Tenants moved out of house and had power turned off. I turned it back on 2 days later. The GFI breaker (in the breaker box) for the refrigerator keeps tripping about every 12-24 hours. I replaced the breaker with the same as what the builder used. It's still doing the same thing. Tenant said it gave them no trouble before moving out.

Do I have a fridge issue or electrical issue? Hate to pay $150 for the electrician to tell me there's nothing wrong.

Is it a newer arc fault breaker? Those are notorious for tripping by larger appliances. Anything else on that circuit? If so, does it trip without the fridge on that one? If it does, its time to call an electrician likely. Can you plug fridge into a separate circuit say across the room via extension cord and see if it trips that breaker instead? If it does, its likely the fridge.

With it being unplugged and hot, the compressor may have needed to work much harder to recool it vs just keeping it cool before and may be tripping it after the compressor gets loaded down after a while.

ThanksI Ill give some of that a try. Dont know why I didnt think of trying it in a different plug.

Is this a dedicated outlet ?

Did you pull the outlet out and check that all the connections are tight ? I have seen a loose ground on the outlet cause this issue.

Our new kitchenaid did the same thing. Electrician said the fridge manual states that it may do it. Due to codes, electrician would not swap out the breaker in the breaker box with non-GFI fuse. had to do it myself. Pretty easy,

JP76 said:

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Is this a dedicated outlet ?

Did you pull the outlet out and check that all the connections are tight ? I have seen a loose ground on the outlet cause this issue.

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Going to work on it today. Ill pull it out and check connections.

HDeathstar said:

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Our new kitchenaid did the same thing. Electrician said the fridge manual states that it may do it. Due to codes, electrician would not swap out the breaker in the breaker box with non-GFI fuse. had to do it myself. Pretty easy,

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Thanks. Ill add this as my last option. Just hate doing stuff to a house that a stinking inspector is going to call out in the future.

Had a similar issue with a washing machine. Changed out the arc fault breaker with a regular one. Problem was solved. Master Electrician that I know said the arc fault breakers are nothing but a pain causing all sorts of issues.

My bet = frig issue from sitting & not working the refrigerant - i.e. cloged arteries issues