Beer fridge trippin

[red61cj5]

So the beer fridge in my garage works fine for days, then trips the GFI its plugged into. Its a give away fridge, but works great, sometimes for a week or more, then I come out and the GFI is tripped. First I blamed the GFI, and changed it out, the new one worked fine for 3 weeks, then we had a power outage, and now its doing it again. 20 amp breaker, 20A gfi, its the first outlet on that breaker, followed by 4 non gfi outlets. Not an electrician, am I missing something obvious? Thanks in advance

 

[bruincounselor]

Anything else on the circuit? Starting with the obvious.
Is the compressor tripping due to excessive load on startup?

 

[Showkey]

Nuisance tripping of GFI caused by freezers and refrigerators is fairly common and many will say they should not be used for these appliances. Many report of spoiled "frozen" food from an unnoticed GFI trip.

Some will say there is something wrong with the frig...........

Unlikely there will be a consensus here other than warm beer *****.

 

[Aceman]

Your fridge most likely has an electrical issue and is leaking current to ground.

The GFCI is most likely doing it's job and picking up that current imbalance.

You can try replacing the GFCI again, but if it still trips that would just confirm you have a fridge issue, NOT a GFCI issue.

In the electrical world, we would meg or megger to confirm the problem with these kinds of issues. On a throwaway fridge, it's not worth paying someone to test it though.

I'm going to mention it before someone else says motors can't be run on GFCI's. There are entire construction sites the world over being built from the ground up using spider boxes that utilize 100% GFCI receptacles for construction power. So it can be done.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

So the beer fridge in my garage works fine for days, then trips the GFI its plugged into. Its a give away fridge, but works great, sometimes for a week or more, then I come out and the GFI is tripped. First I blamed the GFI, and changed it out, the new one worked fine for 3 weeks, then we had a power outage, and now its doing it again. 20 amp breaker, 20A gfi, its the first outlet on that breaker, followed by 4 non gfi outlets. Not an electrician, am I missing something obvious? Thanks in advance

Does the fridge have a freezer?

If so the likely culprit is a broken defrost bulb...

Anything else on the circuit? Starting with the obvious.
Is the compressor tripping due to excessive load on startup?

Despite popular misconception, GFCIs are NOT OCPDs. They will not trip due to overload...

 

[nsula_country]

Nuisance tripping of GFI caused by freezers and refrigerators is fairly common and many will say they should not be used for these appliances. Many report of spoiled "frozen" food from an unnoticed GFI trip.

Some will say there is something wrong with the frig...........

Unlikely there will be a consensus here other than warm beer *****.

Appliance circuits in a house DO NOT use GFCI or AFCI. Personally, I would not plug a refrigerator or freezer into a GFCI or AFCI to prevent spoilage in the case of a false or minor fault. If it fails, it fails... But I call a fridge/freezer a "Critical Load" thus no protection other than breaker. Motor should have an OL too. I'll take my chances against shock vs warm beer or thawed meat.

Construction site GFCI's are usually monitored or used point of use. Trip will be noticed. How many people check a garage/shop fridge/freezer several times a day to see if it is running? I haven't checked mine in 6 days! But it isn't on a GFCI either!!

Flame away!

CT

 

[AntonLargiader]

OK but the OP is talking about his garage fridge and the exemption is gone. All of the receps in there are probably GFCI so he wants to know how to actually fix it.

 

[red61cj5]

Nothing else on the circuit full time, plugging in a drill or saw does nothing to trip it. would it be reasonably safe to just put it on a non GFI receptacle? Its the first receptacle in the circuit so I could just switch the first and second receptacles. Also I will look into the defrost bulb, any idea where to look (didn't know there was one)

 

[grantw]

Appliance circuits in a house DO NOT use GFCI or AFCI. Personally, I would not plug a refrigerator or freezer into a GFCI or AFCI to prevent spoilage in the case of a false or minor fault. If it fails, it fails... But I call a fridge/freezer a "Critical Load" thus no protection other than breaker. Motor should have an OL too. I'll take my chances against shock vs warm beer or thawed meat.

Construction site GFCI's are usually monitored or used point of use. Trip will be noticed. How many people check a garage/shop fridge/freezer several times a day to see if it is running? I haven't checked mine in 6 days! But it isn't on a GFCI either!!

Flame away!

CT

New code requires kitchen circuits to be BOTH AFCI/GFCI.

My sub panel for the kitchen has full length neutrals, so it will be easy to change out an AFCI/GFCI with a normal breaker if that time of desperation comes. As a ham radio operator having AFCI breakers installed, I fear for the worst.

 

[Showkey]

OK but the OP is talking about his garage fridge and the exemption is gone. All of the receps in there are probably GFCI so he wants to know how to actually fix it.

OP Said it's the first outlet........so rewire that outlet to be non GFCI and the rest of the down stream outlets are still protected ...............but that would be a code violation.

By the way.........want an unforgettable experience...........clean out a freezer witha 1/2 cow that thawed and was not found for more than two weeks. The thawed ice cream really helps to give a full well balanced fragrance bad protein and really bad dairy ����

 

[nsula_country]

OP Said it's the first outlet........so rewire that outlet to be non GFCI and the rest of the down stream outlets are still protected ...............but that would be a code violation.

By the way.........want an unforgettable experience...........clean out a freezer witha 1/2 cow that thawed and was not found for more than two weeks. The thawed ice cream really helps to give a full well balanced fragrance bad protein and really bad dairy ����

How did we make it the past 100 years without GFCI and AFCI?

Swap standard receptacle in first position, then place the GFCI in the second position to protect downstream.

Code violation, yes.

Safe, reasonably safe if fridge has a 3 wire cord.

10-15 min screwdriver exercise to ensure that unless the fridge totally craps out, your contents will be cold.

 

[rlitman]

...By the way.........want an unforgettable experience...........clean out a freezer witha 1/2 cow that thawed and was not found for more than two weeks. The thawed ice cream really helps to give a full well balanced fragrance bad protein and really bad dairy ����

Sounds like it was time for a little vicks on your upper lip.

 

[nsula_country]

New code requires kitchen circuits to be BOTH AFCI/GFCI.

My sub panel for the kitchen has full length neutrals, so it will be easy to change out an AFCI/GFCI with a normal breaker if that time of desperation comes. As a ham radio operator having AFCI breakers installed, I fear for the worst.

I have heard that combination breakers are now required. No way in hell my primary fridge will be on a Combo Breaker!

Thank goodness we built our house under the 2008 code.

I have 2 circuits that are about to get standard breakers in place of AFCI's. Both are outside lighting. Cause of trip on each circuit was incandescent filament partially broken. Once bulb burned out, AFCI trip went away... That is a little too sensitive... Every time a bulb starts to fail (unless it breaks clean), it trips the AFCI. Could be those particular brand bulbs.

CT

 

[AntonLargiader]

How did we make it the past 100 years without GFCI and AFCI?

Getting shocked and having house fires.

You can long for the "good ole' days" of no fault protection all you want, but code-wise those days are pretty much gone.

Have you heard about these "seat belt" things they're putting in cars now?

 

[mm08822]

Nothing else on the circuit full time, plugging in a drill or saw does nothing to trip it. would it be reasonably safe to just put it on a non GFI receptacle? Its the first receptacle in the circuit so I could just switch the first and second receptacles. Also I will look into the defrost bulb, any idea where to look (didn't know there was one)

As a quick test, see if you can find and unplug the quick disconnect to the entire defrost ckt.

 

[mm08822]

By the way.........want an unforgettable experience...........clean out a freezer witha 1/2 cow that thawed and was not found for more than two weeks. The thawed ice cream really helps to give a full well balanced fragrance bad protein and really bad dairy ����

I had same experience moving a fridge that lost power in garage when lightning took out the electric dog fence and same gfci fridge was on.
Homeowner discovered returning from 2 week vacation.
I had to move the fridge to get access to gfci, while moving fridge, door opened and i almost puked. Couldn't get that smell out of my nose for 2 days.

Yes, vicks or some peppermint type oils would have been really helpful.

 

[exranger06]

I recommend the GFCIs with the built-in alarm for fridges. If the GFCI trips, it makes a loud beeping sound to alert you and you won't go 2 weeks without realizing it tripped. I have my beer fridge on a GFCI with alarm, but it's never tripped once. It's an old fridge from the 80s. Also, the fridge is on its own dedicated GFCI without any outlets downstream from it, so nothing else will make it trip.

 

[Shiftless]

Instead of swapping receptacles, would it be a good idea to just use one of these adapters? The result would be to disconnect the grounding prong from the circuit which might keep your GFCI from tripping and preserve your code conforming wiring.

Waiting for a sparky to chime in on this...

 

[cpttuna]

someone should check what kind of beer is being stored.

 

[rlitman]

Instead of swapping receptacles, would it be a good idea to just use one of these adapters? The result would be to disconnect the grounding prong from the circuit which might keep your GFCI from tripping and preserve your code conforming wiring.

Waiting for a sparky to chime in on this...

I don't think that would work, and I think that could be a little dangerous too (it would be truly dangerous if no gfci was involved).

If the GFCI is tripping because of ground fault current, then power must be leaking to ground. The ground pin is one, but NOT the only potential ground path. Either power will leak to ground through its direction with the "ground", i.e. the floor, in which point the GFCI will still trip, or if the fridge is well enough insulated from ground, then the chassis will become energized and the current will flow through you to ground when you first touch it. Regardless, if there is a leak to ground, you have a potentially dangerous situation that can be remedied only by either a well grounded chassis and/or a gfci.

 

[AntonLargiader]

Right. That adapter will ground the same way the receptacle grounds so just extends the existing receptacle by 3/4" or so. No change electrically; the receptacle will still sense and react to the fault. IOW the adapter doesn't actually bypass the fault detection.

 

[6PTsocket]

So the beer fridge in my garage works fine for days, then trips the GFI its plugged into. Its a give away fridge, but works great, sometimes for a week or more, then I come out and the GFI is tripped. First I blamed the GFI, and changed it out, the new one worked fine for 3 weeks, then we had a power outage, and now its doing it again. 20 amp breaker, 20A gfi, its the first outlet on that breaker, followed by 4 non gfi outlets. Not an electrician, am I missing something obvious? Thanks in advance

The GFCI protects the outlets that are downstream of it. I have one in the garage that goes to the front porch, two bathrooms, the rear deck and ends in the basement. I once took apart a bad 15 amp GFCI and under the face plate was a 20 amp socket. They charge more for the 20s.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[6PTsocket]

Instead of swapping receptacles, would it be a good idea to just use one of these adapters? The result would be to disconnect the grounding prong from the circuit which might keep your GFCI from tripping and preserve your code conforming wiring.

Waiting for a sparky to chime in on this...

There are gfci's on hair dryers that only have two 2 prong plugs. With that adapter the leakage from the fridge can go through you instead of the third prong.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[Shiftless]

There are gfci's on hair dryers that only have two 2 prong plugs. With that adapter the leakage from the fridge can go through you instead of the third prong.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

I know my idea wasn't ideal, but the GFCI senses a lack of balance so if current was leaking through a human being, it would trip and shut off current flow in a tiny fraction of a second right? That would be the safety even if there was no third prong ground plug connected to the garage wiring.

 

[AntonLargiader]

So you were talking about installing that adapter without using the grounding screw? That's like just cutting the ground prong off the plug, which doesn't change anything about the GFCI function (which operates using the hot and neutral) but merely defeats the fault grounding. Dangerous, for no benefit.

 

[Shiftless]

Anton:
You have a good point.
Just for the record all of my garage receptacles are GFCI protected including the plug in ceiling lights. And I don't use any disconnected 3 prong adapters either.

I only threw out that idea for consideration if the OP wanted the benefit of avoiding swapping the first 2 receptacles. If I understand the function of the GFCI, it compares the current flow out in the circuit and if is not the same in the hot and neutral, it "interrupts" the flow of electricity thereby preventing shock. So the equipment ground, the third prong on the plug, is out of the equation.
The equipment ground is useful if an electrical fault somehow energizes the cabinet of that beer fridge and the fridge is super well insulated from the earth. In that case the cabinet would pose a shock hazard because it was not grounded through the garage wiring but if the GFCI was on guard, any current flow would stop in something like 20 milliseconds.

 

[AntonLargiader]

Yes, but what would using the adapter have accomplished? It connects to the same hot and neutral that you get if you plug in directly, and we all agree that the GFCI works on the hot and neutral. So I don't see why anyone would consider eliminating the ground, especially on an appliance that seems to have a ground fault.

EDIT: rephrasing it, how would using it keep him from having to swap receptacles?

 

[Shiftless]

Not to belabor a minor point, but it seems to me that the beer fridge is tripping the GFCI because a small current is not going back to the panel neutral but escaping through the ground. That trips the GFCI due to imbalance. If the equipment ground is eliminated by either cutting off the prong (bad) or using a non connected adapter (perhaps also bad) the current cannot escape through the equipment ground.

Instead of trying to work around an obvious problem with the wiring of the fridge I would certainly recommend either repairing the fridge or junking it and buying a new one or getting a used one that works with a GFCI protected circuit.

 

[AntonLargiader]

OK, thanks. I think you are saying that by eliminating the fault current path you can maybe block the fault current itself. That's really throwing the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to fault protection. In order for that to work (keep the imbalance to under 6mA) you would have to allow the ungrounded chassis to essentially open-circuit the defrost bulb, assuming that is the cause of the fault. I don't know how much current that draws, or how much of a leak to ground a bad bulb typically has, but it certainly means you are energizing the chassis with up to 120V. Not a step forward, as we all seem to agree.

 

[walta]

In my opinion the most likely fault is a hair line crack in the defrost heater element that when it gets wet this allows the leakage current to flow and trips the GFIC.

Next check a few stranded wires, bend them left 180° with a ¼ inch radius then back to the right a ¼ inch radius. If the insulation is old and brittle you will hear cracking sounds and the insulation may fall off the wire. If the insulation is brittle junk the unit or replace all the wires.

Test the condensate/ defrost drain tube if it is clogged the water will overflow and may wet something electrical and trip the GFIC.

Walta

 

[onewheat]

To add to broken freezer stories - I was at the Cadaver Lab at a local university to accompany the guy who was calibrating our test frames. I sat on a very large chest freezer which pushed down on the lid and pushed out a small amount of air from inside. I don't know how long that freezer had not been working, but I'm glad I wasn't the one that had to deal with it. I just had to let someone know - but that freezer, the time before that when I was there, had been stocked with limbs and heads for the medical school and judging by the smell, they were definitely not frozen anymore.

 

[rlitman]

I know my idea wasn't ideal, but the GFCI senses a lack of balance so if current was leaking through a human being, it would trip and shut off current flow in a tiny fraction of a second right? That would be the safety even if there was no third prong ground plug connected to the garage wiring.

Correct. Code even allows for GFCI outlets to be placed in locations where no ground is available, to allow devices with ground pins to be plugged in.

 

[nsula_country]

Well, has it tripped lately?

Did you find the defroster element?

Still have fridge on GFCI?

CT

 

[FloridaSlayer]

I know post is 6 yrs. old and no one going to read this but, OP wanted to fix fridge not learn about GFCIs which I would NEVER have a fridge plugged into one CODE or not it's a big NO! The problem is electricians think Codes are everything and that they know everything. If it isn't FLUKE or KLIEN its junk and life threatening!!!! These Prima donnas are all the same, I worked/know 100s of electrician's including my father-in-Law, and maybe 20 are normal thinking people Father in-law isn't one of the 20.

As a retired HVACR tech I know more about electricity then the majority of "Electrician's" do. With that said I am sure im going to get banned now LMAO, I could probably tell the OP what was wrong with his fridge, but he didn't reply back to the only one who was interested in fixing the fridge, 6 yrs ago. Cool site though I accidentally found it the page.

 

[nadogail]

First time looking at this thread, the most probable cause is excessive leakage current in the Defrost Heater. That is why my refrigerators and freezers are on dedicated circuits and the single receptacles are hidden behind the appliance.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

I know post is 6 yrs. old and no one going to read this but, OP wanted to fix fridge not learn about GFCIs which I would NEVER have a fridge plugged into one CODE or not it's a big NO! The problem is electricians think Codes are everything and that they know everything. If it isn't FLUKE or KLIEN its junk and life threatening!!!! These Prima donnas are all the same, I worked/know 100s of electrician's including my father-in-Law, and maybe 20 are normal thinking people Father in-law isn't one of the 20.

As a retired HVACR tech I know more about electricity then the majority of "Electrician's" do. With that said I am sure im going to get banned now LMAO, I could probably tell the OP what was wrong with his fridge, but he didn't reply back to the only one who was interested in fixing the fridge, 6 yrs ago. Cool site though I accidentally found it the page.

interesting first post

there were several people who pointed to the likely culprit in the fridge... not just one person

 

[dogdog]

So the beer fridge in my garage works fine for days, then trips the GFI its plugged into. Its a give away fridge, but works great, sometimes for a week or more, then I come out and the GFI is tripped. First I blamed the GFI, and changed it out, the new one worked fine for 3 weeks, then we had a power outage, and now its doing it again. 20 amp breaker, 20A gfi, its the first outlet on that breaker, followed by 4 non gfi outlets. Not an electrician, am I missing something obvious? Thanks in advance

If it is making loud buzzing or humming sounds, check if it is a problem with the run compressor on the compressor. I had to replace that recently on a whirlpool fridge.

Check and then search Amazon for one.



******* errrrrrrr 200 year old thread revival….. Wtf who does this.

 

[dogdog]

I know post is 6 yrs. old and no one going to read this but, OP wanted to fix fridge not learn about GFCIs which I would NEVER have a fridge plugged into one CODE or not it's a big NO! The problem is electricians think Codes are everything and that they know everything. If it isn't FLUKE or KLIEN its junk and life threatening!!!! These Prima donnas are all the same, I worked/know 100s of electrician's including my father-in-Law, and maybe 20 are normal thinking people Father in-law isn't one of the 20.

As a retired HVACR tech I know more about electricity then the majority of "Electrician's" do. With that said I am sure im going to get banned now LMAO, I could probably tell the OP what was wrong with his fridge, but he didn't reply back to the only one who was interested in fixing the fridge, 6 yrs ago. Cool site though I accidentally found it the page.

Lmfao…. Do tell us how much you know about electricity. I don’t know what other meters you are comparing your fluke to or the criteria to make the claim. Just because you worked hvacr for 200 years is not a credential.

 

[red61cj5]

If it is making loud buzzing or humming sounds, check if it is a problem with the run compressor on the compressor. I had to replace that recently on a whirlpool fridge.

Check and then search Amazon for one.



******* errrrrrrr 200 year old thread revival….. Wtf who does this.

lol. didnt expect to see this one again, but I guess I did leave it hanging. So for those interested, I took the route of just moving the gfi downstream so the fridge was in a regular outlet. No problems since, fridge still working to this day.

 

[bronc076]

MMMMM Beer!