Fridge tripping RCD

[leenowell]

Hi All

Just got home and the circuit the fridge is on has tripped the RCD. On further analysis it looks like it is the fridge (Fischer and Paykel double fridge freezer) itself. Any ideas how to figure out what is wrong with it?

Any help appreciated

Thanks

Lee.

[Brian-Gaff]

Well I wonder, does it have any capacitors for suppression of switches or other things? If it was something major I'd expect it to just ping it every time it was running. Other than that fridges have way too much electronic clutter these days, and this part obviously needs a power supply somewhere. Could of course be something as simple as some melt water getting where it should not. Dead spider? Don't laugh, it does happen apparently! Brian

[Harry Bloomfield]

First you need to make absolutely certain, it is the fridge tripping the RCD, rather than the domestic wiring or some other faulty appliance causing the trip. Does the RCD only protect the the one circuit, or is it a whole house RCD. If it protects just the one circuit, could the fridge be temporarily put on another circuit, protected by a different RCD, even if a long extension is needed to do that? Even a plug in RCD could be used on the different circuit.

If the other RCD trips, then obviously the fridge has a fault. Then worth taking a look at the back of the fridge, to see if any condensate water has overflowed the evaporator to drip onto the wiring around the motor.

[leenowell]

Yes definitely the fridge. On the normal circuit if the fridge is switched on the RCD will trip after a few seconds. Fridge boots up but then trips it . With fridge is switched off circuit is fine. Also connected the fridge to another circuit and when switched on same thing happens. Assume it is some thing to do with when the compressor fires.

[leenowell]

Hi All

Quick update. I have done some more troubleshooting... At the back of the f ridge is a grey box which takes the incoming mains and there are 2 wires co ming from it to a black box. I have tried disconnecting both wires (individ ually) at the black box end and powered up the fridge. Each time it trips. So my thinking is it must be something to do with the grey box.

Having taken the front cover (which says do not open due to risk of electri cal shock!!) It has several plugs of wires and a "warranty void if removed" sticker. So I guess this must be the power supply / transformer and the br ains of the operation.

Any ideas?

[leenowell]

Ok so against their advice I took the grey box out and helpfully at the bot tom are a load of connectors and thankfully they were labelled. I took the "defrost heater" plug out and the fridge seems to be working - well at lea st not tripping anything. Now investigating where the thing is and how I ge t a replacement one.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Almost certainly some kind of winding to reath short in the compressor motor.

Unless its easy to replace and a cheap spare is available or the whole iunit is under guarantee chuck it on the skip

[Andrew]

Fischer and Paykel fridges tend to be on the large side, coming from New Zealand where they need to keep lots of dairy and meat cool.

You'll need a few friends to chuck it anywhere.

[leenowell]

Yeah big indeed. Now I have figured out it is the defrost heater. Now sourcing one and finding out how to get to it is the next part of the drama

[Sam]

Much more often the defrost heater.

It always is with defrost heaters.

or the whole