Update: took me 9 days to fix a fridge that was never broken

Got a call three weeks ago about a KitchenAid fridge in Beaverton that kept warming up every couple of days. Owner swore the compressor was going out. I tested the compressor, the start relay, the thermistors, all of it. Pulled the board twice and put it back, cleaned the condenser coils, checked the door gaskets with a dollar bill. Nine days of driving back and forth, about 6 visits, and I finally caught it mid-fail on the last one. The fridge was fine. The outlet behind it was on a circuit shared with a space heater in the next room, and every time the heater kicked on, the fridge browned out and reset its defrost timer. Owner had no idea the heater was on the same breaker. I moved the fridge to the other outlet on the counter circuit and it has held temp for two weeks straight. So now I always ask what else is on that breaker before I touch anything. Anyone else been burned by a lazy shared circuit like this?

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noah37727d ago

Had the same thing happen with a chest freezer in a garage, guy had a table saw plugged into the same circuit and every cut would trip the breaker just enough to reset it. Started carrying a little plug-in voltage meter after that, costs like fifteen bucks and shows a dip the second a load kicks on. Saves you a ton of guessing when the fridge looks fine but keeps acting up.

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