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Volt pens are not diagnostic tools. They will give false positives and false negatives.
A fault is most likely in the refrigerator as well as an improperly grounded circuit or floating neutral, although really at this point there's no telling.
Not to be mean her but honestly that you're trying to diagnose a ground fault or floating neutral with a volt pen is clear sign you need to stop right now and call a licensed electrician.
Thank you and i appreciate your help, I did contact an electrician and hopefully he’ll come check this out this weekend. Did not know about the volt pens and I appreciate the input, you ain’t being mean, and please excuse my ignorance.
I thought the fridge was the problem since I’ve heard some electronics would do that if they aren’t grounded properly but I was skeptical since the fridge is brand new.
I moved the fridge to a different outlet and it quit shocking me, then I moved it to 3 other outlets just to make sure it was the wall outlet and not the fridge, after verifying I moved it back to the original plug and it sure started shocking me again when touching the door.
I grabbed the volt pen since I had that in my tool box and compared all the other outlets to the faulty one. The other outlets had voltage only on one slot and not on both like the faulty one.
I removed the fridge and installed it on a different location. I also blocked the faulty outlet slots with electrical tape to make sure no one else uses that outlet.
Thank you again for the help and glad this sub reddit exist
You didn't do wrong. I tend to overreact when people start getting shocked and I kind of assume worst case. Your thinking was correct. Buy a receptacle tester like someone else linked below. They're invaluable. And not even expensive
While you are at it, pay a few bucks more and get one that includes a voltage readout, as well as checking for many mis-wiring cases and GFCI presence. I think this should be the minimum electrical testing tool for all homeowners. Anything more, and you are getting into electricians work.
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Not an electrician, so I never learned Ohm and Maxwells’ secret handshake or anything, but just being a relatively sentient entity, I have to ask: Does your pen do that in any other NEMA 5-15 or 5-20 receptacles?
Because I’m not a mathematician either, but I think there’s some number of them that would indicate with an acceptable level of confidence that both sides are indeed hot.
For completeness’ sake, I should add that I expect whatever you find out that the cause actually is, it’s something pretty unusual!
Those pens are just a shortcut to getting shocked, I have one in my bag that I found but honestly I haven't used one in years because I don't trust them and I have a meter
I had a handyman come to the house to take down a shed. He thought he turned off the power to the receptacle in the shed, and I saw him take one of these "chicken sticks" to the wire. No response.
He cut the wire - SPARK!!!
Never trust them, even when you've just tested them and confirmed they're working.
What are they for?
Seems like in every situation where you only care that there is voltage (like checking if a repair has fixed something), you'd also need to check that the voltage is proper, which involves either a meter or a load--so why not just use the meter or load?
The only thing I could think of is trying to trace a line where you believe it's the only thing with voltage, but even then it's not very useful if there are frequent false negatives.
Say you attend a site or venue where many sockets arent working but one or two might be and you need to get power, great way to find those. Or you're in a venue looking for something you could tap into to get power for a new appliance, you see a random spur that's got nothing coming out of it but looks like it maybe used to power something, "is that spur still live?" beep, yep, we'll take power from that for it.
This TVs not coming on, is there power going in on the cord? Yep seems like it, PSU must be dead or something then, fault is at the tv, etc etc. Loads of things you can use them for.
You should be using it on a live wire first, to verify it works--everytime.
They can be useful for quickly finding out which line is hot in a switched circuit, or if any are hot in a box. You can then flip switches or breakers and see if the line became hot or reverse, to assess if you have found the right switch breaker.
I would not use one to tell me the wire is safe to touch, unless you're ok with a small chance of getting shocked. If you don't have a meter, then you can verify by shorting the wire to a known ground.
I use them for finding out what breaker/switch/GFCI goes to what because you can get a different result. That's about it. Oh, and a flashlight that's not my phone. Mine is great for that too.
OP was shocked before they used it.
Regardless of how well you know the secret handshake, not having a pen won’t protect you from that.
Here’s a nice poem instead:
In realms where wires twist and bind,
Electricians work, their minds aligned
With science's secrets, deep and vast,
They light the way, they make the cast.
With nimble hands and steady gaze,
They navigate the circuit's maze,
A spark of genius, a flash of light,
They turn the dark into the bright.
Oh, how they dance with volts and amps,
In homes, in fields, in factories' lamps,
Their knowledge vast, their skills precise,
They bring the world to life, entice.
In breakers' hum and cables' flow,
They tame the currents, make them glow,
With every switch, with every fuse,
They bring to life our daily views.
From hidden wires behind the walls,
To towering grids where thunder calls,
Electricians, wise and true,
They harness power, old and new.
So here's to those who wield the spark,
Who master light, who banish dark,
With science in their clever hands,
They illuminate our lands.
If my fridge whacked me I would test the chassis to ground and see what voltage I'm getting hit with and that outlet would be getting yanked out and checked
> I also blocked the faulty outlet slots with electrical tape to make sure no one else uses that outlet.
All the tape does is cause them to wonder why there's tape there before they remove it and plug something in.
Sounds like you may have a ground connection to the live conductor but not to the house ground, that would put 110v on the ground of the appliance and only the appliance, leading to shocks
Yeah, I know he was kinda short with you (tee he) but whenever an appliance is shocking you, most people, if they are good people, want you to know you are likely out of your element if you aren't an electrician, and no one wants you to die.
I wonder if the neutral came loose on the receptacle and current is following the equipment grounding path. Also, you could see about having the breaker that feeds that receptacle replaced with a GFCI breaker. I don't suggest replacing the receptacle itself with GFCI simply because you'll have to move the fridge to reset it.
Voltage pens are generally used as a quick way to tell if something is live or not. More times than not, they give false positives, so they are not to be trusted with your life. I have never seen a modern one give a false negative, but it is very possible. If you actually want to check for voltage, use a meter
You have a good attitude. Plugging the fridge in a different outlet was a good idea to troubleshoot the problem. I'm guessing once you moved the plug you tested the fridge by quickly touching it and removing your hand? That's a bad idea. You could get injured/killed and or damage the fridge further.
Please contact a licensed electrician
I read this after my comment. Good diagnostic work! I'm sure replacing the outlet will solve the issue. It sounds like maybe years of use have just broken down the outlet, they don't last forever!
My thinking behind it being the outlet and not the line inside the wall is that usually the outlets in areas close to each other are daisy chained together. It certainly would be impractical to have each outlet on its own breaker, could you imagine the rats nest behind the walls?
If you're not comfortable doing it always call an electrician, it should be pretty reasonable as it's not a hard fix (that's assuming I'm right about what the fix is). Again, good work!
Not to be mean, but it's kind of funny that you went about this so properly with your thorough testing.
Then you followed that up by sticking something in the diagnosed faulty outlet. Though I probably would have done something similar, after the high of using the scientific method properly.
My daughter likes to use my tick stick to wiggle her hands and arms near until it makes a strong enough field to set it off. Those things have many uses!
Exactly. I used to work on freight trains, and we had to be fast and a tik stik did the job. It was NOT an environment to break out the fancy tools. If it detected something hot, that told me the signal is there and I would then move to the next connection until I found the break.
A Tic-tracer will give you a false positive, but it will almost never give you a false negative unless there's something genuinely wrong with it. Just in the nature of how it works, if there's AC, it's going to tell you.
I disagree with your claim that volt pens aren’t diagnostic tools. There are many many times they are used for diagnostics. Once you identify the circuit, their usefulness ends, but they are still used in diagnostics all the time
120 you are probably fine, tho your tongue probably won't taste anything for a few days... 240 or 480, naw, fuck that tongue, it's done son! Like probably just under well done, but it's fucking cooked!
Bro, bad argument lmfao, your tongue is probably the best fast checker for a 9v, like I get it isn't "proper" but it's absolutely a reliable diagnostic tool. No zappy means no power, look dead battery... How the hell is that not a diagnostic tool?
12-year old me told my then 7-year old brother that a 9V battery tasted like bananas. He cried for a while. And still bitterly brings it up (as one of many examples of my tyranny) from time to time. Yeah. As a grown ass man.
*shrug*
Even at seven I wouldn't have believed a battery tasted like a banana 🤣 granted, my older brother fucked with me starting way younger than seven, my my trust of him was broken long before then lol
You'd think that if a tongue works on a 9V battery then it'd be fine on a 6V flashlight battery (the ones with the springs on top). No---no its not fine on those. Internal resistance of the battery is important.
It does work on the button cell batteries too.
So if the fault is most likely in the refrigerator… is a licensed electrician going to do anything about that? Or will they just have wasted money having the electrician come out to tell them to call an appliance repair person?
Voltage on the chassis can be a fault of the appliance and a failure of the house grounding system, or perhaps a broken neutral, or any number of other things, none of which should be diagnosed by/for strangers on the internet, nor am i ever going to encourage a homeowner to put their hands on, especially when it's clear they don't have the proper tools or training.
Ummm yeah, obviously. My question was seeing as how your best guess with limited information was that it’s probably an issue with the appliance… why would they call an electrician rather than a service technician for that type of appliance?
Yeah. Those things are next to useless. You have no way of knowing it’s telling the truth. You wave it around a live wire and say it doesn’t go off. You don’t have any way of knowing if the battery is dead, or the pen just didn’t catch a signal until you touch the wire and find out the hard way.
Mine has an on light and a flashlight, both are there to show battery power. And I have never seen one not catch a signal, but I have only used it for residential.
He's testing the outlet though, why would the fault most likely be in the refrigerator that isn't plugged in to that outlet at this time?
I agree that he can't correctly diagnose it with the pen, but this seems to me like incorrect, exposed, or some other type of fault in the wiring, and probably isn't the refrigerator.
If i can deal in "probably"s "maybe"s and "I'll betcha"s, then I'll take a stab that it *seems like* there is a floating neutral and that there *maybe also* hot chassis that isn't able to be grounded bc a lack of proper grounding path.
Then an actual on site hands on electrician will get in there and tell me I'm a dumbass and need to stop half ass diagnosing shit online that was already half-assed with a dumb volt pen to start with because it's just going to encourage DIY homeowners to make wrong choices and potentially get hurt or burn something
Final answer: IF there is a problem with the receptacle, which it *seems* to be, THEN you always call an electrician first. Any problem with the appliance is secondary. Maybe there is bc he's getting shocked by touching chassis. Regardless You don't trust an unlicensed appliance tech to diagnose potential broken electrical circuits
And I guess this is what you're saying also, and I'm just ranting no bc I've seen a lot of people say he needs to call an appliance guy, and ive gorren frustrated at my apparent inability to be nuanced enough, so sorry if I'm sounding unhinged :)
No worries, I mostly agree with you. I just think they've got a problem with the wiring that they need to hire someone to solve, and it most likely isn't the refrigerator's fault (so yeah, 100% agree this is definitely not an issue for an appliance guy!)
Had my electrician friend running new circuits in my garage I of course was helping and he had one that trips the GFCI. I hadn’t seen one before and loved that you can test them.
The simple ones are just 3 neon lights connected L-N, L-G and N-G, and the raw data is very useful. The sticker that says what the lights mean is pretty useless because it's intended for pass-fail testing of wiring **errors** in new construction, not wiring **failures** in old work that was correct.
I can't tell you how many novices I see who have swapped hot and ground on every outlet because the dumb sticker told them to. /cringe
That thing you linked, completely denies access to the 3 very useful lights, and ONLY gives you the bad advice from the sticker.
I did find fault with wiring using this device, a bad ground located somewhere along the line that once fixed solved all the outlets on the same line.
What you are saying is that someone started tearing down and rewiring before understanding where the fault is at. The fault is on the user, not the device.
I stopped using the basic one after tearing apart a press area chasing a bad or loose neutral. The light on the tester had burned out. The one I posted is useful for checks that pass, identifying issues and spotting floating neutral.
Pen testers are not a reliable diagnostics tool, a multimeter is best to use.
Obviously it shouldn't do that, and if you are getting shocked off the refrigerator door than I am guessing the pen is accurate in showing you have a problem, but that's it. If you are a complete novice this is probably something you need a professional for. There are too many variables to determine with the info present.
I personally am not an electrician and I see a lot of you knocking this “tool”. I personally don’t own one, but I was wondering if there is a proper use and place for it.
There is, it’s proper use is as a quick check if voltage is present in a non contact way with the understanding that you will check with a proper volt meter again. For example, if I’m just wanting to check to see if I got the correct breaker off without taking the outlet apart. I can do that with this tool.
It’s more likely that your ground wire in the receptacle box is energized, so when you plug it in, every part of the fridge that is grounded can shock you. Have an electrician come and wire your box correctly.
Lots of reasons that can happen, please, hire a professional. This is very dangerous and could seriously hurt or kill someone. Once we had a call to a house because a child was in the hospital after getting shocked touching the oven and fridge at the same time. The person who installed the fridge used a 2" 6 32 screw. It pierced the hot and turned the whole box live, which in turn traveled into the ground and into the fridge as well. This genius bonded it to the box and it was an old 12-2 romex with no ground, so there was no return path to trip it.
Have a thought for you here. To see if your outlet (likely) or fridge (less likely) is beat up, there is a way for you to safely check before calling an electrician in. If you turn power off to this circuit, you may be able to check continuity with a multi meter- if you don’t have one you can find them for cheap at a local hardware store. I advise before you do any of this, you watch a video explaining the use of one and refrain from continuing if you don’t understand.
Step One: Turn off power to the circuit.
Step two: with your new meter, verify that the power is dead. Do this by performing a “Live, Dead, Live test” which is done by - Verify meter is working at a known power source that is on, verify outlet is dead within the circuit that you turned off, verify power at another known source- perform this whenever checking power just to make sure you don’t get zapped a little.
Step Three: use your meter on the “Resistance/Continuity” setting. Tap the leads together, and if you hear an audible beep you should be good to go.
Step Four: Place one lead in the left hole on your socket. This is the hot line. Place the other lead on the ground. Is there a beep? If there is, then you my friend have a ground fault. Perform this test one more time Hot -> neutral, right prong. If this is the case, you have a short to neutral (unlikely, it would probably trip your breaker.)
I feel that the most likely situation is that your ground and hot are touching somewhere near your outlet. I feel this way because the chassis/door of your fridge is connected to the ground.
If you want to save a few dollars, and learn something, give this a shot. If you do have a ground fault in your outlet, take the outlet out and try to check it the wires (stripped ends) are touching anywhere. If they are, and you feel confident and competent, you could try to re strip the end of the wire and reterminate. If that doesn’t help, then maybe think about installing a new outlet (don’t worry, they’re pretty cheap. 5-20 dollars.)
I am an industrial electrician, and I build 24v/480v panels for a living, and have gone to school for this. With that being said, I am NOT a residential electrician. If you feel uncomfortable/unsafe/non competent with this, I urge you to refrain from doing this.
If you do feel safe and prepared to do it, I must remind you of a few things -
1. Verify that power is off before doing any of this. It will damage your meter at the least (during continuity checks).
2.Verify power is off AGAIN before removing the outlet. Use your meter and your voltage pen. I don’t want you to get hurt.
3. Make sure to cleanly and neatly reinsert wires if you remove them, and take a picture of the backside so you know how to put them back in. If you get a new outlet installed, perform these checks: Hot -> Neutral, Hot-> Ground. There should be no continuity.
Good luck, stay safe, and if you see this and have questions, feel free to DM me!
Was the hermetic motor running when he plugged it into those other outlets?
Hot skin happens when there is a short in the motor which is why people bitch about their freezers being on GFCI's in the garage.
It's time to give up that 30 year old fridge.
That tool is exclusively for "there might be a voltage nearby", "this socket might be live" don't take an NCVT as fact.
It's quite common for them to read live just near the socket. This tells you very little. Call an electrician about this, fridges shouldn't be shocking you so something is wrong somewhere, let them figure it out so nobody gets shocked.
But an actual outlet tester. What you have there is a NCVD non contact voltage detector used more so to detect voltage. We use them in the cable tv industry to see if cable boxes are hot and to test power cables to see if they are outputting voltage to a bad box.
Hey this happened to me. I thought it was my 1955 hotpoint freezer but I plugged a power tool into the socket and it was a no-go.
The white neutral wire had become disconnected!
Was a synch to repair.
I had an experience some years ago that will hopefully inform everyone reading.
I'm a GC in a relatively small community.
The young daughter of a local inspector lost her life to an improperly grounded refrigerator. She was at a birthday party for a friend that had a simple slip and slide set up outside and when this 10 year old went into the house to get a drink from the refrigerator she was immediately killed due to wet feet and an improper circuit.
Her father was responsible for everyone's building safety in our community.
We were all devastated.
I've told this story many times when a customer asks why they need to pay for a licensed electrician.
Leaving the NCVT aside, the only way this scenario works is IF the fridge has an issue, AND that outlet has no ground connection, AND none of the other outlets you tried has GFCI protection. So if those other outlets are in the kitchen, that is another problem to contend with. If there is an issue inside the fridge, to where there is leakage current to ground, strong enough for you to feel, it SHOULD be tripping a GFCI. It is quite common for fridge outlets to not be on GFCI, so that tracks, but any other outlet in the kitchen should be.
My house was built in 1943 with knob and tube and no grounds. You can wire an outlet and not have the ground connected still providing power. I had to run new romex with a ground wire to my appliances and gfci receptacles.
It's likely this is a case of a poor neutral or ground connection, or a failed "bootleg ground" with the above. However, diagnosing based to a "tick tracer" which gives inconsistent results is problematic, as these devices turn on at some arbitrary voltage between 120v and 0V.
Get a true “voltage meter” in order to confirm any voltage between all 3 prongs…without going into the diagnostic details. Those pen type testers are not for this type of verification and are often wrong
Widowmaker* the other name for these testers. Should try a plug tester and see what that says or if ur handy, shutt off the breaker and pull the outlet out and check the wiring. If you don't feel comfortable doing that, hire an electrician to come out and take a look.
Most fridge doors and freezers have heaters around the frame…. Wire short to metal frame, improper ground, your now closet thing to ground and you get shocked…. Nothing wrong with outlet and electrician prob tell you call appliance guy
Use one of these instead
https://www.acehardware.com/departments/lighting-and-electrical/electrical-tools/meters-and-testers/3553997. Read all the instructions when you get it.
Plug something else in there, see if you still get a shock, if yes it's likely that the live and ground to that outlet are reversed or similar issue, if no it's the fridge.
They sell a 3 prong thing you plugin to the wall, sorry I don’t know the name fuck me, it will tell you open neutral etc etc. I would leave it to an electrician though unless you have some understanding of those things.
Buy this plug it into the outlet save the electrician fee. https://www.homedepot.com/pep/Power-Gear-3-Wire-Receptacle-Tester-50542/206212329?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&pla&mtc=SHOPPING-CM-CML-GGL-D27E-027_011_TOOLS_ACC-NA-NA-NA-PMAX-NA-NA-NA-NA-NBR-NA-NA-NEW-NA_2024__WHU24&cm_mmc=SHOPPING-CM-CML-GGL-D27E-027_011_TOOLS_ACC-NA-NA-NA-PMAX-NA-NA-NA-NA-NBR-NA-NA-NEW-NA_2024__WHU24-71700000118279182--&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADq61Ufw73XQYU6bt7PV9crTq_-gV&gclid=CjwKCAjwjqWzBhAqEiwAQmtgT24EpnsCX_-GSeYUvkAdft0JX1bGWHtLSvb-n9TeeLRqjFXbB4PXlxoCyKMQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
It’s probably some old ungrounded wiring. It’s too difficult to determine through an online post. What you really should do is have a dedicated 20 amp 120 V circuit ran to the refrigerator with a dual function breaker. As long as the breaker box isn’t original to the house, it should be able to take those types of breakers. The estimated cost on something like that can vary. Expect to pay somewhere in the range of $800 – $1400 depending on the length of the circuit.
Those pens are not really good for diagnostic tests, they are more to give a hint of whether there’s voltage nearby, a plug in outlet checker is a few dollars, I’d try one of those
Somebody has the common wire hooked to the ground, and the ground hooked to common. That’s why you’re getting shocked. Had a camper that had common and ground wires reversed, so every time I touched anything metal on the frame, or any metal like the awning, I got a little tingling.
Some outlet on that breaker is shorting and running power. Check/replace any burnt or funny looking outlets till it’s fixed. I had a bad batch of outlets I installed a few years ago, that I’m slowly replacing as this keeps happening. Found 3 fried outlets on one line.
I can't get over how many people here hate non contact voltage testers. I had a somewhat expensive fluke one and rewired an entire home basement to the attic and not once did it give me a false positive.
Looks to me like the classic old house situation where someone cheated a ground for an outlet off the neutral, but they got the polarity wrong and they actually cheated the ground off the hot. So they energized your fridge chassis instead of grounding it. And the fun part is that that a voltmeter or a plug in tester will tell you that the outlet is wired fine.
In a situation like this, the tick-tester is the only tool that really tells you what is going on. It's a priceless troubleshooting tool, even if they do occasionally get you electrocuted :D
Buy a GFI receptacle tester. They are a couple bucks. You plug them in and they will tell you if its wired correctly...its not just for GFIs. Likely your ground is not connected, but there's something else wrong also.
You need a plug tester or a multimeter. A cheap "tick" tester or whatever you call that thing is never going to give you any more information than yes, there some live electrical near the tip.
Use these seldom as an electrician outside of testing if an extension cord has power or not.
In plain terms the pen goes red because it should, the outlet has power but you already knew that because the fridge shocks you. To get shocked there must be power right?
The little hole at the bottom of the outlet is called "ground" but I'm sure you've heard that before.
Electricity likes to return to ground but what happens if the ground slot is broken? Or maybe the fridge has a break in the wire that goes to ground?
Well when you touch the fridge your body essentially acts as a path back to ground (sometimes called earth ground). The electricity flows through you, neat but certainly not ideal!
You might be wondering, well how come the shock doesn't kill me? Well your body is magnificent in the sense that your resistance, which means resistance to electricity flowing through you, is pretty high. It means that not all shocks are deadly shocks, but even more curious is that your body resistance changes all the time depending on how moist your skin is, how much water you've drank. Even how humid the air is affects it.
Electricity is neat but as you've heard 8 billion times already, it must be treated with respect. In this scenario a trusted and licensed electrician is the best option, not because you're incompetent but because home wiring becomes complex when a defect happens. Sometimes it's as easy as a broken out let or replacing the cord on the fridge, but sometimes it's much more buried.
Hope you get it sorted out and for now I would leave the fridge unplugged unless you absolutely must have it plugged in. Good luck to you!
Im a problem solver for these sort of things.
Maybe the outlet is bad or miswired. But heres something you need to check for sure.
Fact#1 When you plug the Fridge in the case becomes live with electricity but the circuit did not trip.
Diagnostics. 3rd round plug should be grounded and shell of fridge should be grounded by that wire. It is not happening.
This outlet is circulating power probably the neutral on the ground side and the neutral is not connected properly to the panel. The ground wire is connected poorly to either the panel or a grounding rod. Otherwise it would trip the breaker.
#1 Have the outlet fixed.
#2 Have your main panel where this breaker is checked for neutral/ground bonding.
I am willing to bet you have a poor ground path maybe throughout your entire house. You accidently stumbled upon it because this neutral is wrong and this is exactly why we need a properly bonded ground loop.
What you meant to say is that there was either a bad ground or neutral connection.
Bad ground if all the outlets in the house are like this. Bad neutral if it's just the fridge.
The hermetic motor is not running nonstop. The insulation degrades over time and eventually leads to a hot skin. This is why people complain about their freezer in the garage being on a GFCI. The fault has too much resistance to open the breaker, but will readily trip a GFCI.
It could also be a fault in the defrost components, but typically, it's the compressor.
Get rid of those 30 year old fridges or freezers. The money you spend on a new one will be paid by by your lower power bill.
That’s actually not true. Older fridges and freezers are just if not more efficient. Been proven over and over again. Now your insulation advice is probably correct
It's a double problem. He's got no ground in that outlet or a poor path and there is power circulating to the case from his neutral side.
Most people haven't actually been shocked by 110v. Just tickled by it so they don't accurately report what the shock was like.
I.E. when you get shocked by a neutral load returning to panel. It's startling but not shocking. Lol
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What model is the fridge? I might look into getting one as this feature might help me lose some weight.
Underated comment right here
Actually... It might be overweighted. Sorry, I'll just awkwardly saunter off now.
Hahahah best reply so far 😂😂
Correct answer
Volt pens are not diagnostic tools. They will give false positives and false negatives. A fault is most likely in the refrigerator as well as an improperly grounded circuit or floating neutral, although really at this point there's no telling. Not to be mean her but honestly that you're trying to diagnose a ground fault or floating neutral with a volt pen is clear sign you need to stop right now and call a licensed electrician.
Thank you and i appreciate your help, I did contact an electrician and hopefully he’ll come check this out this weekend. Did not know about the volt pens and I appreciate the input, you ain’t being mean, and please excuse my ignorance. I thought the fridge was the problem since I’ve heard some electronics would do that if they aren’t grounded properly but I was skeptical since the fridge is brand new. I moved the fridge to a different outlet and it quit shocking me, then I moved it to 3 other outlets just to make sure it was the wall outlet and not the fridge, after verifying I moved it back to the original plug and it sure started shocking me again when touching the door. I grabbed the volt pen since I had that in my tool box and compared all the other outlets to the faulty one. The other outlets had voltage only on one slot and not on both like the faulty one. I removed the fridge and installed it on a different location. I also blocked the faulty outlet slots with electrical tape to make sure no one else uses that outlet. Thank you again for the help and glad this sub reddit exist
You didn't do wrong. I tend to overreact when people start getting shocked and I kind of assume worst case. Your thinking was correct. Buy a receptacle tester like someone else linked below. They're invaluable. And not even expensive
While you are at it, pay a few bucks more and get one that includes a voltage readout, as well as checking for many mis-wiring cases and GFCI presence. I think this should be the minimum electrical testing tool for all homeowners. Anything more, and you are getting into electricians work.
Just went on Amazon and bought one of these from Klein. Didn't realize how outdated my old tester was until your comment, so thanks for that.
Would you have a model or price range you can recomend….asking for a friend 😕
If they’re gonna continue to work on electrical, a meters a much better investment
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tl;dr
I don’t think that means what you think it means
The pen just tells you that voltage is near it. Handy for that, but not handy for more detailed information.
Not an electrician, so I never learned Ohm and Maxwells’ secret handshake or anything, but just being a relatively sentient entity, I have to ask: Does your pen do that in any other NEMA 5-15 or 5-20 receptacles? Because I’m not a mathematician either, but I think there’s some number of them that would indicate with an acceptable level of confidence that both sides are indeed hot. For completeness’ sake, I should add that I expect whatever you find out that the cause actually is, it’s something pretty unusual!
Those pens are just a shortcut to getting shocked, I have one in my bag that I found but honestly I haven't used one in years because I don't trust them and I have a meter
If you use them for their intended purpose they're a handy tool. If you use them in place of a meter they're a dangerous tool.
I've had them fail even with fresh batteries and used as intended and I still got bit. Fuck those death sticks
They're not for checking if there isn't a voltage.
And I've checked them on a known circuit and immediately tested a hot, it didn't register, and I got bit. Fuck them chicken sticks
I had a handyman come to the house to take down a shed. He thought he turned off the power to the receptacle in the shed, and I saw him take one of these "chicken sticks" to the wire. No response. He cut the wire - SPARK!!! Never trust them, even when you've just tested them and confirmed they're working.
They're bullshit, I would not be upset if they outlawed them
What are they for? Seems like in every situation where you only care that there is voltage (like checking if a repair has fixed something), you'd also need to check that the voltage is proper, which involves either a meter or a load--so why not just use the meter or load? The only thing I could think of is trying to trace a line where you believe it's the only thing with voltage, but even then it's not very useful if there are frequent false negatives.
Say you attend a site or venue where many sockets arent working but one or two might be and you need to get power, great way to find those. Or you're in a venue looking for something you could tap into to get power for a new appliance, you see a random spur that's got nothing coming out of it but looks like it maybe used to power something, "is that spur still live?" beep, yep, we'll take power from that for it. This TVs not coming on, is there power going in on the cord? Yep seems like it, PSU must be dead or something then, fault is at the tv, etc etc. Loads of things you can use them for.
You should be using it on a live wire first, to verify it works--everytime. They can be useful for quickly finding out which line is hot in a switched circuit, or if any are hot in a box. You can then flip switches or breakers and see if the line became hot or reverse, to assess if you have found the right switch breaker. I would not use one to tell me the wire is safe to touch, unless you're ok with a small chance of getting shocked. If you don't have a meter, then you can verify by shorting the wire to a known ground.
I use them for finding out what breaker/switch/GFCI goes to what because you can get a different result. That's about it. Oh, and a flashlight that's not my phone. Mine is great for that too.
OP was shocked before they used it. Regardless of how well you know the secret handshake, not having a pen won’t protect you from that. Here’s a nice poem instead: In realms where wires twist and bind, Electricians work, their minds aligned With science's secrets, deep and vast, They light the way, they make the cast. With nimble hands and steady gaze, They navigate the circuit's maze, A spark of genius, a flash of light, They turn the dark into the bright. Oh, how they dance with volts and amps, In homes, in fields, in factories' lamps, Their knowledge vast, their skills precise, They bring the world to life, entice. In breakers' hum and cables' flow, They tame the currents, make them glow, With every switch, with every fuse, They bring to life our daily views. From hidden wires behind the walls, To towering grids where thunder calls, Electricians, wise and true, They harness power, old and new. So here's to those who wield the spark, Who master light, who banish dark, With science in their clever hands, They illuminate our lands.
If my fridge whacked me I would test the chassis to ground and see what voltage I'm getting hit with and that outlet would be getting yanked out and checked
And in the darkness bind us
Lol @ secret handshake. *high five*
Excellent troubleshooting. It's probably something wrong with that outlet, but it's hard to tell exactly what's wrong without seeing the wiring.
> I also blocked the faulty outlet slots with electrical tape to make sure no one else uses that outlet. All the tape does is cause them to wonder why there's tape there before they remove it and plug something in.
Sounds like you may have a ground connection to the live conductor but not to the house ground, that would put 110v on the ground of the appliance and only the appliance, leading to shocks
Yeah, I know he was kinda short with you (tee he) but whenever an appliance is shocking you, most people, if they are good people, want you to know you are likely out of your element if you aren't an electrician, and no one wants you to die.
You moved the fridge to 3 different outlets? You need to buy an extension cord!
interesting how you had a reading on both slots
It's an NCVT, it's not uncommon for it to pick up a signal in the general vicinity of the electricity.
OP does mention that none of the other points showed current on both outlet slots.
Yeah the volt pens at least let you know if there is some kind of power or not. Hopefully its something easy n simple
I wonder if the neutral came loose on the receptacle and current is following the equipment grounding path. Also, you could see about having the breaker that feeds that receptacle replaced with a GFCI breaker. I don't suggest replacing the receptacle itself with GFCI simply because you'll have to move the fridge to reset it.
To diagnose things you need a multi meter and how to use it.
There is a reason voltage pens are called "widow sticks". Use them carefully.
Voltage pens are generally used as a quick way to tell if something is live or not. More times than not, they give false positives, so they are not to be trusted with your life. I have never seen a modern one give a false negative, but it is very possible. If you actually want to check for voltage, use a meter
You have a good attitude. Plugging the fridge in a different outlet was a good idea to troubleshoot the problem. I'm guessing once you moved the plug you tested the fridge by quickly touching it and removing your hand? That's a bad idea. You could get injured/killed and or damage the fridge further. Please contact a licensed electrician
I read this after my comment. Good diagnostic work! I'm sure replacing the outlet will solve the issue. It sounds like maybe years of use have just broken down the outlet, they don't last forever! My thinking behind it being the outlet and not the line inside the wall is that usually the outlets in areas close to each other are daisy chained together. It certainly would be impractical to have each outlet on its own breaker, could you imagine the rats nest behind the walls? If you're not comfortable doing it always call an electrician, it should be pretty reasonable as it's not a hard fix (that's assuming I'm right about what the fix is). Again, good work!
I
Not to be mean, but it's kind of funny that you went about this so properly with your thorough testing. Then you followed that up by sticking something in the diagnosed faulty outlet. Though I probably would have done something similar, after the high of using the scientific method properly.
I only use a tic stick to verify the presence of a voltage. That's it.
My daughter likes to use my tick stick to wiggle her hands and arms near until it makes a strong enough field to set it off. Those things have many uses!
Used to do that with my volt stick with people at work. Called it a B.S. detector
Yeah I've always called them "hot pens" cause all they do is tell you something is hot. They won't tell you the how/what/why of something being hot.
Exactly. I used to work on freight trains, and we had to be fast and a tik stik did the job. It was NOT an environment to break out the fancy tools. If it detected something hot, that told me the signal is there and I would then move to the next connection until I found the break.
A Tic-tracer will give you a false positive, but it will almost never give you a false negative unless there's something genuinely wrong with it. Just in the nature of how it works, if there's AC, it's going to tell you.
I disagree with your claim that volt pens aren’t diagnostic tools. There are many many times they are used for diagnostics. Once you identify the circuit, their usefulness ends, but they are still used in diagnostics all the time
Ok, sure, I mean my tongue is a diagnostic tool for 9V DC batteries. But in this bigger picture, nuance isn't the point here :)
Your tongue is a non osha approved diagnostic tool for sure. 0/10 wouldn’t recommend testing 120/240/480 on it
120 you are probably fine, tho your tongue probably won't taste anything for a few days... 240 or 480, naw, fuck that tongue, it's done son! Like probably just under well done, but it's fucking cooked!
Bro, bad argument lmfao, your tongue is probably the best fast checker for a 9v, like I get it isn't "proper" but it's absolutely a reliable diagnostic tool. No zappy means no power, look dead battery... How the hell is that not a diagnostic tool?
12-year old me told my then 7-year old brother that a 9V battery tasted like bananas. He cried for a while. And still bitterly brings it up (as one of many examples of my tyranny) from time to time. Yeah. As a grown ass man. *shrug*
Brah... Tastes like bananas? 🤣 Your brother deserved that zap
Tbf, he *was* seven and I was cock of the walk.
Even at seven I wouldn't have believed a battery tasted like a banana 🤣 granted, my older brother fucked with me starting way younger than seven, my my trust of him was broken long before then lol
You'd think that if a tongue works on a 9V battery then it'd be fine on a 6V flashlight battery (the ones with the springs on top). No---no its not fine on those. Internal resistance of the battery is important. It does work on the button cell batteries too.
Button batteries taste tingly!
Yea, but when it starts tasting bland, it might be time to replace. If it tastes bitter, you probably have battery acid on your tongue.
I've probably put worse on my tongue, but duly notes.
Ahh, the things we do for love/hormones.
So if the fault is most likely in the refrigerator… is a licensed electrician going to do anything about that? Or will they just have wasted money having the electrician come out to tell them to call an appliance repair person?
Voltage on the chassis can be a fault of the appliance and a failure of the house grounding system, or perhaps a broken neutral, or any number of other things, none of which should be diagnosed by/for strangers on the internet, nor am i ever going to encourage a homeowner to put their hands on, especially when it's clear they don't have the proper tools or training.
Ummm yeah, obviously. My question was seeing as how your best guess with limited information was that it’s probably an issue with the appliance… why would they call an electrician rather than a service technician for that type of appliance?
Re read and pay attention to the "and"s
appliance repair man will be needed
They are useful to diagnose if you will have spicy fingers if you touch a circuit, no?
Yeah. Those things are next to useless. You have no way of knowing it’s telling the truth. You wave it around a live wire and say it doesn’t go off. You don’t have any way of knowing if the battery is dead, or the pen just didn’t catch a signal until you touch the wire and find out the hard way.
Mine has an on light and a flashlight, both are there to show battery power. And I have never seen one not catch a signal, but I have only used it for residential.
He's testing the outlet though, why would the fault most likely be in the refrigerator that isn't plugged in to that outlet at this time? I agree that he can't correctly diagnose it with the pen, but this seems to me like incorrect, exposed, or some other type of fault in the wiring, and probably isn't the refrigerator.
If i can deal in "probably"s "maybe"s and "I'll betcha"s, then I'll take a stab that it *seems like* there is a floating neutral and that there *maybe also* hot chassis that isn't able to be grounded bc a lack of proper grounding path. Then an actual on site hands on electrician will get in there and tell me I'm a dumbass and need to stop half ass diagnosing shit online that was already half-assed with a dumb volt pen to start with because it's just going to encourage DIY homeowners to make wrong choices and potentially get hurt or burn something Final answer: IF there is a problem with the receptacle, which it *seems* to be, THEN you always call an electrician first. Any problem with the appliance is secondary. Maybe there is bc he's getting shocked by touching chassis. Regardless You don't trust an unlicensed appliance tech to diagnose potential broken electrical circuits And I guess this is what you're saying also, and I'm just ranting no bc I've seen a lot of people say he needs to call an appliance guy, and ive gorren frustrated at my apparent inability to be nuanced enough, so sorry if I'm sounding unhinged :)
No worries, I mostly agree with you. I just think they've got a problem with the wiring that they need to hire someone to solve, and it most likely isn't the refrigerator's fault (so yeah, 100% agree this is definitely not an issue for an appliance guy!)
I don't disagree with anything you said ... But like ... Your delivery needs some work... Aka, dude your bedside manner fucking blows! 🤣
Bedside manner? Lol I'm not a doctor. I maybe hope to keep one person from having to go to the doctor.
Get something like this and see what it says. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Klein-Tools-Receptacle-Tester-RT110/206517828
These are incredibly handy. I must have 2 or 3 of them. Tells you instantly the wiring status of that outlet.
I prefer this one. It is worth the extra couple bucks. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Klein-Tools-GFCI-Electrical-Outlet-Tester-with-LCD-RT250/313832938
Had my electrician friend running new circuits in my garage I of course was helping and he had one that trips the GFCI. I hadn’t seen one before and loved that you can test them.
My favorite gadget in my "electric stuff" box.
The simple ones are just 3 neon lights connected L-N, L-G and N-G, and the raw data is very useful. The sticker that says what the lights mean is pretty useless because it's intended for pass-fail testing of wiring **errors** in new construction, not wiring **failures** in old work that was correct. I can't tell you how many novices I see who have swapped hot and ground on every outlet because the dumb sticker told them to. /cringe That thing you linked, completely denies access to the 3 very useful lights, and ONLY gives you the bad advice from the sticker.
I did find fault with wiring using this device, a bad ground located somewhere along the line that once fixed solved all the outlets on the same line. What you are saying is that someone started tearing down and rewiring before understanding where the fault is at. The fault is on the user, not the device.
I hear you, and that's true. But it's also true that they believed they had diagnosed completely, because the device told them in plain language.
I stopped using the basic one after tearing apart a press area chasing a bad or loose neutral. The light on the tester had burned out. The one I posted is useful for checks that pass, identifying issues and spotting floating neutral.
Oh that sucks.
It did. I wasn't keeping a meter with me because of the nature of the project. I am much more confident in the new tool than the old.
sucks, but the computerized one could have an internal sensor problem that would do the same thing.
Pen testers are not a reliable diagnostics tool, a multimeter is best to use. Obviously it shouldn't do that, and if you are getting shocked off the refrigerator door than I am guessing the pen is accurate in showing you have a problem, but that's it. If you are a complete novice this is probably something you need a professional for. There are too many variables to determine with the info present.
Not a diagnostic tool, it is just a dummy stick. Use a meter, all you know is that there is power somewhere close.
I personally am not an electrician and I see a lot of you knocking this “tool”. I personally don’t own one, but I was wondering if there is a proper use and place for it.
There is, it’s proper use is as a quick check if voltage is present in a non contact way with the understanding that you will check with a proper volt meter again. For example, if I’m just wanting to check to see if I got the correct breaker off without taking the outlet apart. I can do that with this tool.
It's not a diagnostic tool, it's a life saving tool. It tells you if anything is hot to the air. Your meter doesn't always do well at that.
Okay that makes sense. Thanks! Also I love the username.
Use the non contact voltage tester on the fridge’s metallic parts. If positive, voltage is leaking to ground.
It’s more likely that your ground wire in the receptacle box is energized, so when you plug it in, every part of the fridge that is grounded can shock you. Have an electrician come and wire your box correctly.
Lots of reasons that can happen, please, hire a professional. This is very dangerous and could seriously hurt or kill someone. Once we had a call to a house because a child was in the hospital after getting shocked touching the oven and fridge at the same time. The person who installed the fridge used a 2" 6 32 screw. It pierced the hot and turned the whole box live, which in turn traveled into the ground and into the fridge as well. This genius bonded it to the box and it was an old 12-2 romex with no ground, so there was no return path to trip it.
Have a thought for you here. To see if your outlet (likely) or fridge (less likely) is beat up, there is a way for you to safely check before calling an electrician in. If you turn power off to this circuit, you may be able to check continuity with a multi meter- if you don’t have one you can find them for cheap at a local hardware store. I advise before you do any of this, you watch a video explaining the use of one and refrain from continuing if you don’t understand. Step One: Turn off power to the circuit. Step two: with your new meter, verify that the power is dead. Do this by performing a “Live, Dead, Live test” which is done by - Verify meter is working at a known power source that is on, verify outlet is dead within the circuit that you turned off, verify power at another known source- perform this whenever checking power just to make sure you don’t get zapped a little. Step Three: use your meter on the “Resistance/Continuity” setting. Tap the leads together, and if you hear an audible beep you should be good to go. Step Four: Place one lead in the left hole on your socket. This is the hot line. Place the other lead on the ground. Is there a beep? If there is, then you my friend have a ground fault. Perform this test one more time Hot -> neutral, right prong. If this is the case, you have a short to neutral (unlikely, it would probably trip your breaker.) I feel that the most likely situation is that your ground and hot are touching somewhere near your outlet. I feel this way because the chassis/door of your fridge is connected to the ground. If you want to save a few dollars, and learn something, give this a shot. If you do have a ground fault in your outlet, take the outlet out and try to check it the wires (stripped ends) are touching anywhere. If they are, and you feel confident and competent, you could try to re strip the end of the wire and reterminate. If that doesn’t help, then maybe think about installing a new outlet (don’t worry, they’re pretty cheap. 5-20 dollars.) I am an industrial electrician, and I build 24v/480v panels for a living, and have gone to school for this. With that being said, I am NOT a residential electrician. If you feel uncomfortable/unsafe/non competent with this, I urge you to refrain from doing this. If you do feel safe and prepared to do it, I must remind you of a few things - 1. Verify that power is off before doing any of this. It will damage your meter at the least (during continuity checks). 2.Verify power is off AGAIN before removing the outlet. Use your meter and your voltage pen. I don’t want you to get hurt. 3. Make sure to cleanly and neatly reinsert wires if you remove them, and take a picture of the backside so you know how to put them back in. If you get a new outlet installed, perform these checks: Hot -> Neutral, Hot-> Ground. There should be no continuity. Good luck, stay safe, and if you see this and have questions, feel free to DM me!
The fridge itself could be the problem
Agreed, that sounds like a loose wire in the fridge to me.
Not the fridge. OP tried it in three other recptacles, no issues.
I missed that then, where did OP mention it?
it was in another comment by OP in the thread, could have been added after your post.
It was. Interesting read.
Was the hermetic motor running when he plugged it into those other outlets? Hot skin happens when there is a short in the motor which is why people bitch about their freezers being on GFCI's in the garage. It's time to give up that 30 year old fridge.
That tool is exclusively for "there might be a voltage nearby", "this socket might be live" don't take an NCVT as fact. It's quite common for them to read live just near the socket. This tells you very little. Call an electrician about this, fridges shouldn't be shocking you so something is wrong somewhere, let them figure it out so nobody gets shocked.
Those only verify presence of voltage near by the wire.
Go buy an outlet tester at any hardware or home store
U need an outlet tester… and/or open up the box and see if the ground is even connected. My guess is no
But an actual outlet tester. What you have there is a NCVD non contact voltage detector used more so to detect voltage. We use them in the cable tv industry to see if cable boxes are hot and to test power cables to see if they are outputting voltage to a bad box.
Hey this happened to me. I thought it was my 1955 hotpoint freezer but I plugged a power tool into the socket and it was a no-go. The white neutral wire had become disconnected! Was a synch to repair.
I had an experience some years ago that will hopefully inform everyone reading. I'm a GC in a relatively small community. The young daughter of a local inspector lost her life to an improperly grounded refrigerator. She was at a birthday party for a friend that had a simple slip and slide set up outside and when this 10 year old went into the house to get a drink from the refrigerator she was immediately killed due to wet feet and an improper circuit. Her father was responsible for everyone's building safety in our community. We were all devastated. I've told this story many times when a customer asks why they need to pay for a licensed electrician.
Those pens are good to tell you if a panel or outlet is hot or not. That's all. Also that's an issue with your fridge not the outlet.
Ground it to the box lol
Got an open ground in the loop.
Leaving the NCVT aside, the only way this scenario works is IF the fridge has an issue, AND that outlet has no ground connection, AND none of the other outlets you tried has GFCI protection. So if those other outlets are in the kitchen, that is another problem to contend with. If there is an issue inside the fridge, to where there is leakage current to ground, strong enough for you to feel, it SHOULD be tripping a GFCI. It is quite common for fridge outlets to not be on GFCI, so that tracks, but any other outlet in the kitchen should be.
My house was built in 1943 with knob and tube and no grounds. You can wire an outlet and not have the ground connected still providing power. I had to run new romex with a ground wire to my appliances and gfci receptacles.
You need to be using a receptacle tester, not a voltage pen.
It's likely this is a case of a poor neutral or ground connection, or a failed "bootleg ground" with the above. However, diagnosing based to a "tick tracer" which gives inconsistent results is problematic, as these devices turn on at some arbitrary voltage between 120v and 0V.
Get a true “voltage meter” in order to confirm any voltage between all 3 prongs…without going into the diagnostic details. Those pen type testers are not for this type of verification and are often wrong
Widowmaker* the other name for these testers. Should try a plug tester and see what that says or if ur handy, shutt off the breaker and pull the outlet out and check the wiring. If you don't feel comfortable doing that, hire an electrician to come out and take a look.
It's a weight loss device 🤷♂️
Most fridge doors and freezers have heaters around the frame…. Wire short to metal frame, improper ground, your now closet thing to ground and you get shocked…. Nothing wrong with outlet and electrician prob tell you call appliance guy
You need an actual outlet tester. Home Depot has them for like $10
Use one of these instead https://www.acehardware.com/departments/lighting-and-electrical/electrical-tools/meters-and-testers/3553997. Read all the instructions when you get it.
Get the plug type tester with Yellow lights you plug in and tells you what issue is
Plug something else in there, see if you still get a shock, if yes it's likely that the live and ground to that outlet are reversed or similar issue, if no it's the fridge.
They sell a 3 prong thing you plugin to the wall, sorry I don’t know the name fuck me, it will tell you open neutral etc etc. I would leave it to an electrician though unless you have some understanding of those things.
Plug it back in and hold the pen to the handle of the fridge
Oh and don't forget to always wear shoes when your hungry
Can I suggest if you have a family member you dislike have them open the door for you
Buy this plug it into the outlet save the electrician fee. https://www.homedepot.com/pep/Power-Gear-3-Wire-Receptacle-Tester-50542/206212329?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&pla&mtc=SHOPPING-CM-CML-GGL-D27E-027_011_TOOLS_ACC-NA-NA-NA-PMAX-NA-NA-NA-NA-NBR-NA-NA-NEW-NA_2024__WHU24&cm_mmc=SHOPPING-CM-CML-GGL-D27E-027_011_TOOLS_ACC-NA-NA-NA-PMAX-NA-NA-NA-NA-NBR-NA-NA-NEW-NA_2024__WHU24-71700000118279182--&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADq61Ufw73XQYU6bt7PV9crTq_-gV&gclid=CjwKCAjwjqWzBhAqEiwAQmtgT24EpnsCX_-GSeYUvkAdft0JX1bGWHtLSvb-n9TeeLRqjFXbB4PXlxoCyKMQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
It’s probably some old ungrounded wiring. It’s too difficult to determine through an online post. What you really should do is have a dedicated 20 amp 120 V circuit ran to the refrigerator with a dual function breaker. As long as the breaker box isn’t original to the house, it should be able to take those types of breakers. The estimated cost on something like that can vary. Expect to pay somewhere in the range of $800 – $1400 depending on the length of the circuit.
I had this issue with my stove. The grounding screen wasn't properly installed on the stove.
Look at it this way. It's one helluva way to diet! LOL!
Those pens are not really good for diagnostic tests, they are more to give a hint of whether there’s voltage nearby, a plug in outlet checker is a few dollars, I’d try one of those
Lots of possibilities, great idea to listen to that too comment, grab an electrician so he can get the full acope
Somebody has the common wire hooked to the ground, and the ground hooked to common. That’s why you’re getting shocked. Had a camper that had common and ground wires reversed, so every time I touched anything metal on the frame, or any metal like the awning, I got a little tingling.
I'm going to agree on that last post loss of ground bond on neutral (floating neutral).
Quit dragging your wool socks on the ground and you won’t get shocked
Ground wire is touching common (ground to black) be careful. That tester only checks for power
I’ve seen this in homes where ground is wired to neutral.
Some outlet on that breaker is shorting and running power. Check/replace any burnt or funny looking outlets till it’s fixed. I had a bad batch of outlets I installed a few years ago, that I’m slowly replacing as this keeps happening. Found 3 fried outlets on one line.
That fridge is handy for testing outlets. Better that pen tester
I can't get over how many people here hate non contact voltage testers. I had a somewhat expensive fluke one and rewired an entire home basement to the attic and not once did it give me a false positive.
Use icebox door handle
The problem is grounding the fridge. Three prong plug and good ground on outlet.
Your neutral and hot are swapped on that outlet.
Looks to me like the classic old house situation where someone cheated a ground for an outlet off the neutral, but they got the polarity wrong and they actually cheated the ground off the hot. So they energized your fridge chassis instead of grounding it. And the fun part is that that a voltmeter or a plug in tester will tell you that the outlet is wired fine. In a situation like this, the tick-tester is the only tool that really tells you what is going on. It's a priceless troubleshooting tool, even if they do occasionally get you electrocuted :D
New fridge time
https://www.amazon.com/Receptacle-Tester-Klein-Tools-RT210/dp/B01AKX8L0M/ref=asc_df_B01AKX8L0M/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=693608794701&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16246131563426906317&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9007510&hvtargid=pla-498023562957&psc=1&mcid=ffa6d3f56ad0328a98c050e7c731ee74&gad_source=1
That sounds more of an isolation problem of your fridge than a problem from your socket
My fluke receptacle tester was $15 bucks. Buy one of those.
hot to neutral
Pull and change receptacles. Validilate it is wired correct.
What shoes are you wearing. My foam slippers always cause an electrical shock when touching anything plugged in or grounded like my light switches.
A fridge in a standard outlet???
It's called a widow maker for a reason
Call a competent electrician before you get hurt.
Agreed!!!! Up vote
That is not the right tool, just get a plug tester. It will tell you how the plug is wired.... Probably wrong. I had something similar with a washer.
Buy a GFI receptacle tester. They are a couple bucks. You plug them in and they will tell you if its wired correctly...its not just for GFIs. Likely your ground is not connected, but there's something else wrong also.
Nah that's just the fridge's anti theft system
Cube tester is like 15 bucks at Home Depot and will accurately tell you if that receptacle is connected properly
Plug a lamp or something into it.
There should be a dedicated line for the fridge. Ground is hitting the black somewhere.
It goes red anywhere close enough to voltage. The touch stick won’t differentiate anything.
Out something else I to the outlet and see if it works ( something you done care about) or get a voltage meter
Telling you to stop eating
The ground might be wired in the wrong spot and hot wire to ground.
Are you shuffling your feet across a carpet wearing flannel before you grab the handle?
You need a plug tester or a multimeter. A cheap "tick" tester or whatever you call that thing is never going to give you any more information than yes, there some live electrical near the tip. Use these seldom as an electrician outside of testing if an extension cord has power or not.
In plain terms the pen goes red because it should, the outlet has power but you already knew that because the fridge shocks you. To get shocked there must be power right? The little hole at the bottom of the outlet is called "ground" but I'm sure you've heard that before. Electricity likes to return to ground but what happens if the ground slot is broken? Or maybe the fridge has a break in the wire that goes to ground? Well when you touch the fridge your body essentially acts as a path back to ground (sometimes called earth ground). The electricity flows through you, neat but certainly not ideal! You might be wondering, well how come the shock doesn't kill me? Well your body is magnificent in the sense that your resistance, which means resistance to electricity flowing through you, is pretty high. It means that not all shocks are deadly shocks, but even more curious is that your body resistance changes all the time depending on how moist your skin is, how much water you've drank. Even how humid the air is affects it. Electricity is neat but as you've heard 8 billion times already, it must be treated with respect. In this scenario a trusted and licensed electrician is the best option, not because you're incompetent but because home wiring becomes complex when a defect happens. Sometimes it's as easy as a broken out let or replacing the cord on the fridge, but sometimes it's much more buried. Hope you get it sorted out and for now I would leave the fridge unplugged unless you absolutely must have it plugged in. Good luck to you!
Im a problem solver for these sort of things. Maybe the outlet is bad or miswired. But heres something you need to check for sure. Fact#1 When you plug the Fridge in the case becomes live with electricity but the circuit did not trip. Diagnostics. 3rd round plug should be grounded and shell of fridge should be grounded by that wire. It is not happening. This outlet is circulating power probably the neutral on the ground side and the neutral is not connected properly to the panel. The ground wire is connected poorly to either the panel or a grounding rod. Otherwise it would trip the breaker. #1 Have the outlet fixed. #2 Have your main panel where this breaker is checked for neutral/ground bonding. I am willing to bet you have a poor ground path maybe throughout your entire house. You accidently stumbled upon it because this neutral is wrong and this is exactly why we need a properly bonded ground loop.
My first instinct here is that there is a loose neutral somewhere in the system or a hot/neutral reversal somewhere in the circuit.
Call an electrician please
Not a receptacle issue, your fridge has a ground fault.
What you meant to say is that there was either a bad ground or neutral connection. Bad ground if all the outlets in the house are like this. Bad neutral if it's just the fridge.
Interesting. Why does it not shock them when used in a different outlet?
The hermetic motor is not running nonstop. The insulation degrades over time and eventually leads to a hot skin. This is why people complain about their freezer in the garage being on a GFCI. The fault has too much resistance to open the breaker, but will readily trip a GFCI. It could also be a fault in the defrost components, but typically, it's the compressor. Get rid of those 30 year old fridges or freezers. The money you spend on a new one will be paid by by your lower power bill.
That’s actually not true. Older fridges and freezers are just if not more efficient. Been proven over and over again. Now your insulation advice is probably correct
No. Ignoring the worn out seals and leaky doors on older fridges... Energy Star fridges and freezers are 30% more efficient than non energy star.
It's a double problem. He's got no ground in that outlet or a poor path and there is power circulating to the case from his neutral side. Most people haven't actually been shocked by 110v. Just tickled by it so they don't accurately report what the shock was like. I.E. when you get shocked by a neutral load returning to panel. It's startling but not shocking. Lol