My father in law and I had to replace a section of drywall in my kitchen after the washing machine supply lines leaked. It was easy enough and we replaced the receptacle and box for the refrigerator while we had the wall open, because both were old, not installed properly (the box was "floating" in the wall cavity), and we didn't know if either component was water damaged, so it was more of a "better safe than sorry" thing. The refrigerator is on its own 20A circuit, and the breaker itself is brand new (prior to the leak the breaker was "chattering"). Anyway after we patched everything up and plugged the refrigerator back in, it kept tripping the outlet (father in law installed a GFCI since the receptacle is directly below the washer supply lines).
So I killed the power and pulled the receptacle. Lo and behold, the ground wire was damaged. Since I have easy access to the wiring from the basement stairwell, I simply cut the damaged portion of the wiring and spliced in new 12/2 Romex, ran it into the refrigerator receptacle box, rewired it, taped over the connections with electrical tape and buttoned it all up. I turned the breaker on and popped in my outlet tester, and yay, it shows correct wiring. Oh and I replaced the GFCI with a regular 20A receptacle. No more tripping, refrigerator is running and is ice cold.
While I assumed everything is kosher, a few days later as I'm prepping dinner, I noticed the refrigerator isn't running right. I open the door and the light is flickering and the compressor almost sounds like its surging. It corrects itself in a matter of seconds so I ignore it, until I realize it happens sporadically over the next week. However it maintains temperature just fine. It's a 6 year old Frigidaire so while I doubt it's on its way out, I won't rule out the possibility that it's dying. The issue pops up when the compressor kicks on after being off for awhile (maybe it is the compressor after all?).
Anyway, I double check the electrical and everything is tight and appears to be ok. I test the receptacle with my digital multimeter and I'm getting a consistent 123V, the same as other outlets in the house. The only thing I can think of is that it looks like perhaps I didn't strip enough insulation off the hot, so perhaps that's causing this? Before I move the appliances out of the way and pull the receptacle again, what does everyone else suggest? I have no other issues occurring when the refrigerator isn't experiencing this voltage drop or brownout or whatever we would call it, and it seems to be working great otherwise. There is another 20A outlet near the refrigerator that I can reach if I use an extension cord, so I try hooking up to that in order to determine whether or not a fault lies within the current refrigerator receptacle?
I can post pictures or videos when I get home from work tonight if needed. Thanks for your help!
Submitted July 15, 2017 at 05:37PM by l33th4xx0r420 http://ift.tt/2v3kfSe electricians
No comments:
Post a Comment