MayTag Tripping Electrics

[Frustrated4]

Would appreciate any advice anyone can give.

At the weekend I sold someone a MayTag ZigZag fridge freezer. I sold it for just £90 as when we had somehow disconnected the water inlet months ago when we tried to move it into the larder. We didn’t know how to sort it, so bought a different FF on Ebay. We kept the MayTag for a further 8 months, as a FF for my son and his girlfriend to use. Other than the water inlet, the fridge worked perfectly and was in super condition.

It was collected on Saturday by a lovely couple but since then, they have contacted me to say that the FF keeps tripping their electrics and is a fire hazard. They have asked a fridge freezer repair person and been told that the reason it didn’t ever trip my electrics is because I live in an old house and they live in a new one. Thus it is an electrical fault that wouldn’t have appeared in my house. ( I do have modern electrics). They were advised that since is tripping the RCS this is an earth leakage, not a power surge.

The FF is in their garage. It was taken out of the house on it’s side and transported on its back. They have been advised that since they let it stand for 24 hours, no damage is likely to have occurred.

Does anyone have any ideas what could have caused a fridge freezer that was working faultlessly to suddenly be doing this. The old house, new house scenario doesn’t make sense to me. they accept that I had no issues when I owned it but still feel I have sold them a dangerous appliance.

Any thoughts would be appreciated

[electrofix]

Re: MayTag Tripping Electrics

moving it from place to place on its side wont make the trip blow unless water got on something it shouldn’t. The only thing it would cause is the compressor to seize up as it tries to suck oil.

its very difficult to say what is causing it to trip without testing it. most freezers of this type have defrost heaters and that would be the first thing I would test

I assume is was working ok and you were still using it on the day it was collected so its possible water was inside the freezer as it defrosted. Did you advise them to leave the doors open for 2 days to allow any excess moisture to dry out and try it again ?

to help you understand what going on we are talking about an RCD. this measures the power entering and leaving a house and if it differs by over 0.03 amps the trip will go. This sounds ok until you realise its cumulative across all circuits connected to the trip. So if your house has no other leaks to earth the freezer can leak up to 0.03 amps before the RCD will trip
But
if you have a few appliances leaking and before you plug in the freezer there is a leakage of .028 amps from other appliances then the freezer only has to leak .002 Amps to blow the trip. So it is possible for it not to trip in your house but will trip somewhere else

Dave

[Author]

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