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.
I checked a few GFCI data sheets and they all listed either a 10kA Short Circuit Current Rating or Max Interrupting Capacity.
I'm assuming that this is similar to the 10kA rating on common household circuit breakers where the device is required to break at least 10kA.
Cooper Industries has a PDF that describes short-circuit current ratings in more deail:
Article 100 Definitions
Short-Circuit Current Rating. The prospective
symmetrical fault current at a nominal voltage to which an
apparatus or system is able to be connected without
sustaining damage exceeding defined acceptance criteria.
Best Answer
You want to trip the overcurrent detector (breaker) serving a GFCI outlet.
No. Don't do it.
What you're looking for is so similar to the other question that it really is a duplicate. It is wrong for all the reasons that one is wrong (and not insane in a certain industrial setting for the reasons I describe in my answer there).
The presence of GFCI is irrelevant. (though of course if you use the hare-brained scheme in the other question, you have a good chance of frying the GFCI's innards; it will cheerfully allow the overcurrent if balanced, but its detection circuit will fail before the breaker will).
Your parameters for "safety" are too narrow
You are ignoring the likelihood of failing a circuit due to the overload opening a wire connection, or worse, setting the stage for a future arc-fault problem that could burn down the house the next time you load the circuit within reason.
Then there's the matter of arc flash right there in your face.
Plug in a radio, and snap breakers
The way you solve this is by plugging in a radio and snapping breakers off until the radio stops. Pretty simple. If you don't have a radio, a vacuum cleaner will also do.
You could also plug in two 1500W heater-fans and wait 20 minutes. That will trip any 15A or 20A circuit eventually. But again you are risking the same kind of wiring failures discussed in "too narrow" above.