2-Way Refrigerator now pops shore power breaker

Question

I think I may have damaged my 20 year old Norcold 2-way refrigerator. I was doing some wire-feed welding using one of the 10 gauge extension cords that I use as an RV extension cord.

For some dumb stupid reason, I managed to plug the welder into the same cord the trailer was plugged into. After less than five minutes of welding, the 20 amp breaker for the circuit popped. This repeated for some time, and at first, letting the breaker cool worked. (This is an actual in-panel GFI breaker.) I eventually got the welding project done once I discovered my cord selection mistake, and unplugged the trailer.

My thought at the time was that the trailer and the 115 volt wire feed welder together exceeded 20 amps. But the trailer was only using the converter, and the welder consumed 15 amps at full output. I later discovered that when the refrigerator circuit is plugged in, it trips the shore power circuit breaker. It did not do this before my welding episode. Turning off that one circuit allows the trailer to be plugged back in.

Could I have fried the circuit panel in the refrigerator? And if I did, could it be causing the problem?

Thanks in advance. I've been away for a longtime.

scottg · Answer

I would disconnect the 120V heater and see if it still pops. If it does then the board is suspect. If not the heater is failing.

searching_ut · Answer

Hard to say from your description. Have you done any testing to see if you might have damaged the circuit breaker? The GFI breakers can be somewhat sensitive sometimes. I'd try plugging the trailer in to a different breaker, using a different extension cord. You also need to be sure if you're tripping from a GFI fault, or circuit overload. I'd also see if the refrigerator would run off gas and battery, which will help pin it down to the AC heating circuit which is the most probable if the fridge actually is the problem. You should have DC fuses in the control board circuits that would be blowing if there is an issue there.

beemerphile1 · Answer

You need to isolate whether it is a GFCI issue or an overload issue.

A GFCI circuit breaker will trip under either condition. Plug the refrigerator directly into a 15/20 amp non-GFCI circuit and then directly into a GFCI 15/20 amp circuit. What are the results?

chris_bryant · Answer

It almost has to be a gfi problem- the refrigerator has a 5 amp fuse on it that would pop first. Try it on a non-gfi outlet. If everything works, the panel gfi is bad (look closely at the neutral connection before replacing though). If everything works but the trailer gfi pops, the heating element on the refrigerator is bad.

matt_in_az · Answer

Okay.  With the replies in hand, I have some diagnostics to work on over the weekend.  All easily done.  And thanks.

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2-Way Refrigerator now pops shore power breaker

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