I bought a 2nd hand Mistral fridge freezer for the shed as an overflow. It arrived, we plugged it in and was shown how it works. It worked for 24 hours and then tripped out. The electrics in the shed are connected to the mains of the house, where we have a circuit breaker on the switch. I can plug my lawn mower and strimmer into the plug socket and it works perfectly- why does the addition of the fridge freezer trip it out ? I have a party to plan for next week and can't chill or freeze anything. Can anybody help and suggest a way to stop it ? I bought a monster power cable but that doesn't work either- I'm starting to loose the plot. Thank you.

Donna, June 2007

Any circuit breaker in the system will need to be minimum 16Amp rated.
If you are satisfied with that, and that the cable run is not too long (say more than 50 metres from the house), then unfortunately the chances are that the compressor is causing the electrics to trip out. This is the Number 1 cause, and regrettably is not a viable repair. Just check also (with the power off) that in manhandling it to the shed you have not trapped or damaged the mains cable in some way.

Trevor, June 2007