We've been told we have a short in our refrig and it still works but while we await a new refrigerator my wife is worried that it is a fire risk. Anyone have any thoughts? We have a 50 year old house and the outlet it is plugged into is not a GFI.
A little more info on where and what is shorting would help give some advice, but I'd be worried about fire or electicution too! As for being plugged into a GFI, generally it is recommended that you not plug a refrig or freeze into a GFI. GFIs are pretty sensitive and may trip under the draw these appliances place on them.
if you had a "short" in your unit, your circuit breaker would trip.
whoever told you it had a "short" is an idiot !
do you know WHAT a "short" is ?
there are other failure modes which can produce a fire hazard (frayed insulation, frayed conductors causing high resistance leading to heat/fire, etc)
but a "short" ain't one of them! (presuming your circuit breakers are functional).
a "short" (in this context) would be if hot & neutral (or ground) were to come in direct contact with each other (without a load).. the resulting arc & high current would ('should') trip any sort of protective device.
That does not sound right. A short would either trip the breaker or burn up something.
If you have a good appliance dealer, he'll be delivering the new one tomorrow. .
That's not the reason for not having it on GFI circuit. The reason is that another appliance or something/someone might trip the GFI and the food in the refrigerator would spoil.
Why did you call a repairman in the first place?
Also,
Who told you you had a short?
Shorts inside the compressor are the reason why old friges trip GFCIs. A properly running frige should not trip a GFCI. If you look at a frige that trips a GFCI with a current probe on a scope, looking at the ground, you will see very short duration current spikes. It is not enough to trip a breaker but it does raise the amount of current used and it will trip a GFCI. If it is a short in the winding, closer to the neutral side, there won't be much extra load but it still trips the GFCI.
first place?
I actually posted this situation in a separate thread. Our refrig froze up over last weekend while we were away. Appliance guy said it was the thermostat, but when he came back with the thermostat and he had disconnected it from the wire harness, it continued to run so he was baffled! He then said it wasn't the thermostat but instead a short because when he moved the refrig a few inches from the wall, it would run fine but if he pushed it back against the wall where it usually sits, it would stop working. So we decided to get a new refrig but weren't in a rush as could live with it pulled away from our wall a couple of inches for a few days until we got a chance to get a new one. Well then coincidentally or not, a tiny hole popped in our ice maker's copper water line so we ran a new line over the weekend and I was trying to attach it to the hose on the back of the refrig, I got an electric shock that scared the crap out of me. We'll be ordering the new refrig tonight
first place?
Good grief! That isn't a short that is a circuit break, possibly a loose wire. Bet the problem is in the cord from the refrigerator to outlet or in the outlet. The clue is against the wall it stops working. That is one LAME repairman.
! That isn't a short that is a circuit
He's the son in law of the guy who usually comes out. Quite possible. What is the fix for such a thing? Can it be fixed?
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