An open ground is not in and of itself a problem. Grounds are there to dump excess voltage in case something goes wrong. If all our appliances worked properly all the time, there'd be no need for ground.
So what you have is two problems:
- Your fridge has a bare wire rubbing against the frame or other electrical short,
- And, the safety device meant to mitigate such a fault (ground) is broken.
If I were you, I'd replace the outlet, preferably with a GFI, and make sure the ground is attached. Then I'd have someone in to look at the fridge.
Residential Kitchen
In a dwelling unit (residential), GFCI protection is only required for kitchen receptacles that serve the countertop surfaces. There's no requirement to GFCI protect receptacles that serve a refrigerator. Unless the fridge is plugged into a countertop receptacle.
National Electrical Code 2014
Chapter 2 Wiring and Protection
Article 210 Branch Circuits
I. General Provisions
210.8 Ground-Fault Circuit-Interrupter Protection for Personnel. Ground-fault circuit-interrupter protection for personnel shall be provided as required in 210.8(A) through (C). The ground-fault circuit-interrupter shall be installed in a readily accessible location.
(A) Dwelling Units. All 125-volt, single-phase, 15- and
20-ampere receptacles installed in the locations specified in
210.8(A)(1) through (10) shall have ground-fault circuit interrupter protection for personnel.
(6) Kitchens— where the receptacles are installed to serve the countertop surfaces.
Garages, Unfinished Basement, and Other Locations
If the refrigerator is in a garage, boathouse, or unfinished basement. All the receptacles are required to be GFCI protected, so the fridge will have to be plugged into a GFCI protected receptacle.
Why does the fridge trip the GFCI?
Any inductive load when switched off, can produce electromagnetic interference (EMI). This interference can, and often does, trip GFCI devices. Most vapor compression refrigerators have a few inductive loads, any of which could cause the trip.
Is there anything that can be done?
There are devices called snubbers that can be used to reduce, or eliminate the effects of EMI. Installing one between the fridge and the GFCI device, could prevent nuisance trips. The best solution though, is to connect the fridge to a non-GFCI protected circuit.
If that's all it takes, why isn't there already one built in?
While most (all) manufacturers are aware that refrigerators can cause nuisance tripping of GFCI devices, most (none) seem willing to provide a solution. It would be complete speculation for me to try and tell you why they don't care, so of course I'll go through a few possibilities.
- Cost.
Plain and simple, it costs money to implement a solution.
- Warranties and Operating Conditions.
Most refrigerators are designed to operate in a kitchen. Running them in dusty, dirty garages and basements could lead to more warranty covered repairs.
Best Answer
With current code garages are required to have all 120v receptacles GFCI protected. This has been code for a few cycles. I have seen several things in fridges and freezers cause gfci’s to trip from fan motors to crankcase heaters and the motor winding insulation being etched from acidic refrigerant in the system ( moisture causes the oil to become acidic this eats the varnish off the motor windings causing leakage to ground thus causing a GFCI breaker to trip). If it is a standard non GFCI or AFCI breaker the crank case heater if it has one would be my first check, then I would use a meter called a megger a high voltage ohm meter on the compressor and fan motors to check their insulation. One additional part that can cause problems is the starting capacitor , it when bad will usually trip on start up of the compressor. If you look at the capacitor and it is bulging at the ends that are usually square could be the cause also. A bit more information would be helpful like the comments above ask for but there are problems including those I mention and a possible breaker going bad could be the issue.