Fridge Keeps Tripping Outside Storage Facility GFCI Plug

[notanlines]

Thanks for the humor, Mike. Sometimes these threads go on and on saying pretty much the same thing.

[Javi]

Originally Posted by notanlines

Thanks for the humor, Mike. Sometimes these threads go on and on saying pretty much the same thing.

Glad someone got it... around these parts if you say "It's a DRY location" you usually ain't talking about the weather.. Followed by.. How far to the next WET county?

[cavie]

Originally Posted by Javi

Glad someone got it... around these parts if you say "It's a DRY location" you usually ain't talking about the weather.. Followed by.. How far to the next WET county?

I live in Florida. Everythings wet!

[JRTJH]

When traveling in an area of Texas that you're not familiar with, if you see a Budweiser sign, best stop there to get your "supplies". You may find when you get to the campground, that Budweiser sign you saw 150 miles back was on the county line and that's the last place that sells alcohol until you get to the next county, 100 miles further down the road.... BTDT around south Texas. Some of (maybe even most) the best places to eat wouldn't even sell "set-ups".

[flybouy]

Back in the early-mid 1970's I was deer hunting in WV. As a passenger the car was hit on the passenger side door. Broke a bunch of bones (pelvis, 3 vertebrae, etc.) so they carted me off to nearest hospital some 25 miles away. Small hospital didn't even have an orthopedic doctor. After a general surgeon set my pelvis and after waiting 2 weeks they transported me to a hospital in Baltimore.

Now to the relevant part. They stopped the ambulance at the Maryland state line and fueled up the ambo. The girl in the back with me (I think she was a nurse) asked me if minded if they bought some beer. I told her that was fine with me and that I wouldn't say anything about it. She explained that they wanted to get it then because they feared the store would be closed by the time they returned. WV had a 3.2 alcohol limit on beer so they wanted the "good stuff" from Maryland. Apparently the entire firehouse had placed an order.

So, after about 40 min of the 2 drivers and the nurse loading up the back of the ambo I was literally surrounded with cases of Rolling Rock as tall as my head. She threw sheets & blankets over the beer to hide it. Well, you should have seen the look on the hospital's attendants faces when they looked in the back of that ambo! It looked like two gurneys with bodies on then, covered in sheets. I told the attendant that It was a rough ride and the other 2 didn't make it. This was 2 weeks before Christmas. The nurse about busted a gut trying not to laugh. She sent me a Christmas card with a note thanking me for making their trip. Apparently the story was a big hit back at the Volunteer Fire/Rescue Squad.

[rlh1957]

I’d always use minimum 14 AWG, especially on 25ft, but that’s probably not the GFCI tripping issue.
What is the running amp and starting amps of fridge?

Is the GFCI outlet 15A or 20A?
Is your outlet the only thing on that circuit or is it shared with another storage unit?
Guess what? GFCI receptacles or GFCI have been known to go bad, so it might not be you at all.

I’d start at the source and work backwards.
Simple way to rule out is change extension cord. Then Ask them if you could extend over to a plug in to another circuit to verify.

Is the refrigerator the only thing drawing power?

The convertor and an inverter draw power when on,
battery charger, anything else like clocks, etc.

GFCI in storage facilities just like at home in the garage outlet sometime have issues with RV electrical systems. Just like some generators not dealing well with some RV grounding systems.

Some of the electricians on here can explain it.

[firestation12]

A GFCI detects the difference in the current between the hot and neutral conductors. ... Because the current sensor that a GFCI uses can only sense the difference in current between the hot and neutral conductors, not the overall current, it will not trip on an overcurrent. Overcurrent is handled by the circuit breaker. Moisture has been discussed as a possible cause, which is common. Look for any moisture, dew, etc at any open connections of the extension cord ends. Most GFCI devices trip at 6 Milliampere difference between the hot and neutral conductors. The fridge's heating element might also be a source of the current loss. A heavier gauge extension cord will not solve this problem.

[bigrockk]

Deleted post

[edepp]

Originally Posted by Javi

What does alchohol have to do with GFI

Haha! That's funny!

[edepp]

Originally Posted by flybouy

Back in the early-mid 1970's I was deer hunting in WV. As a passenger the car was hit on the passenger side door. Broke a bunch of bones (pelvis, 3 vertebrae, etc.) so they carted me off to nearest hospital some 25 miles away. Small hospital didn't even have an orthopedic doctor. After a general surgeon set my pelvis and after waiting 2 weeks they transported me to a hospital in Baltimore.

Now to the relevant part. They stopped the ambulance at the Maryland state line and fueled up the ambo. The girl in the back with me (I think she was a nurse) asked me if minded if they bought some beer. I told her that was fine with me and that I wouldn't say anything about it. She explained that they wanted to get it then because they feared the store would be closed by the time they returned. WV had a 3.2 alcohol limit on beer so they wanted the "good stuff" from Maryland. Apparently the entire firehouse had placed an order.

So, after about 40 min of the 2 drivers and the nurse loading up the back of the ambo I was literally surrounded with cases of Rolling Rock as tall as my head. She threw sheets & blankets over the beer to hide it. Well, you should have seen the look on the hospital's attendants faces when they looked in the back of that ambo! It looked like two gurneys with bodies on then, covered in sheets. I told the attendant that It was a rough ride and the other 2 didn't make it. This was 2 weeks before Christmas. The nurse about busted a gut trying not to laugh. She sent me a Christmas card with a note thanking me for making their trip. Apparently the story was a big hit back at the Volunteer Fire/Rescue Squad.

That's hilarious!

[edepp]

Originally Posted by Javi

Most likely the fridge is on a GFCI in the trailer... Plugging the extension cord into a GFCI can sometimes cause problem... GFCI don't like being in a chain...

https://diy.stackexchange.com/questi...er-gfci-outlet

TO ALL IN THIS THREAD: Checked and the fridge is not on a GFCI. (There is one in the bathroom and it isn't tripped.) We've tried everything. Our hookup at our storage facility is: 50amp to 15amp is plugged into our rv with a heavy gauge extension cord plugged into the 15AMP, and that's plugged into the storage facility receptacle. I checked all the other RVs around us and they are all hooked up exactly like ours. The only thing we have on in the RV is the fridge. Not even lights. It's a small 8 Cubic foot fridge. What's weird is that our entire electrical system works when we hook up our 50AMP directly to a campsite. We went camping last weekend and had zero issues. When we took it back to storage and tried to plug the 50 to 15 amp to 110 receptacle, it immediately tripped again. We verified that our 50 to 15 amp plug is good. Since we're still under warranty (only had it since Aug 2020) we're taking it to have it looked at along with a few other minor issues. Thanks so everyone that replied here to help me out. I appreciate every one of you! Erin

[edepp]

Originally Posted by cavie

trip the GFI circuit in your RV and report back with the results.

TO ALL IN THIS THREAD: Checked and the fridge is not on a GFCI. (There is one in the bathroom and it isn't tripped.) We've tried everything. Our hookup at our storage facility is: 50amp to 15amp is plugged into our rv with a heavy gauge extension cord plugged into the 15AMP, and that's plugged into the storage facility receptacle. I checked all the other RVs around us and they are all hooked up exactly like ours. The only thing we have on in the RV is the fridge. Not even lights. It's a small 8 Cubic foot fridge. What's weird is that our entire electrical system works when we hook up our 50AMP directly to a campsite. We went camping last weekend and had zero issues. When we took it back to storage and tried to plug the 50 to 15 amp to 110 receptacle, it immediately tripped again. We verified that our 50 to 15 amp plug is good. Since we're still under warranty (only had it since Aug 2020) we're taking it to have it looked at along with a few other minor issues. Thanks to everyone that replied here to help me out. I appreciate every one of you! Erin

[edepp]

Originally Posted by flybouy

16 ga wire is too light, use 14 or 12. When you say "turn everything off" do you turn the breaker for the converter off? Depending on the battery condition the converter can draw a considerable load, look at the breaker for it for the rating. If the outlet only trips when you are not present then I suspect either the battery charger is kicking it off when the fridge is running or someone is plugging something in when you aren't there. Of course, some could be tripping it just to mean as well. I would get a decent extension cord first and eliminate that.

Thanks for the suggestions. Here is an update: TO ALL IN THIS THREAD: Checked and the fridge is not on a GFCI. (There is one in the bathroom and it isn't tripped.) We've tried everything. Our hookup at our storage facility is: 50amp to 15amp is plugged into our rv with a heavy gauge extension cord plugged into the 15AMP, and that's plugged into the storage facility receptacle. I checked all the other RVs around us and they are all hooked up exactly like ours. The only thing we have on in the RV is the fridge. Not even lights. It's a small 8 Cubic foot fridge. What's weird is that our entire electrical system works when we hook up our 50AMP directly to a campsite. We went camping last weekend and had zero issues. When we took it back to storage and tried to plug the 50 to 15 amp to 110 receptacle, it immediately tripped again. We verified that our 50 to 15 amp plug is good. Since we're still under warranty (only had it since Aug 2020) we're taking it to have it looked at along with a few other minor issues. Thanks so everyone that replied here to help me out. I appreciate every one of you! Erin

[CFS]

Edepp:

My experience with storage units is you're not supposed to use power 24/7. With mine and about 7 other units on same breaker when the lawn maintainers came back and turned on their air compressor it blew the switch on my rv. Lost alot of good meat that weekend so I turned the gas on in case it happened again. You may want to ask the staff imo.

Good luck!

[CedarCreekWoody]

To edepp:

On many campers the GFCI in the camper will cause the GFCI on the facility outlet to trip. Try this: turn off the circuit breaker in your camper that controls the GFCI circuit (this is usually the bathroom.) Leave that circuit breaker off and plug in the camper to see if it works. If it does you can use everything in the camper except the things on the GFCI circuit. The fridge is usually not on a GFCI.

[Hamops]

The GFCI only operates when it sees a ground fault between line and neutral. It is very likely that you have a ground fault on you fridge heater element. It doesn't have to be a big fault. The GFCI only has to see about 6 to 7 milliamps of current flow between the neutral and ground before it trips. I don't think that there's a GFCI on the fridge 120V supply to the heater. There isn't one on ours.

My suggestion to you is to have a look at the fridge heater element. Friends of ours had a Cedar Creek 5vr and it continually tripped the GFCI on the shore power post. After a frustrating, investigation, he found that the fridge heater element was the culprit. When he took the element out, he found that it was corroded at one of leads and was shorting to ground. He replaced the heater element and that solved the problem.

[edepp]

Originally Posted by CFS

Edepp:

My experience with storage units is you're not supposed to use power 24/7. With mine and about 7 other units on same breaker when the lawn maintainers came back and turned on their air compressor it blew the switch on my rv. Lost alot of good meat that weekend so I turned the gas on in case it happened again. You may want to ask the staff imo.

Good luck!

Thanks! I'll ask, but this facility that provides those that pay for the 'electric' sites are told they can plug into it 24/7. We have access to 2 separate receptacles and we have the same issue with both. Our neighbors seem to have no problems with theirs. It's perplexing. When we first plugged into it, we had no issues while we were there, but when we would return a week or so later, it was off. Now when we try to plug in, it immediately trips. Weird,

[JRTJH]

Originally Posted by edepp

Thanks! I'll ask, but this facility that provides those that pay for the 'electric' sites are told they can plug into it 24/7. We have access to 2 separate receptacles and we have the same issue with both. Our neighbors seem to have no problems with theirs. It's perplexing. When we first plugged into it, we had no issues while we were there, but when we would return a week or so later, it was off. Now when we try to plug in, it immediately trips. Weird,

As a "troubleshooting process" you might want to turn ALL the circuit breakers OFF in your trailer. Then plug into the storage facility outlet. Start by turning on the trailer main breaker, then ONE AT A TIME turn on the branch circuit breakers on the trailer power panel.

If the storage facility GFCI trips as soon as you turn on the trailer main breaker, chances are it's a problem with the GFCI at the storage facility, so notify them to fix their problem. If the GFCI trips with one of the branch breakers in your trailer, I'd explore what's on that branch circuit, chances are there's an issue with one of the outlets on that branch and the "problem" is yours, not the storage facility....

[edepp]

Originally Posted by CedarCreekWoody

To edepp:

On many campers the GFCI in the camper will cause the GFCI on the facility outlet to trip. Try this: turn off the circuit breaker in your camper that controls the GFCI circuit (this is usually the bathroom.) Leave that circuit breaker off and plug in the camper to see if it works. If it does you can use everything in the camper except the things on the GFCI circuit. The fridge is usually not on a GFCI.

Thanks Woody! That makes sense. Will try it and let you know.

[edepp]

Originally Posted by JRTJH

As a "troubleshooting process" you might want to turn ALL the circuit breakers OFF in your trailer. Then plug into the storage facility outlet. Start by turning on the trailer main breaker, then ONE AT A TIME turn on the branch circuit breakers on the trailer power panel.

If the storage facility GFCI trips as soon as you turn on the trailer main breaker, chances are it's a problem with the GFCI at the storage facility, so notify them to fix their problem. If the GFCI trips with one of the branch breakers in your trailer, I'd explore what's on that branch circuit, chances are there's an issue with one of the outlets on that branch and the "problem" is yours, not the storage facility....

Good idea, I'll try that!