Need help troubleshooting circuit breaker tripping

[GibsonGK55]

Hi,

I live in Thailand we have 220v here. My house is just a few years old and have a Bticino breaker panel and breakers. I have one 20amp breaker that has tripped about six times in the last two weeks. Five times it happened very early in the morning my guess is sometime around 3am. The last time was yesterday at 11am.

This particular breaker services the living room and the refrigerator in the kitchen. So early in the morning only the refrigerator is using a lot of power. The living room only has the cable box, internet router and stereo receiver (in standby mode). Last night I got an extension cord on a reel and plugged the fridge in to another outlet on another breaker off the master bedroom so I will be alerted when the breaker trips. Hasn't tripped so far but not 24 hours yet.

I suspect the fridge which is only 3 years old a Haier double door stainless. Any ideas what else I can do to check this further besides what i am already doing? I have an electrical meter but not very experienced in using it.


Thanks for any help,

Richard

 

[GibsonGK55]

So far I received no answer. But for an update when I plugged in the fridge to an outlet on another breaker it tripped the breaker and the main breaker within four days. So I suspect the short is in the fridge. I called Haier and they sent two guys out from Phillips that takes care of their service calls for Haier. The guys checked the outlet and said there is voltage on the ground. I had them check the other outlet that i used also and they said the same. Now I am not an electrician but i watched what they did. They plugged in an extension with an outlet into our wall outlet and put the one lead from the meter into the hot on the extension outlet and then the other lead to the ground on the 2nd receptacle on my wall and it showed voltage.

I paid them and they left. We called the construction company for the house and a guy came out with a meter and said the ground has no problem. I had him test the same with the Haier repair guys checked it and it showed the same. He said this is normal. He opened up the circuit panel and checked the ground there and no voltage. He said the guys from Haier repair are wrong. He said I should try changing the breaker but if two trip i doubt the breaker is bad. Then he said i should change it from 20 amps to 32amps. I don't think this is a good idea,

Okay so this is what I am up against in this country. Everyone knows everything but no one knows jack s....

Can anyone offer a suggestion?

Thanks,

Richard

 

[Jo2001seph]

Circuit breakers are mostly mechanical so can break often if in bad quality I recommend trying a new one before using one with larger amp capacity If that doesn't work try calling bticino to see if they can have a loo as it may just be their crappy instillation.

 

[GibsonGK55]

I thought about that but two breakers bad? I already tried the fridge with another outlet on different breaker and it tripped also.

 

[GibsonGK55]

Okay I changed the breaker and the next morning at 7am it tripped again.

 

[Woodsy]

sounds like the fridge to me if it's following the path of kicking the breaker to whatever circuit it's plugged into. Try packing some coolers with ice and leave it unplugged and see if it remains calm.

 

[Don Farrell]

More than likely, the "Inrush" current to the motor is your villain. What is the amperage required by the Refrigerator? For example, if it require 15 amps and there is other equipment on the same circuit, then if the motor cycles to on, the inrush amperage to the motor may be high enough and long enough to trip the breaker. Putting is a dedicated circuit for the refrigerator may be your only option.

Increasing the amperage of the circuit say to 30 amps, puts all of the connections on that circuit at risk for fire.

Also, if you take a meter probe and connect one probe to ground or neutral, the voltage between either of those points should be the same.