Refrigerator - 4 volt drop under load

[mxlplx00]

Hi,
I have a customer that said her old refrigerator started loosing chill 4 months ago and she had a brand new one installed yesterday. She complained that the new one was doing the same thing and suspected something weird with the electrical.

When I got there the refrigerator light was on and I read 45°F in the freezer. I inspected the outlet. the house is pretty old but the outlets are grounded. I read 122v on my fluke with the frig plugged in. She has a toaster oven plugged into the same outlet on a short extension cord of a decent girth. I put an amp-probe on the toaster-oven and my fluke on the other outlet without the frig plugged in. Turned on the toaster and it was pulling 11-amps and my fluke was reading 118v (4 volts dropped). I put my amp-probe on the frig and didn't get anything except a very short spike of maybe an amp once. The front indicator lights are scanning like Night Rider and the controls had no lasting effect. There's a 3-gang switch bank close by that she said was switching some appliance in another cabinet and I neglected to check if it or anything else was on the same circuit.

So, is a 4-volt drop on a 11-amp load a concern? It's less than 5% I think and I would think that 118 volts is enough to keep the frig happy. But is bad splices or something that's causing excessive resistance creating a poor power factor or something that's causing the condenser motor or electronics to fail? I tried to relate this to her. I offered to open a few boxes and look at the panel and she declined.
I told her that it could be the voltage drop or a current lag or something but she had at least a strong 118 volts and that it was probably bad from the factory and tell them to bring her a new one.

If this isn't correct I'd be happy to go out again or meet with the delivery guys and take it further.

What do you guys think?

Thanks
Marc

 

[retirede]

If a refrigerator won’t operate properly on 118V, it’s defective.

 

[mopowr steve]

I would be more inclined to look into the possibility that if you find yourself in a particularly humid area of the US that while restocking the refer, with high humidity; it can often completely freeze over the elements in the freezer section blocking off airflow from the circulation fan. Or in the case of the older refrigerator check that the drain hole in the bottom of the freezer isn’t clogged, this too will allow the defrosted water to just stay in the freezer section again freezing over the elements and blocking the airflow to the refrigerator section.
This actually just happened to mine a month ago. And I did work for as a appliance repair person for a while when I was first started out.

 

[mxlplx00]

Thanks guys, this just confirms what I thought. I just thought it weird the possibility that bad current might be making them fail as the customer had suggested.

 

[tom baker]

“It’s an electrical problem” - per the non electrician

 

[kwired]

refrigerator compressor is a motor. If input voltage drops the current rises to make up for it, it still uses roughly the same VA and does the same amount of work. Some other conditions may be causing poor performance. First thing especially if a new unit doesn't perform any better is whether there is sufficient air flow over the condenser coils? Hard to cool the inside if you can't get rid of the heat you are trying to remove.