Household refrigerator circuit

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dicklaxt

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It is not required to be a dedicated circuit I don't believe but if you were wiring your own dwelling,,,,,,,would you make it a dedicated circuit? I did years ago, two of them in fact, house & garage,just curious?


Happy New Year

dick
 
I generally put the fridge on with the dining room, or with one of the counters.

A fridge in the garage could not be on one of the SABC circuits. I would be inclined to put it on its own circuit.
 
I have always put it on a separate circuit- 20 amp but that is me. I don't like the idea of it one with the counter and now with afci I would not want it on the dining room either. 2014 looks like the entire kitchen will have to be afci so it should not make a difference any longer.

Most refrigerators don't draw more than 6 or 8 amps and they are getting more efficient everyday. I will also add that I have seen many refrigerators on with the counter receptacles and the ho have never complained that they were having trouble with it. I probably need to change my approach but old habits are hard to kill.
 
480sparky said:
In reality, it's just a few pennies more.

Labor, box, recep, cover, staples, breaker.... all the same cost whether 15a or 20. Only difference is 12/2 instead of 14/2.
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An 8 amp refrigerator in all likelihood will run just as well on a 15 amp circuit vs a 20 amp circuit.
 
Consider this, all 125 volt, 15 and 20 amp refrigerators in commercial kitchens are on GFCIs, they do not trip unless there is a reason.

My own homes refrigerator has been on a GFCI approaching 14 years, no trips.
 
I always put them on 20 amp circuit but like everybody says 15 amp would work just fine. I like to run all my receptacles on 20 amps but that's just me.
 
If the circuit feeding the refrigerator outlet is branched to any other outlet, it must be a 20-A circuit. If the circuit feeding the refrigerator outlet is a dedicated individual circuit, than it can be either 15-A or 20-A.

i think 210. something ...LOL
 
iwire said:
Consider this, all 125 volt, 15 and 20 amp refrigerators in commercial kitchens are on GFCIs, they do not trip unless there is a reason.

My own homes refrigerator has been on a GFCI approaching 14 years, no trips.
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I didn't mean that the refrigerator would trip the GFCI, but something else on the circuit.

As pointed out, you could feed it before the GFCI's, but I like the dedicated circuit option, and see no need for a GFCI on a residential refrigerator.
 
iwire said:
Consider this, all 125 volt, 15 and 20 amp refrigerators in commercial kitchens are on GFCIs, they do not trip unless there is a reason.

My own homes refrigerator has been on a GFCI approaching 14 years, no trips.
Click to expand...

I'd venture to say if your fridge was on an arc fault circuit your 14 year record would never happen. I'd be amazed if there wasn't an exception to the upcoming requirement for kitchens to be on arc faults regarding fridges. Had another nuisance trip episode last week, 15A circuit with all recessed cans and a couple of dimmers on it. FLA of the circuit was 8A. It would be fine for a hour or two and then trip. Needless to say, a conventional breaker found it's way into the load center and the problem went away.
 
In my previous house, I had two inside upgrade projects; the bathroom and the kitchen. The house was c. 1929 and the original load center was a 60 amp pull block with 20 amp fused circuits (originally; when I checked the wire sizes, some of them went down to 15 amp). The first project was replacing the load center and a separate subpanel for the electric water heater with a 150 amp 42 count breaker panel. I didn't go to 200 amp on the EC's recommendation because the overhead would have to have been replaced. The only thing the EC and I did (yep, he let me play helper) was move over the existing circuits and replace a portion of one of them that was still K&T. The bathroom job was first and went OK, if a little longer than we had planned. When we got to the kitchen, I had separate circuits run for the range hood, microwave, and refrigerator. This was all discussed with the GC ahead of time. Here's the reason: after the panel upgrade, it was still the case that when the refrigerator kicked on, lights all over the house would dim. I worried a lot about A/C loads in the summer not playing well with the refrigerator. Rather than trying to dissect the circuit topography, I just split up the loads directly onto 15 amp circuits. After that, I could run the electric oven, microwave, washer, dishwasher, and three 8,000 BTU/hr window units in August heat and see nary a flicker when the refrigerator compressor kicked on. If I ever have a similar chance, I'll do it again.
 
Ive heard do guys actually putting the kitchen frig or freezer in residential houses on the same circuit as the hard wired smoke detector. Reason being is this circuit would be noticeable alot quicker because of the chirping of the smoke. Most people would like to know if the circuit feeding their frig was tripped off as soon as possible because of the loss of food.
 
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