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Refrigerator Keeps Tripping Breaker

Home Improvement Asked by Kevin Peterson on September 19, 2020

Read the whole story before responding. Refrigerator started tripping the circuit after being in our new house for 5 years now. Nothing new has been added to the outlets on that circuit breaker(20 amp). Ran an extension cord to another set of outlets on another circuit breaker(also an 20 amp) and had the same problem. Then decided to try a 3rd outlet on a 3rd circuit breaker(this one a 15 amp which also runs the TV/Box) and have had no issues.

The trip seems to happen after multiple opening and closing of the fridge in a short period of time.

I am not an electrician but this seems wrong to me?

One Answer

You answered your own question. This is a ground fault. Your TV circuit isn't in a wet or unfinished area, so it doesn't have or need ground fault protection, so it doesn't have a problem. Since the problem happens on two different GFCI-protected circuits and didn't happen when the refrigerator was brand new, there likely really is a problem. Multiple opening and closing as a trigger would indicate either some sort of interference that happens (e.g., perhaps there are fans/motors that stop when you open the door and start again when you close it and repeated action causes the ground fault) or maybe some part that has an insulation breakdown and repeated opening/closing of the doors allows condensation to drip down to just the wrong place.

Bottom line: GFCI with refrigerator is generally not a good combination, because if this happened while you were out and didn't find out until the next day, your food would all be spoiled. Or potentially worse, you had the problem and didn't know it and reset the breaker because of something else, you might not realize the refrigerator had been off for several hours.

The ideal solution is to fix or replace the refrigerator. Realistically, the problem is probably not a true safety hazard, but we can't be sure. In many cases, a refrigerator can be plugged into a non-GFCI circuit, but normally the exception is based on the circuit not powering any countertop kitchen receptacles, which typically requires running a separate circuit exclusively for the refrigerator. Extension cords are only a temporary solution.

Answered by manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact on September 19, 2020

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