Electrical problem

[Gator Fan]

I am fully aware it shouldn't work this way, but something may not have been wired correctly when our house was built almost 12 years ago. Our refrigerator is somehow affected by the GFI on the kitchen counter. When the GFI has tripped twice in the last 6 months, it also cuts power to the refrigerator. The GFI was replaced by an electrician 6 months ago and he said it was probably a coincidence. Lenhart Electric was here last week and replaced the GFI and said the same thing. Now it has gone out again and no power to the refrigerator. They are coming back out on Friday. They have separate circuit breakers in the garage and they do not trip when the GFI goes out. I know they should be on separate circuits, but somehow, they are related. Anybody ever have a similar situation. We never had one problem until last September.

[bigwdaddy]

Have them check to make sure that your refrigerator and your GFI outlet are not on the same circuit, they shouldn't be but if they are and the refrigerator is fed after the GFI, meaning power goes first to GFI and then to regrigerator outlet, when the GFI trips it will knock out the referigerator outlet. Hope this helps. By the way the reverse is also true, if the power goes to the refrigerator first and then to the GFI, when the refrigerator motor kicks in it will knock out the GFI.

[rjm1cc]

Turn off the circuit breaker that controls the GIF. Is the ref. off?
If it is off then when the motor starts on the ref it is probably tripping the GIF.

[Gator Fan]

Thanks. Right now, I'm not able to reset the GFI, but once Lenhart puts a new one in, we'll give that a try. I'm thinking that may be the case because we were gone all day and the only thing plugged in to the GFI was a coffee pot which was turned off and the GFI tripped anyway. The company that did our electric is no longer employed by The Villages. I wonder why?

[villagetinker]

There is another possibility. In some cases, the wiring uses what is called a "shared neural". In this case, there is a 4 wire cable (black, white, RED, and bare copper ground), The black goes to one circuit breaker, the RED goes to another circuit breaker, and the white neutral is SHARED between the 2 circuits. If you have this wiring, I am sure the "shared neutral" will interfere with the operation of the GFI receptacle.
The breakers in the circuit breaker box should be labeled. I would turn off the one labeled for the refrigerator, and see what is NOT operating. Then I would turn it back on make sure everything is working and then turn of the circuit breaker supplying the GFI, and see what is not working. If you are comfortable taking the cover off the circuit breaker panel, you can also check for a RED wire on either of the 2 circuit breakers you just operated (shared neutral).
I would also check the wiring on the GFI to make sure it is correct, both of the wires from the HOT cable need to be n the SAME side of the GFI usually labeled , LINE, ad both wires going to the downstream load need to b one the same side of the GFI, usually labeled LOAD.
Hope this helps.