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    Default fridge tripping electricity safety switch?

    I think my fridge is tripping electricity safety switch.

    The electricity dropped out at 4AM and when I checked my circuit breakers they were all fine, but my electricity safety switch had tripped.

    What does a fridge do at 4AM that it doesn't do at other times?

    its a whirlpool WRX32RWH6

    Any ideas are welcome

    Thanks

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    Its a very common thing.
    Hard to say exactly what it is, as it can be many number of things in the fridge.

    Can you run the fridge on a lead to a non-protected circuit for a night or 2?
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    Are you saying it trips regularly at 4am, or just once?

    It may be a cyclic defrost, or just coincidence of a thermostat cutting in/out.

    Are you sure it's actually the fridge... is the fridge on its own dedicated circuit? (unlikely)

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    With electricity safety switch I assume you mean an RCD circuit breaker.
    If it trips in the defrost cycle then it could mean that the heating element is faulty and it has a closed or intermittent contact to earth.
    So don't change anything and observe if it happens again in the next 24-48 hours and repeats with somewhat regular intervals.
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    Quote Originally Posted by mtv View Post
    Are you saying it trips regularly at 4am, or just once?

    It may be a cyclic defrost, or just coincidence of a thermostat cutting in/out.
    I think MTV is on to it. Auto-defrost uses a heating element on the evaporator coils, and uses a timer to run through the cycle once a day. Heating elements are notorious for Earth-leakage.

    Back when I was contracting, you could have a dedicated non-rcd-protected outlet, specifically for the fridge, because of their propensity to have a 'bit' of Earth-leakage. Not sure if current AS/NZS 3000 rules still allow it.


    edit:Too fast for me, Mr. nomeat.
    Last edited by Onefella; 03-12-15 at 02:02 PM. Reason: fast-draw McGraw (aka nomeat)

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    Just to be clear, when I say electricity safety switch, I am talking about a stand alone residual-current device (R.C.D) in the switchboard.

    It well may not even be the fridge, but I cant think of anything else that could be a problem at 4AM (no hot water heater)

    I dont have a dedicated electricity circuit to test the fridge on, or a circuit that the R.C.D is not protecting

    The thermostat cutting in/out should be happening, Im guessing here, about every hour?

    so Im thinking if it is the fridge, it may well be the defrost cycle cutting in

    So far it has only happened once, fingers crossed it was a one off

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    A silly question perhaps but unless its got a timer or a clock, how does it know its 4am to do a cyclic defrost if that is possibly the cause of tripping the R.C.D switch?

    The thermostat cuts in and out many many times during a 'Day' so doubtful thats the problem.

    Something that rarely happens today but during the wee small hours the Mains Voltage used to climb sometimes as high as 250 Volts when all were in their beds and I wondered if that was happening, could the fridge/defrost circuit not like it?
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    Quote Originally Posted by gordon_s1942 View Post
    A silly question perhaps but unless its got a timer or a clock, how does it know its 4am to do a cyclic defrost if that is possibly the cause of tripping the R.C.D switch?

    The thermostat cuts in and out many many times during a 'Day' so doubtful thats the problem.

    Something that rarely happens today but during the wee small hours the Mains Voltage used to climb sometimes as high as 250 Volts when all were in their beds and I wondered if that was happening, could the fridge/defrost circuit not like it?

    I think weve only had 1 electricity blackout in the 5 years Ive lived here, but you do bring up an interesting point RE the rising mains voltage in the wee hours of the night.

    I dont think theres what you would think of as a clock in the fridge, but maybe the engineer who designed the fridge thought to add an outside air temperature probe, so when fridge saw a drop in the air temperature outside the fridge , = run defrost cycle to take advantage off peak electricity pricing

    if no outside air temperature drop seen in 24 hours, run defrost cycle in the 25th hour regardless


    Maybe Im over thinking it, but I have heard of some very clever engineers thinking outside the box.

    I guess what I really need is a whirlpool fridge Guru

    But I like the way you guys are thinking, Cheer

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    Quote Originally Posted by Manwhore View Post
    I guess what I really need is a whirlpool fridge Guru
    The possible causes given are common to all brands.

    I doubt it's a fault exclusive to Whirlpool.

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    Some moisture from the defrosting,probably has dried up.A customer had the same problem,they plugged it in the GPO in the garage,which was not on the RCD for 24 hrs,good as gold now.

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    All automatic defrost have a Timer.So it could happen at the same time.

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    Most domestic defrost timers I have replaced, had a basic mechanical (motor) 24-hour timer, with one cycle*, at 12 hours.

    So if you plugged your fridge in during the day, it would defrost during the night.

    Commercial defrost systems are more complicated.

    * A domestic defrost timer cycle, usually involves switching off the compressor and switching the heater on for 15-20 minutes, while keeping the fan on.

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    Default New game

    Hi, all
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bethtamm View Post
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    Thanks guys,

    Everything I can think of is as it was last night, lets see what happens tonight

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    XX live update XX

    9 30PM
    R.C.D trips again, its been fine all day, I reset the R.C.D, n waited, 2 minutes later it trips again as I watch it.

    circuit breakers seem fine, but the RCD is not happy


    I have an old style thermometer in the fridge, its showing 3c and theres ice cube in the freezer
    Last edited by Manwhore; 03-12-15 at 10:04 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Manwhore View Post
    I have an old style thermometer in the fridge, its showing 3c and theres ice cube in the freezer
    OK. So from this, you deduce what?

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    it means in spite of the weird RCD tripping problem, the fridge is performing exactly as it should.

    I dont know if you realize it, but thats valuable information when trying to find a fault.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Manwhore View Post
    it means in spite of the weird RCD tripping problem, the fridge is performing exactly as it should.
    Hate to state the obvious, but if your fridge is the cause of the RCD breaker tripping, then it is not performing exactly as it should.

    So, from all the information you've been given, you still can't figure out why your fridge might run "exactly as it should" for a while, then trip the RCD?

    Quote Originally Posted by Manwhore View Post
    I dont know if you realize it, but thats valuable information when trying to find a fault.
    Thanks for the tip.

    When you finally figure out what the real problem is, please let us know.

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    Unplug Fridge and reset. Fridge will be happy for a few hours.
    If it still trips, unplug all appliances and reconnect each one per hour to see what's at fault.

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