SMC Discussion Areas

So I found a nice cavalier for 100 bucks but the seller tells me it trips the breakers when its plugged in. Has anyone come across this before? Its probably a loose wire making contact with the shell but would that do any damage to the refrigeration unit?


Thanks guys

STC   

if you plug any soda machine, refrigerator or other motorized appliance into a circut protected by a GFI (ground-fault-interupter) it will cause the GFI to trip when it (the soda-machine) starts up, but if you (he) meant the circut breaker in the fuse panel trips off, then you have a problem.

first thing I'd do is put an OHM meter across one side  of the line plug's blades & the ground pin (if it's still there) or the chassis (bare metal of the machine) & see if you get a reading (you shouldn't) then test the other blade of the plug to the chassis. any reading (low ohms) would indicate a short somewere in the machine.  NOTE that you will get a reading on the meter across both blades.   

if you get an indication of a possible short, I'd look at the wiring harnesses & see if anythings obvious like you said, a loose wire touching the chassis, cracked & brittle wire shorting out across itself, not to mention home-made (crappy) wiring "repairs" held together with electrical tape, loose wirenuts, etc.

its tripping a 20amp breaker but runs on a 30amp so thats not good. I am hoping when I clean up the compressor I will find a loose or non insulated wire. Easy fix

      Test the compressor only, if it works the problem is somewhere
else in the wiring harness.

      Here's an item everyone here should make, a tester. Cut the
power cord off the next lamp or appliance headed to the trash.
Auto parts stores have alligator clips that are covered in rubber
except at the very tip so they clip safely onto terminals to test
compressors, motors, lights and anything 110 V.
      Simple and inexpensive and saves so much time!