Kenwood Fridge Freezer Tripping Electricity

[Tevja]

Hello All,

Im new on here, it all looks good!

I have a Kenwood kff2ds14 FF. 10 seconds after turning on the unit shorts out the electrics in the house,

I have tried unplugging the defrost heater element and it still trips.

I took off the condenser and have tested the three pins, the readings were:

Com-Start = 15.0 ohm
com-Main = 18.5 ohm
Start-Main = 33.5 ohm

The overload protector has a reading of 1.5ohm

Would this suggest the condenser has failed?

Many thanks.

Tevja.

 

[gblades]

Are you sure it is tripping due to excess current and not earth leakage?

 

[Tevja]

Are you sure it is tripping due to excess current and not earth leakage?

Hi, Just checked pins to ground and these are the readings from multimeter set on continuity

com =014
start = 000
Main = 032

So i guess that means the start pin has leak to earth?

 

[gblades]

Do you know what the units are?
A 12K ohm resistance to ground is sufficient to produce a 20mA earth leakage which is about what you need to trip a circuit breaker although it varies on type and age.

You can get situations where power needs to be applied to provide power to a motor etc... so it can test fine when there is no power.
The best way to test is if you have a clamp meter. Pass the live and neutral cables through the clamp so that it displays the difference (1).

(1) This is how circuit breakers measure it. It is better testing this way than the current along the earth wire as some of the earth current may be traveling back along metal pipework and direct contact with other earthed equipment.

 

[Tevja]

Do you know what the units are?
A 12K ohm resistance to ground is sufficient to produce a 20mA earth leakage which is about what you need to trip a circuit breaker although it varies on type and age.

You can get situations where power needs to be applied to provide power to a motor etc... so it can test fine when there is no power.
The best way to test is if you have a clamp meter. Pass the live and neutral cables through the clamp so that it displays the difference (1).

(1) This is how circuit breakers measure it. It is better testing this way than the current along the earth wire as some of the earth current may be traveling back along metal pipework and direct contact with other earthed equipment.

Hi gblades,

this is where i get lost....

multimeter is set to continuity setting with the diode symbol. when i put the dial on Ohms setting at 200 i get readings Com -14.0 Start - 0.01 Main - 32.0.

Does that help or should i get a clamp meter on it?
Cheers

 

[gblades]

Ah so those reading are just in plain ohms. It does certainly seem like start is shorted to earth

 

[Tevja]

Ah so those reading are just in plain ohms. It does certainly seem like start is shorted to earth

Ahh, ok, thanks.
So after 12 months and 2 weeks from new its failed, only had a 12 month warranty, not sure if this would be covered anyhow. DOH!!!

Thanks so much for the help, need to do some more research on basic electrics me thinks.

Tevja

 

[gblades]

https://www.youtube.com/user/jjward is quite good for general electrical stuff.

It might be worth contacting Kenwood anyway. Under consumer rights the product has to be free from defects and this isn't a normal failure mode. It is probably a manufacturing defect or a foreign substance has got inside and caused the short. Use your judgement based on any ventilation holes in the motor and covers surrounding the motor itself. You might at least get some credit off a new one or a free repair if you start making a fuss.