I've got a bit of a head-scratcher here. My fridge and oven, both GE appliances around 5 years old, have been tripping their circuit breakers quite often. The fridge seems to kick off at random times, while the oven only does it during use, particularly when I'm cooking. Each appliance is supposed to be on its own 20A breaker, and there's nothing else drawing power in the kitchen or on the same circuit. Is it possible that both appliances are failing at the same time, or could there be an issue with the wiring in my kitchen? I'm trying to avoid calling an electrician until I have a better idea of the problem. A friend suggested I check the fridge's capacitor with a volt meter too.
1 Answer
One way to troubleshoot this is to plug the fridge into an extension cord leading to a different circuit. It's a pretty safe DIY method to see if it's the fridge causing the problem or an issue with the circuit itself. Most modern fridges don't pull much power, so a standard extension cord should work fine. Regarding the oven, 20A is definitely on the lower side, especially if it’s a combined range and oven. It might have been connected to a circuit that's overloaded if the previous owners did a shoddy renovation. If the oven is tripping the 'Kitchen GFCI' breaker, that’s a red flag. Re-evaluate its wiring too!
Yeah, definitely give the extension cord trick a shot! Just to clarify, my oven does trip the GFCI breaker too, and I read somewhere that cooking appliances need a solid wiring setup. Seeing as we had some questionable work done in our kitchen, I suspect something's off with how the oven is hooked up.