Hello…we have a GE Profile fridge, I believe from 2005, with freezer on the bottom. We bought it used after using a propane fridge for about five years. We’ve been electric free, but recently hooked up solar panels. We had no reason to believe our system could not handle a refrigerator, but we’ve run into some problems. The fridge seems, to us at least, to be drawing a lot of power when the compressor runs. The condensor fan is broken, so we put a household fan on it to simulate that and see how it ran. It has been running for over 24 hours at this point. The compressor is not hot, and not running nearly as frequently as it was when there was no fan. The fridge and freezer compartments are cold. However, when the compressor is on, it draws between 10 and 12 amps, according to the digital read out we have for our solar system. Is this a normal amount? I’m having trouble finding the info online. The fridge is rated for 3.5 amps on the label and I assumed that was max usage. Is that incorrect? Thanks for the help…we need to figure out if we can keep/fix this thing or not.
If the compressor is running ok, your current reading is bogus. Use an amprobe on the fridg, should be around 1- 1.5 amp when the compressor is running.