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.
The fridge is most likely tripping the GFCI. Most folks recommend not plugging refrigerators into GFCI circuits, for this exact reason.
Refrigerator manufacturer's still have trouble controlling current leakage, and most of them are basically ignoring the problem. One day the manufacturer's will be forced to address the problem, but until then they'll likely keep tripping GFCIs.
Either run a non-GFCI circuit to plug the fridge in, or find a manufacturer that doesn't have the problem, and by a fridge from them.
Best Answer
The fridge shouldn't be on GFCI anyway. Imagine if it had tripped over the night, you woke up to make coffee, the coffeemaker didn't work and you found the GFCI tripped, and you reset it naturally. Would you register what it means when the fridge also starts up? Or would the fridge re-cool by the time you go to get food out of it, and you're none the wiser that it was ever off? Meanwhile food has spoiled.
If the fridge is downline of a GFCI, then stop using the LOAD lines on that GFCI, and fit additional GFCI receps at any other place GFCI is needed again without use of LOAD.
What to do about the refrigerator, though?
Henny Youngman had a joke, "I told the doctor 'it hurts when I do that'. The doctor said 'Well, don't do that!'"
There's a reason we advise not to put fridges on GFCI.
Fridges do that. New fridges do that. Therefore, a fridge tripping a GFCI is a nothingburger in my book.
"Oh, noes, but it's unsfae!" OK stop. Why do we have GFCIs in the first place? Because people get shocked by ungrounded (not a fridge) appliances whose electrical bits are exposed (not in the bottom back of a 300 pound machine shoved into an alcove), which get wet (not likely) and who often drop the appliance into the sink.
Absolutely none of this fits a refrigerator. They are simply not the use-case for which GFCI is intended (or able) to help. Putting one on GFCI simply makes no sense.
And indeed, AHJs see it that way - they will often exempt "Fridge/freezer only" outlets from the rule requiring GFCI for all basement and garage outlets.
Keep in mind a fridge is a safety system. You keep perishable food in it.
Chasing it anyway
If you feel strongly about running down the problem, I would start by slicing up an extension cord and separating the ground wire a good distance from the hot+neutral (bind those together). Now you can put a clamp ammeter around the ground (or hot+neutral, as normal current will cancel itself out) and look for the leakage current. I readily acknowledge that a refrigerator light is an unusual source for a ground fault, and may be worth investigating.
Normally fridge ground faults happen when the compressor motor is shut off; that causes an inductive "kick" that will rise in voltage until it is shunted to neutral or ground. Refrigerators may have devices such as a VBO to deal with that, which then fail over time.