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tp0d
yabbazooie
Premium Member
join:2001-02-13
Bulger, PA

1 edit

tp0d to Speedy Petey

Premium Member

to Speedy Petey

Re: The GFI for the refrigerator tripped

said by Speedy Petey:

said by tp0d:

Fridges shouldnt be on a GFI.. Theres a very remote chance of a water grounded fault, and if the gfi trips when someone isnt around, the contents of the fridge go bad..

Duno if a sparky will agree with me, but this is what I`ve been taught..

-j

If I may ask, what "water" do you suppose could have done this??? Where is water in contact with electrical equipment?
If a heater element, or any other part of the refer, then there would obviously be a problem with the refer, and the water would not be the actual problem.

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.

You may ask... but I`m not jumping into this tennis match, just elaborating my side. Just a plumber sharing my opinion

Water can contact a ckt at a solenoid connection, possible leakage from freezer if the coils freeze over, door heaters as mentioned above.. but this was not the basis of my point. I meant the chance of water causing a partial short to ground or chassis is pretty damn rare in a ressy setting. Much more of a chance for the windings in the compressor to overheat and cause the failure of the insulation, which I have seen in fridges and a few washing machines. Mostly older equipment of course. Hell, my tightwad nephew has a beer fridge that when he moved into his new house, it tripped the GFI immediately. His solution? Change the plug to a standard lol.. House hasnt burned down yet heh.. When I remodeled my kitchen, I put 20a GFIs on the left and right of the sink, but not for the fridge..

As for who taught me this.. my dad.. Who once lost a full freezer of food because a stupid GFI.. Best they can remember, a lightening storm tripped it, they didnt check it for a while, and you can guess the rest.. GFI didnt trip after resetting it tho, until it was changed out..

-j
54067323 (banned)
join:2012-09-25
Tuscaloosa, AL

54067323 (banned)

Member

said by tp0d:

I meant the chance of water causing a partial short to ground or chassis is pretty damn rare in a ressy setting.

I guess it depends upon the conditions the fridge is working in, close to the shore or with a prevailing wind off the ocean will bring moisture and in some cases salt air.

Much more of a chance for the windings in the compressor to overheat and cause the failure of the insulation, which I have seen in fridges and a few washing machines.

Overheating of the windings, commonly the result of failing to keep the condenser clean is a cancer to the insulation of the windings which are quite thin, it begins with a little bit of resistance to the grounded frame the wiring is wrapped around.

At this point it can trip a GFCI.

But most fridges are not connected thru a GFCI and what happens then is the already overloaded compressor has now picked up the burden of the failing wiring overheating it even more causing more insulation damage and sooner or later there is a flashover and that’s the end of the compressor.

And that’s a hard fault and easy to shoot.