how much do you guys know about fridges?

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gvfc2

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recently got a Monster Energy IDW G-8 Fridge for FREE!! great deal. except one thing... it trips the breaker when plugged in. what could be causing this?
 

gvfc2

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well it wasnt my breaker it was my neighbors breaker. he was just done messing with it and he seems like a pot head. he grows pot in his garage
 

Doc Sprocket

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The compressor might be shot. They can have a pretty impressive start-up draw to begin with, more so if it's ailing. You might have just gotten a free "room temperature storage cabinet".
 

gvfc2

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i my other neighbor that had it before him said he had it laying on the side and forgot to have it upright long enough and blew the compressor.
 

gvfc2

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ok well i plugged it in and it didnt flip the breaker. guess i got paranoid. but it seems low on freon. i can here the blades of the compressor rubbing on the metal. i might have to refill it. anyone heard of red devil? its a type of coolant

maybe i misheard but sounded like red devil
 

jfxwave

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Most people don't know that breakers get hot and yes they were out. If you have a breaker thats rated for 20 amps and it had a load of 19 and got hot allot, sooner then later it will trip at a lower amp rating. I would always change the breaker first and then check if it still trips, if it does then something is wrong in the fridge or what ever you have plugged in or plug into another outlet not on the same breaker.

compressor rubbing on the metal
Most fridge have fans on the outside/underneath to keep things cool so check to make sure it's not hitting anything also.
 

gvfc2

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well i had it plugged in for awhile and the fans are quiet. at first i was hearing the compressor then i unplugged it for a minute then plugged it back in and the compressor wasnt running. when the compressor stopped i didnt hear the metal rubbing
 

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gvfc2

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well i also noticed one of the fluorescent ballast sockets was melted... now i gotta source another one just like it
 

jamyers

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You might isolate the lighting circuit, and see if the compressor comes on - that ballast may be the short.

To chime in... if you lay a freezer or refrigerator on it's side or back, the oil in the compressor of course settle to the new lowest point inside there. Problem is, that may well be where the compressor inlet is, so if you stand it back up and plug it in right away, the compressor will suck in a slug of oil - and since liquids don't compress like gasses, do, the compressor goes "POOF". So...if you lay one over, when you stand it back up you need to wait a couple of hours for the oil to all settle back down into its normal sump before you plug it in.

Keep in mind, circuit breakers are for protecting the WIRING, not necessarily whatever is plugged into the wiring. If you've got 14-gauge wires, a 15-amp breaker is the LARGEST you can use without risking melting wires and starting a fire. If the freezer needs more ampacity, then you'd need to run 12-gauge (20 amp) or larger wires to feed it.

The freezer's data plate should give you the running load in amps, if it gives you Wattage, you'd divide the watts by the voltage and you will find your amps (ie; 1500 watts divided by 120 volts = 12.5 amps)

Looking online it looks like that fridge has a 1/5hp 120V motor. Typically an older 1/4hp 120V motor would draw around 6 amps, so having it on it's own 14-gauge (or more), 15-amp (or less) breaker circuit should be fine, as long as you don't have a lot of other stuff plugged in with it.

Also, as mentioned above, the circuit needs to be sized to handle not only the running load, but you also need to allow for the startup load - which on an older compressor can be 5X the running load, but for 30 seconds at most. Standard breakers are designed to handle 80% of their rated load indefinately, a small overload for a considerable time, but trip quickly on a large overload. All that to say that if that fridge draws 6 amps, I would think a 10-amp breaker would be fine.
 
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