Anyone know anything about fridges?

[marshbrewer]

I brought a fridge from Facebook, which now I've got it home, has stopped working. As soon as you plug it in, it trips the RCD. My other fridge works fine from the same socket, so it's deffo the fridge.

Are there any obvious things to check before I take it for a trip to visit Mr Tip? I've already replaced the fuse.

 

[Rodcx500z]

A good check of the wiring for loose or chafed wires, I am no sparky but worth a go, hope you get it fixed

 

[Leon103]

Take it back to seller

 

[Petrolhead]

2nd back to seller.

 

[marshbrewer]

Can't be returned, unfortunately as it was working in their house, and indeed when plugged it in after leaving it to rest for 24 hours. It's just fine wrong since. That's the risk with 2nd hand stuff.

 

[foxy]

Check the wiring, where the power goes in could be a wire has come loose, it shouldn't be much more than that. I had to replace the fuse in a kegerator last week where a cockroach had fried itself under the circuit board.

 

[johncrobinson]

Might have got a bit damp.
I had same problem with a microwave that i stored in a garage for a few days whilst moving house
after a while in my warm kitchen it was fine.
RCDs are very very sensitive.

Other than that you will need a sparky to give it the once over.

 

[dwhite60]

What's the power consumption? It's on a tag somewhere in either amps or watts. You may not have enough amps available on your circuit to get it started. When it starts it pulls four to eight times the running amps for a fraction of a second to get the compressor started.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[johncrobinson]

Re dwhite60.>. Thats a good point What is actually tripping ???
Is it the overload MCB ????
Or is it the Earth leakage breaker.?????

 

[MmmBeer]

I had a problem with my brew fridge last summer, I found a thread on here started by Richie_asg1, with his help I managed identify the offending components. With a bit of scouring the net, I bought a PTC relay and overload protector for just over a tenner and it was easily fixed and still happily running.

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/fermentation-fridge-build.81974/

 

[Richie_asg1]

Is it tripping the breaker for that one supply or the main house RCD?.
If it is tripping the main RCD then you have a fault to earth (which would be dangerous), but if it is a rated circuit breaker then it may be repairable.
If you suspect an earth fault, then you need a multimeter to trace out where the fault is, and if it is the compressor itself then it's game over unless you like welding. (Unplug it before you test anything)
You should be able to get to the connections under a cover and check each of the 3 pins to earth. If any of those 3 motor winding pins show a fault to earth then it's dead. Just watch out for the start capacitor as it can hold charge for days, and can give you a shock.

Fridges don't like travel - especially on their sides.

 

[the_quick]

Might be a silly idea, but that how my fridge was tripping, a dodgy light bulb in the fridge. Might be that. Easy to check.

 

[kelper]

Might be a silly idea, but that how my fridge was tripping, a dodgy light bulb in the fridge. Might be that. Easy to check.

But would only trip the breaker when you opened the door................

 

[the_quick]

Silly me......

 

[marshbrewer]

It's just the breaker in the main consumer unit that feeds the garage that blows, and the individual breaker for the ring main in the mini consumer unit in the garage itself is both trip at the same time. Today is the first chance I've had to examine things and it looks like it could be a quick win;

IMG_20200116_124445

• marshbrewer
• Jan 16, 2020

 

[Rodcx500z]

Looks like you found the problem

 

[Richie_asg1]

Yep that would do it. At least it didn't kill you.
If you still have enough length of cable you could cut it at the damage and rewire it to the compressor connection box, or buy a short extension lead and cut the sockets off. Often cheaper to use those than buy the cable and a plug.

 

[marshbrewer]

Right, the lead is fixed, but it still tripped the RCD so I took the cover off the tx1c5 monoblock. As you can see, the live and neutral connectors from the mains lead have come loose and are touching. Looks like another simple fix if I can work out where they connect on the monoblock. Which I can't! Do they go on the same row as the blue and brown wires that go into the fridge?

IMG_20200116_135857

• marshbrewer
• Jan 16, 2020

 

[Richie_asg1]

I'm pretty sure blue neutral is common on all connectors. Live in should go to the thermostat control first, (and light if it's 240v) and when that switches on the feed to the compressor is live.
Sometimes they use standard 3 core into the thermostat which confuses things. Just identify the wires that disappear into the insulated body of the fridge as that will be the thermostat. The start and run/overload switching should be all one block so you can ignore that for now.

If you have a meter just identify the thermostat wiring and wire it as a switch to the compressor live.
I think I can see it as a cable which has Brown Black & Blue wires. In that case compressor brown live goes to a black wire which should logically be switched live.

 

[Rodcx500z]

Looking like you will have a fully working fridge soon