problem is this refrigerator has an additive defrost and I don’t know of a way to force it into defrost (maybe someone else will). What I am getting at is it will be hard to catch it in the act. What I would do is start at the defrost heater. See if it has any continuity to ground. Disconnect the heater and set your ohmmeter (if you have one) to the highest setting and test from one wire to the metal part of the heater. If you get any reading at all replace the heater. Post what you find. Refrigerator repair guide
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Here is the tech sheet with how to force a defrost http://www.servicematters.com/d...0Sheet%20-%202169394.pdfIf you have another plug with a GFI in the garage try it. If the GFI is the in wall type it is not uncommon for these to go bad. Especially when running a relatively high current and electrically noisy motor like the compressor. Or run it on a non GFI circuit, it will probably be OK. Remove the evaporator cover in the freezer. Check that all connections are OK and properly insulated. Any moisture that gets to a connection and provides a circuit path to the frame will trip the GFI. The GFI trips at milli-amps of leakage so it very sensitive. Check that the ground straps and line in wires are properly connected. |
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Rank: Member
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Originally Posted by: denman  Here is the tech sheet with how to force a defrost http://www.servicematters.com/d...0Sheet%20-%202169394.pdfIf you have another plug with a GFI in the garage try it. If the GFI is the in wall type it is not uncommon for these to go bad. Especially when running a relatively high current and electrically noisy motor like the compressor. Or run it on a non GFI circuit, it will probably be OK. Remove the evaporator cover in the freezer. Check that all connections are OK and properly insulated. Any moisture that gets to a connection and provides a circuit path to the frame will trip the GFI. The GFI trips at milli-amps of leakage so it very sensitive. Check that the ground straps and line in wires are properly connected. Thxs for the info. All outlets in garage are on a GFI. Anyway, tripped GFI for about a week and now has been running strong for a week. So I guess it fixed itself. Problem solved!
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Problem solved!
You are very optimistic.
I would not put too much faith in it for a while re: having a couple hundred dollars of frozen food go bad.
Could be that there was some moisture in the freezer section that was creating a circuit path to the frame/case and it dried up.
Anyways that is where I would look first if it start happening again.
Who knows with a little luck it may never happen again. |
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