Issues with fridge or upright freezer?
 

Hi all,

Has anyone put a spare refrigerator or upright freezer in their garage? Any problems/issues (e.g. circuit breaker constantly going off?)

Thanks in advance,

Kevin

We have an upright freezer in our garage and no problems

We bought a small GE inexpensive chest freezer for the garage in 2011. Still working just fine after all this time without any maintenance or repair issues. Just needs defrosting a couple times per year.

2nd fridge in our garage ~ 20 cu. ft. No problems.

kathy

run a separate electrical outlet from the panel with no gfi

A chest freezer would be a better choice for a garage. With an upright upon opening the door you have a chance of dinging the new Camry.

We did. Were told any refrigerator built before 2013 would trip the break. We live in McClure. Lived in Fernadina and had no problems with the refrigerator in the garage. Bought a new refrigerator and no more circuit breaker tripping.

full size stand up freezer in garage....no problems. Better than a chest freezer because you can see what you have. with a chest freezer, everything is piled on top of each other, plus I don't have to defrost at all.

We have a 25 year old Whirlpool refrigerator in our garage for past 5 years. No problem.

Freezer
 

We put an upright freezer in our garage and had no issues at all.

same here

The problem was happening quite a bit a few years ago and there were many posts here.
It is very likely that the refrigerator and "Arc-Fault Circuit Breaker" (AFCI) that it is wired to, have a conflict.
The new arc-fault breakers are ultra sensitive to arcs within an older electric motor, so assume the refrigerator in the garage is an older model. A standard ground fault breaker "might" resolve the problem but you don't want to run afoul of the electrical code.
Consult an electrician.

There also used to be an issue with the outdoor post lights but don't hear about that much anymore.

Not necessary in most cases

I changed the GFI from 15A to 20A and that fixed the problem. It was tripping on motor/compressor startup on occasion. My new GFI also has an audible alarm when/if it trips.

I have both in the garage with no problems

I disagree with the chest freezer. We had one and changed to an upright. It’s easier to see what’s in the freezer. There’s plenty of room for the car and the freezer.

I have a full-size refrigerator in the garage, and did have some issues with the circuit breaker tripping when there was in electrical storm. I had an extra line run just for the refrigerator, and have not had any problems since. I don’t remember what it cost, but it was not expensive.

Freezer
 

I have a uprigight freezer in my garage for 10 years, no problem. I have a upright fridge out on my lanai, no issue.

upright freezer in garage
 

I do have upright freezer in my garage for about 12 years and no problem at all.

Make sure it isn’t plugged into a GFCI outlet. They trip often with a fridge. If that’s the case, have an electrician run you a dedicated circuit and you’ll be back in business.

We put a stainless in the garage and found started showing rust marks on the finish. Still works, but a nuisance to keep rust free.

I have that problem whenever the house is power washed. Water gets in outside electrical outlet. Had to put a light feature on front porch that.burns 24 hours. Was tired of losing food.

Same issue
 

We had a problem with the GFI also. Once we added a dedicated line to the freezer, no more problems. We are still, however, having an issue with the pole light. Electrician will be here (again) next week!

I don't believe this is safe, the breaker is sized to the wire.

Check wire should not use 20amp breaker on 14 guage wire
 

Just a note to the person responding to the breaker tripping in the garage with a refrigerator. One recommendation was to go to a 20amp GFI .

The issue is if the wire is only 14 guage and not 12 guage and if there is a short, [B]the wire will burn and cause a fire saving the GFI breaker! Just a not of caution!!!

Gfi
 

My neighbor lost $500 worth of food when freezer in garage lost power because of GFI tripping. All the outlets in the garage are GFI protected even if the outlet looks like a normal plug outlet.

I ran a heavy duty appliance extension cord and plugged my freezer into the garage door electric plug in the ceiling as it is not GFI protected. Worked fine.

You have to have a dedicated line for the refrigerator/freezer or it will continually go out!

We have a fridge in our garage. No problems so far. They actually make fridges especially for the garage that you can buy but ours is just the one that came with the house and it was way too small.

Now thats illegal. That is against the electrical code

Note that the circuit breaker function is totally different from the GFI function. If the circuit is rated for 15 amps, the breaker at the panel will trip when you plug in more than 15 amps. But, the GFI device measures an imbalance of incoming and outgoing current, and can trip with extremely low levels of amperage. I don't see a safety problem using a 20 amp GFI outlet on a 15 amp circuit because the breaker in the panel will still protect the wiring if the load exceeds 15 amps. But, I don't understand why a 20 amp GFI outlet should work better than a 15 amp. They should both perform the same basic function.

Six years ago I bought a larger refrigerator/freezer and put the original (with the house) refrigerator/freezer in the garage. I keep it for drinks. Have not had any problems, thus far.:pray::pray::pray:

Most Ref and freezers require a 20 amp
 

Most Ref and freezers require a 20 amp circuit your outlet is probable only a 15 amp and more then likely why your having an issue or you have to much on that circuit . check the breaker to see or get an Electrician to look at it a good handy man can take care of it as well

No problems at all, chest freezer in garage.

2 full upright freezers
 

We have 2 full upright freezers in our garage. I had 2 20-amp outlets added to the garage one dedicated for each freezer. Electrical code is that you do not have to have a GFI outlet for a freezer in the garage if the outlet is dedicated to the freezer. When the electrical contractor installed the outlets he insisted on installing with GFI outlets. I changed the outlets to non-GFI outlets myself. If we ever sell the house, I'll install replace the non-GFI outlets with GFI outlets as the outlets would no longer be dedicated to a freezer.

The recommendation for freezers is that the appliances not be on a GFI circuit as the motors in the freezers starting can occasionally cause the GFI outlet to trip. My recommendation is that you have a dedicated outlet installed for the appliance and have it be a non-GFI outlet.

Have had my chest freezer in garage for 20 years. Sided it with insulation panels. Yes, electric does go out as is somehow connected to lanai and rain knocks it out. After 2nd time got alarm from Amazon. Very loud let’s me know it’s off, so I know to turn it back on after electrical failure.

We have had both a chest freezer and an upright freezer; more importantly, from the outset we had installed a dedicated electrical outlet for their use. Not one problem in 9 years.

I have a cheap ($125) Sam's club chest freezer in my garage for over 2 years. I keep a remote temperature alarm in it. It has never gone above -2 F despite the fact our garage faces due WEST and afternoon temps exceed 90F for 2/3rds of the day and into the evening. At this moment it reads -6F and it is already 84F in the garage at 10:30AM. Only gripe is I have to defrost it every 4-5 months from opening it in the high humidity in the garage. Didn't want to spend the $$$ for a self-defrosting model and an upright wouldn't fit plus this provides more than enough room for our needs. No electrical problems either.

Edit: There is one problem. My wife is just barely 5' tall and she kind of disappears when trying to get to something on the bottom!

Neighbor should look into a a remote WiFi temp monitor. Set it about +10 degrees and you have an early warning. The cheaper ones like this take a while to respond to change of temp (not instant) so set it with enough lead time. They also make them to monitor multiple sensors with different functions.


Cheap WiFI Temp Alarm

Have had a garage refrigerator for about 23 years and not one problem

Consider the directional exposure of your garage.We have a spare refrigerator w/ top freezer in our west-facing garage; with the brutal summer heat (even though we have attic fan, insulation out there) that frig works hard and seems to get mildew along the door seal, etc. It works now but who knows for how long (5 years and counting). No problem with circuit breaker.