What Karl said.
Often the draw of large loads will drip a GFCI, that's why you are not
supposed to use them on such circuits. The refrigerator is probably
just fine, just getting older and having to work a bit harder to start
up - tripping the GFCI where it wouldn't have in the past.
I've also had similar problems with running my air compressor (120 volt)
in a newer house where all the garage outlets were wired to a GFCI. The
compressor would start and run just fine from empty (not much starting
load on the motor), but when it would try to run under pressure to
refill the tank, the GFCI would trip. Running a dedicated
circuit/outlet solved that problem.
Tim Mullen
-----Original Message-----
Karl Vacek wrote:
>
> Besides the problem with your refrigerator as noted in
> the Randall and Doug's replies, you should NOT plug a
> refrigerator into a GFCI outlet.
>
> NEC specifically states not to do this, as GFCI's aren't
> meant for heavy motor loads.
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