[darwal61]

Background: Refrig ran fine for 15+ years. Bought a new refirg and left this one setting in the kitchen unplugged for 3 weeks. We move it to the garage and the trouble started. It is plugged into a gfci with 14 g extension cord.

My husband isolated the problem down to the defrost. He reset the timer and it ran fine for awhile and then tripped the gfci again. So we order a new timer, replaced it and it did the same thing.

It appears the 'moving' has caused a short in the defrost timer circuit? What now?
What are our next steps? Is there a wiring harness? We do not have a wiring diagram for the units.

thanks,

[kayakcrzy]

Why do you think you have a problem with your defrost system? Is the refrigerator cooling? GFIs are a pain, and I see them trip all the time. Have you changed out the GFI? It worked fine inside the house, and not in the garage. I doubt there is a problem with the refrigerator. If you need me you can reach me at my website at ApplianceEducator.com Tom

[Icehouse]

Get a 12 gauge extension cord. NEC states all outlets be 12/3 with a 20 ampere circuit breaker.

[denman]

Get an extention cord and plug it into a regular outlet
I doubt you have a short cicuit
If it trips a standard breaker then you have a short

More likely moisture in the coil area is allowing a small amount of electricity to leak to ground tripping the GFI.
Also as kayak said could be an over sensitive GFI which is very common
May even be how the fridge itself is wired.

[darwal61]

the reason we thought the problem was with the defrost circuit, is because it only trips when it goes into the defrost mode. If you reset the timer it will run until it defrosts again.
We will try a new extension cord and a regular outlet.(Not sure if we have a non gfi in the garage.)

[Icehouse]

Originally Posted by darwal61

the reason we thought the problem was with the defrost circuit, is because it only trips when it goes into the defrost mode. If you reset the timer it will run until it defrosts again.
We will try a new extension cord and a regular outlet.(Not sure if we have a non gfi in the garage.)

Thanks for the added information. Trips when it goes into defrost signals either a shorted defrost heater or limit. Change both.

[darwal61]

thanks, I see a defrost heater on the sears website but what is the 'limit'. I don't see a defrost limit, is that the defrost thermostat?

[Icehouse]

Originally Posted by darwal61

thanks, I see a defrost heater on the sears website but what is the 'limit'. I don't see a defrost limit, is that the defrost thermostat?

Yes. Limit is just another name for it .

[darwal61]

thanks, I ordered the defrost thermostat and heater. I will give you an update in a couple of weeks.

thanks everyone for your help!

[darwal61]

It worked! It's been running for over 24 hours now! That's to everyone for the help!