said by Speedy Petey:If I may ask, what "water" do you suppose could have done this??? Where is water in contact with electrical equipment?
It collects on the inside edge of the cabinet where the door gasket meets the cabinet and sometimes within the doors and it is the primary reason mullion heaters take a crap.
It is also common to find wet electrical switches in the door boxes of ice and water dispensers.
Water can also be found in direct contact with electrical within the defrost heater (cube release) of ice makers, those heaters are supposed to be sealed but that seal is far from perfect.
And any of the above can easily shunt enough current to the grounded shell to trip a GFCI.
Other less likely suspects are thermostats, defrost timers, evaporator and condenser fans or a cracked or rusted out defrost heater in the evaporator coil.
I'd be interested as to who taught you this. IMO this is the kind of answer someone gives when they really have no idea what they are talking about and just want to sound like they do. Not you, but whoever you heard this from.
Actually it more correct than not, allow me to explain.
Mullion heaters are a common cause if this type of fault, the reason how they are made and how they are applied.
The heaters (the cheap and common ones) are really not much more than a resistive strip sandwiched between two plastic sheets that insulate it from the cabinet and it is held in place with a double sided adhesive.
These strips are applied at the factory and due to speed of assembly and the surface they are applied to it is common for them to peel back a little here and there and where they do this, two things happen.
The heater lacking a cabinet gets hotter than it should and becomes brittle damaging the insulation and the cabinet collects condensation where the heater is no longer in contact with it and eventually the moisture and the heater meet causing a high resistance short to ground.
And if the fridge is on a GFCI it trips as it should.