Fridge tripping circuit breaker

VJ · Jul 14, 2009 2:13 pm

We sold our old fridge (6 years old) to a friend.
We used it in a rental unit for 5.5 years and in our new house for 6 months.

As soon as he plugged the fridge, it tripped the circuit breaker.

I wonder what's the problem - the fridge (which was working well before we turned it off a month ago)? the circuit in my friend's rented unit (sorry, don't know the term to use)? could it be that old unit that they are renting?

DH bought something from Bunnings that would be attached to the fridge to prevent from tripping, but it didn't work. Now, we're thinking of getting a sparky to check what's wrong, but the quote was $55 + $24 per minutes. That's too expensive, considering that we sold the fridge on an installment basis (to help out a friend). I wonder if it's worth it to have it serviced or sell it to a new buyer with a newer house?

Any ideas?

lisanne · Jul 14, 2009 2:29 pm

The circuit the fridge is plugged into would be over loaded

VJ · Jul 14, 2009 3:18 pm

Quote:

The circuit the fridge is plugged into would be over loaded

another friend of ours lent them a newer fridge (smaller too) and it didn't trip...
what could be the reason that our older fridge tripped the circuit breaker, but not the newer fridge?

if it's overloaded, and our friend is renting the place, can we do anything to fix the problem?

lisanne · Jul 14, 2009 4:04 pm

VJ

Quote:

The circuit the fridge is plugged into would be over loaded

another friend of ours lent them a newer fridge (smaller too) and it didn't trip...
what could be the reason that our older fridge tripped the circuit breaker, but not the newer fridge?

if it's overloaded, and our friend is renting the place, can we do anything to fix the problem?

Newer and smaller probably requires less energy to run. Seeing as they are renting, no idea how to fix it other than using an extension lead to try it on another circuit

kek · Jul 14, 2009 4:07 pm

I'd say the fridge is faulty, although it could be an overloaded circuit. Our old beer fridge worked fine at our old place, and for a few weeks in the place we were renting, then it tripped the circuit breaker. We got rid of it - fixing them is usually pretty expensive.

We did have an ongoing problem in the old house with a fuse blowing if we had too many high-energy appliances going at once on that circuit. None of the appliances themselves were a problem, just if we had too many running at once.

Cabinfever · Jul 14, 2009 9:19 pm

It should be very straightforward to test if it's the circuit that's overloaded. But otherwise it just sounds like a hunk of junk. And buying something to stop an appliance from tripping a circuit is a very silly idea. $80 for a sparky is not unreasonable. There are only a few options here:

- test the fridge powered on the circuit by itself
- pay $80 for an electrician
- chuck the fridge and buy a new one
- don't have a fridge

chuth77 · Jul 15, 2009 8:09 am

Is it tripping the circuit breaker? Or the earth leakage? Two seperate issues!

Easy way to check whether the circuit is overloaded... Turn off everything at the wall that is plugged into GPO's... Then plug the fridge in, and turn it on! If it still blows the breaker, then you've got a problem... More than likely in the move, the cable has been compressed and you have a short between Active and Neutral...

Casa2 · Jul 15, 2009 8:30 am

As chuth said, first find out if the circuit breaker or earth leakage detector is tripping. That is, which "box" to you have to switch back on.

VJ · Jul 15, 2009 6:07 pm

thanks everyone for the responses.

the fridge was working well when we were in the old unit..
when we moved to the new house, we were able to use it for 6 months.. until we decided to buy a new fridge.
stored the old one in the garage...
then a friend bought it.
they even saw us moving the food from the old fridge to the new one.. so they knew it was working well before we plugged off.

anyway, you reckon $80 only for an electrician to fix it?
we were just worried that we would be charged more than $100.

ok, we'll try to turn off all appliances and plug the fridge only.
if it doesn't work, then we'll get an electrician.

Quote:

Is it tripping the circuit breaker? Or the earth leakage? Two seperate issues!

will ask DH which one it's tripping.

will let you know what happens next.

Cabinfever · Jul 15, 2009 6:10 pm

I don't know about $80 to fix it, but they should be able to tell you the issue pretty quick.

Salt&Pepper · Jul 15, 2009 8:25 pm

Something similar happened with our fridge...

Its a Whirlpool, not particularly all that new, and worked perfectly at the old house. When we plugged it in at the new place, it didnt work.. Had someone come in and fix it, cant remember how much..

Basically if I can remember well, old houses have no safety switches, new houses do, thats why it didnt work.. I think..

VJ · Jul 16, 2009 1:10 pm

Quote:

I don't know about $80 to fix it, but they should be able to tell you the issue pretty quick.

That's what i'm worried here... electrician's quote was $55 per visit then $20+/15 minutes.
What if it takes more than an hour to fix it?
And because it's a rental unit, what if the only fix is to do something with the circuit, which the owner/landlord should be notified?

Ari · Jul 16, 2009 1:18 pm

The $55 doesn't include any time in it? Like the first half an hour?

VJ · Jul 16, 2009 6:12 pm

Quote:

The $55 doesn't include any time in it? Like the first half an hour?

Not yet... it's just the call out fee...

another quote i got just today... $88 call out fee including 1st quarter hour...
then $22 per quarter hour...
so almost the same as the 1st quote.

VJ · Jul 16, 2009 6:14 pm

Quote:

Something similar happened with our fridge...

Its a Whirlpool, not particularly all that new, and worked perfectly at the old house. When we plugged it in at the new place, it didnt work.. Had someone come in and fix it, cant remember how much..

Basically if I can remember well, old houses have no safety switches, new houses do, thats why it didnt work.. I think..

it's the other way around in our case..
we used it in a newer rental unit.. then when we moved to the new house, it still worked, but when it was moved to an older rental unit.. it didn't work.

Nat the cat · Jul 16, 2009 10:27 pm

We had a similar problem, but it started when we upgraded from the old style filament breakers to the modern ones. Things that didn't trip started to trip the breakers so it might be the sensitivity of the new house?