GFCI Requirements for Refrigerator within 6ft of a sink

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NathanF

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Location
PA
Occupation
EIT
Hi all,

Just wondering how you guys handle fridge (or even microwave) receptacles within 6ft of a sink.

I can't have the GFCI behind the fridge (not readily accessible), but it is required to be ground fault protected. My opinion as of right now is to make the breaker GFCI.

Am I overthinking this? Even though its not accessible, the fridge still needs some sort of GFCI protection if its within 6ft of a sink, correct?
 
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jmellc

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Occupation
Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
James L said:
You can put the fridge on the load side of a countertop gfci
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Please do not do this. A refrigerator should be a dedicated circuit. If you need GFCI, use a breaker. Breaker is much less likely to nuisance trip and even good GFCI receptacles do not last all that long. Plus, any other loads on the circuit could kill the refrigerator by overloading the circuit.
 
James L

James L

Senior Member
Location
Kansas Cty, Mo, USA
Occupation
Electrician
jmellc said:
Please do not do this. A refrigerator should be a dedicated circuit. If you need GFCI, use a breaker. Breaker is much less likely to nuisance trip and even good GFCI receptacles do not last all that long. Plus, any other loads on the circuit could kill the refrigerator by overloading the circuit.
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There isn't any real reason to run a dedicated circuit for a fridge.

A refrigerator is almost the smallest appliance load in the whole kitchen. About the only SA loads smaller are can opener or knife sharpener.
 
J

jmellc

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Occupation
Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
James L said:
There isn't any real reason to run a dedicated circuit for a fridge.

A refrigerator is almost the smallest appliance load in the whole kitchen. About the only SA loads smaller are can opener or knife sharpener.
Click to expand...
What if an air fryer is cranked up and trips the circuit. Someone may just move it to another outlet and forget to reset the breaker. I've seen such. And while they have improved, I have seen lots of refrigerators and freezers trip GFCI receptacles. I'd much rather be safe than sorry. Too many variables. No one wants a fridge full of spoiled food.
 
Jraef

Jraef

Moderator, OTD
Staff member
Location
San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA
Occupation
Electrical Engineer
jimport said:
Given how often a refrigerator is opened the issue would be found rather quickly.
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Not if everyone left the house to go to work or school… or worse yet, vacation!

I’m of the school that kitchen designers need to be taught not to put refrigerators within 6ft of a sink. I’m seeing a lot of heartache with AFCI/GFCIs on refrigerators around here lately because as house sizes have been shrinking, the kitchens are getting smaller and more crowded. There is an entire 3000 unit condo development nearby where all of the kitchens are tiny, so the fridges are all on Dual AFCI/GFCI breakers and are constantly nuisance tripping. The only consistent solution that works is to put a standard breaker in the panel, then put an in-line blank face AFCI/GFCI receptacle on the wall next to the fridge (so that it is accessible). The Leviton AGRBF is one that everyone has found consistently holds in with new inverter based fridges , but there have been others. This also gets around the issue of not being able to switch brands of breakers in a panel in case you have to keep changing receptacles until you find one that is compatible with the fridge.
 
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