Frequently Asked Questions About Domestic Refrigerator Repair:
Older refrigerator trips GFI breaker
I have an Absocold Corp. free standing household small refrigerator that I acquired second hand and it has been working fine for about three weeks. I have it set up on my screened in back porch, and it is tied into a 15 Amp GFI Test breaker for my porch receptacles. In the last couple days or so, it has been tripping the breaker every time that I reset it. The breaker stays on about 20 or 30 seconds at the most before tripping again. It sounds like the Compressor starts working before it trips. The wiring diagram shows some sort of overload protection device. Do you think this could be the problem, or do you have any other ideas what it could be.
If this refrigerator has a grounded plug end it likely has a ground fault somewhere. Problem is a lot of refrigerators were manufactured before GFI's were invented. I've even seen some models wired to run the defrost timer off the ground wire.
Your only other option is to see if it runs on a non GFI circuit. Make sure the cabinet won't give anyone any shocks though, if you don't know, or have the equipment to test this, perhaps you could hire an electrician or appliance tech just to be safe.
|
