I have a GE freezer, model number FUF20DPARWH that blows a ground fault circuit breaker when it goes into the defrost cycle. The case is not "hot" when this occurs and it is plugged into a circuit th

the unit wil get hot around the edges as designed. if its tripping your ground fault, then remove that circuit. a refrig should not be hooked up thru a ground fault as it will not work with that circuit.

All the neutral and ground (or "earth") wires in a building are tied (or "connected") together at the incoming service main breaker panel - and that is the only place they should ever be tied together - because it is "upstream" of all the fuses and/or circuit breakers which are there to protect the hot (or "live") wires for the various circuits installed in the building.

In the absence of an earth wire (= ground wire in US/Canadian English), if the appliance suffered some damage that caused a short circuit between the high voltage "hot" lead and the case of the appliance, the damage would make the case live and it would cause an electrical shock to anyone who touched it.

If the case is earthed by using a ground wire (= earth wire in British English), if that same damage occurred the hot lead would immediately be shorted to ground and in theory cause the fuse to blow or circuit breaker to open, thus eliminating the danger of a live case.The ground or "earth" wire is a circuit's safety protective wire that normally carries no current.

It is there to force a fuse to blow or a circuit breaker or GFCI to trip if a fault condition occurs in any appliances, their flexible cords or plugs that are connected into the circuit.

By carrying away the excess current in a fault condition - which should cause the protecting fuse to blow or circuit breaker to trip - the "ground" or "earth" wire protects the building and its occupants because the power should be cut off before anyone gets electrocuted or any overloaded circuit wiring or appliances catch on fire.

The neutral is the normal "return" wire: in systems where the load is supplied from only one hot (or "live") wire, the neutral completes the circuit and carries current back from the load to the power station.

All the neutral and ground (or "earth") wires in a building are tied or linked together at the incoming service main breaker panel. This is the only place they should ever be tied together because it is "upstream" of all the fuses and/or circuit breakers protecting the hot (or "live") wires for the various circuits installed in the building.

Warning: we must never assume that a neutral is safe to touch: it has to be checked with a voltmeter or a voltage indicator to be sure it is not "live". This is because a neutral wire is designed to carry current under normal circumstances.

So, if a neutral wire going back to the incoming main breaker panel has not been properly connected - or suffers a deliberate disconnection or some accidental damage which causes it to break - then it and any neutral wires connected to it further downstream will go live up to the break because of being connected to the downstream loads which still have hot feeds coming into them!

That is why we should never use a neutral as a substitute for a proper, separate, ground or "earth" wire.

Is it plugged in to a ground fault circuit?
If so,plug it into a non-ground fault circuit.

use an extension cord and try another plug. I may also be in defrost let it set for at least 35 min to see if the defrost cycles next check your wall plug for a ground fault. I will be a little red or white button in the center of the wall plug and it pops just like a circuit breaker just push it in until it stays. good luck

I think you mean a grund fault interrupter type breaker or receptacle.

The ground fault breakers fit into a regular box and they snap over the HOT input power tab like miost breakers AND they have a white pigtail wire that connects to the neutral bar in the panel.

The branch circuit that is fed from this breaker has BOTH the hot and the neutral connecting to the breaker as the breaker has two terminals for the purpose. The grounding wire of the branch circuit still goes to tthe ground bar in the panel.

For a GFCI receptacle, the branch circuit feeds the terminals labeled "LINE" and if other receptacles are to be protected by this device, they have their circuits continued from the terminals on the receptacle labeled "{OAD".

Hi, this is because the defrost drain is blocked. Follow this LINK which will take you to my tips and full instructions on clearing the blockage. If you have any additional questions please feel free to comment. Mike

21 ohms for a heater is not bad. I think what is happening is when the heater gets power and starts to heat the heater shorts to ground. causing it to throw the breaker.

The most likely causes in their order of probability are: 1) water somewhere in the circuit causing the hot wire to ground; 2) a legitimate trip caused by a defect in a device plugged into the circuit; and 3) a defective GFCI breaker. In the first case, wait until it has been dry for about a week and see if it trips. In the second case, make sure there is nothing plugged into the circuit and try resetting. In the third case go ahead and put the regular breaker in, then put a GFCI outlet into the first box downstream from the breaker. If installed according to the directions, that outlet should protect all of the outlets downstream.

I feel like you have defrost thermostat wired wrong , One side of heater should have nothing hooked to it but one side of thermostat, whitch should shut it off when it goes open.Now some G.E.s have the evaperator fan hooked to the same wire,so it won't run when thermostat is open.If thats the case someone might have wired it wrong causing a back feed.check that out that could be your problem.Someone could have wired a hot lead to it not knowing it was supposed to go dead when limit control opened.hope this helps. God bless. Fxit

I might first suspect the defrost bi-metal thermostat located in the freezer compartment behind the interior panel. It's clipped onto the coils and is usually a little round disk with a couple wires coming out of it. The reason I susupect it is that little device is what "opens" to kill power to the heater once the temps get hot enough to have finished melting the ice on the coils. If that is stuck "closed" or opens WAY out of it's heat range then the heat element will stay on way too long. Next is the actual defrost timer which can be a clock type timer or a circuit board. If you go to this site use GSS22JEM for the model number. Item 240 is the bi-metal, 241 is the thermistor sensor. http://www.partselect.com/Schematics/GE/00113124i06.gif Item 801 is the control board. http://www.partselect.com/Schematics/GE/00113123i02.gif