Fridge tripping

[allenb]

Hi My name is Allen Brauteseth from Cape Town South Africa. I am a Qualified electrician and am sitting with a problem being I have a commercial fridge for cold drinks that trips out the earth leakage after running for 10 minutes please could someone help me as the supplier says there isn't anything wrong

 

[Pete999]

Hi My name is Allen Brauteseth from Cape Town South Africa. I am a Qualified electrician and am sitting with a problem being I have a commercial fridge for cold drinks that trips out the earth leakage after running for 10 minutes please could someone help me as the supplier says there isn't anything wrong

Sorry to hear about your Fridge Mate, question, did the supplier do any tests on the Fridge, or just dismiss your claims out of hand?

 

[Bobster]

@Marvo is the man to ask.

I believe he is in Cape town.

 

[allenb]

Sorry to hear about your Fridge Mate, question, did the supplier do any tests on the Fridge, or just dismiss your claims out of hand?

They came out and maintain that there isn't a problem now the customer wants me to look at it but it is a fridge supplied to the customer by coke

 

[Pete999]

They came out and maintain that there isn't a problem now the customer wants me to look at it but it is a fridge supplied to the customer by coke

Do you have anything like PATesting Portable Appliance Testing or ISTIEE In Service Testing Inspection of Electrical Equipment in SA?, in the UK most Sparks carry out this service although it is not a very well paid service, may be there are specialist contractors in SA that could test the fridge for you. worth a try.

 

[Wilko]

Hi - are you able to test the circuit the fridge is on? (Ramp test the rcd etc )

 

[marconi]

Could you temporarily swap over the line and neutral at the plug and tell us if it still trips the RCD? Keep the earth/cpc connected of course.

Also tell us the earthing system please.

Does the fridge/freezer have auto-defrost?

Could the motor be running too hot because its IR varies inversely with rising temperature. So is the start run device working correctly and switching off the start coil?

 

[Marvo]

They came out and maintain that there isn't a problem now the customer wants me to look at it but it is a fridge supplied to the customer by coke

All coke fridges belong to Peninsula Beverages as far as I know ( Home - http://www.peninsulabeverage.co.za/ ), they hand them out on loan as part of a supply contract to commercial customers but the customer doesn't own that fridge. Pen Bev also usually maintain and repair their fridges without charge during the contract period. There are a fair number of these loan fridges that have strayed over the years so it may be one of those.

Fan motors are one of the main suspects for earth leakage, simultaneously clamp the L+N of the condensor fan with an earth leakage clamp meter whilst the fridge is running. If no leakage after 10 mins do the same with the evap fan motor and also the compressor if no luck with that. It's also worth visually checking the evap fan connections, you'll sometimes find a choc block connector just laying in the evaporator tray.

 

[oracle]

Do you have anything like PATesting Portable Appliance Testing or ISTIEE In Service Testing Inspection of Electrical Equipment in SA?, in the UK most Sparks carry out this service although it is not a very well paid service, may be there are specialist contractors in SA that could test the fridge for you. worth a try.

Pete, there used to be NOSA, National Occupational Safety Award, bit like the electricity at work regulations 1989 here, which also required companies to meet the requirements for safety of electrical equipment provided for work. Who knows now?

 

[Pete999]

Pete, there used to be NOSA, National Occupational Safety Award, bit like the electricity at work regulations 1989 here, which also required companies to meet the requirements for safety of electrical equipment provided for work. Who knows now?

Thank you Mate useful info