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Short in Refrigerator : Fire Hazard?

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Short in Refrigerator : Fire Hazard? Jeffy3 01-28-2007
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Posted by Jeffy3 on January 28, 2007, 8:01 pm


We've been told we have a short in our refrig and it still works but
while we await a new refrigerator my wife is worried that it is a fire
risk. Anyone have any thoughts? We have a 50 year old house and the
outlet it is plugged into is not a GFI.


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Posted by Mark on January 28, 2007, 8:59 pm


A little more info on where and what is shorting would help give some
advice, but I'd be worried about fire or electicution too!
As for being plugged into a GFI, generally it is recommended that you not
plug a refrig or freeze into a GFI. GFIs are pretty sensitive and may trip
under the draw these appliances place on them.




> We've been told we have a short in our refrig and it still works but
> while we await a new refrigerator my wife is worried that it is a fire
> risk. Anyone have any thoughts? We have a 50 year old house and the
> outlet it is plugged into is not a GFI.
>



Posted by George E. Cawthon on January 28, 2007, 10:02 pm


Mark wrote:
> A little more info on where and what is shorting would help give some
> advice, but I'd be worried about fire or electicution too!
> As for being plugged into a GFI, generally it is recommended that you not
> plug a refrig or freeze into a GFI. GFIs are pretty sensitive and may trip
> under the draw these appliances place on them.

That's not the reason for not having it on GFI
circuit. The reason is that another appliance or
something/someone might trip the GFI and the food
in the refrigerator would spoil.

>
>
>
>
>> We've been told we have a short in our refrig and it still works but
>> while we await a new refrigerator my wife is worried that it is a fire
>> risk. Anyone have any thoughts? We have a 50 year old house and the
>> outlet it is plugged into is not a GFI.
>>
>
>

Posted by nospam on January 28, 2007, 9:32 pm



> We've been told we have a short in our refrig and it still works but
> while we await a new refrigerator my wife is worried that it is a fire
> risk. Anyone have any thoughts? We have a 50 year old house and the
> outlet it is plugged into is not a GFI.


if you had a "short" in your unit, your circuit
breaker would trip.

whoever told you it had a "short" is an idiot !

do you know WHAT a "short" is ?

there are other failure modes which can produce
a fire hazard (frayed insulation, frayed conductors
causing high resistance leading to heat/fire, etc)

but a "short" ain't one of them! (presuming your
circuit breakers are functional).

a "short" (in this context) would be if hot &
neutral (or ground) were to come in direct contact
with each other (without a load).. the resulting
arc & high current would ('should') trip any sort
of protective device.




Posted by Edwin Pawlowski on January 28, 2007, 9:50 pm



> We've been told we have a short in our refrig and it still works but
> while we await a new refrigerator my wife is worried that it is a fire
> risk. Anyone have any thoughts? We have a 50 year old house and the
> outlet it is plugged into is not a GFI.
>

That does not sound right. A short would either trip the breaker or burn up
something.

If you have a good appliance dealer, he'll be delivering the new one
tomorrow. .



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