Do I need

[fred1949]

Do I need a larger circut? I have a circut that has a very small new chest freezer on it, an old 5' tall smaller type fridge. I looked & cannot find the usageon the two items so could you please tell me from your electricle knowlege does this appear as a overloaded circut?

Fred

[Rewired]

If its the ONLY two items on the circuit you have nothing to worry about.. Referigerators that are even 20 years old only draw something like 3-5 amps and no more than 6 when they are defrosting... the chest freezer probably draws no more than 2 amps tops... that should be ok on a 15 amp circuit...
I have a 30+ year old "Woods" upright freezer and a 20 year old McClary frost free fridge plugged into the same 20 amp circuit... total draw.... 6 amps, problems: NONE

A.D

[fred1949]

Thanks for the info. I hooked a maybe not so reliable clip on multitester with a maximum hold button & after a day it read almost 22 amps on it but I guess that falls under the startup load.

Fred

[KSever]

I might be wrong but my new side by side says it needs 11 amps, is this only on startup or is this operating since it does have defrost and an ice maker/crusher? I just rewired my complete kitchen and put both side by side refrigerators on their own circuits. Could I have run them both on one circuit (not that I needed to save any wire but could I have)?

[Rewired]

Fred:

yes that sounds like thats what it is drawing for startup, usually with compressor motors they draw something like 6x their running current when they start, so your freezer would be drawing something around 3.6 amps.. Sounds normal to me.

KServer: most of the time the appliances label says more than what they actually draw.. our new Amana Fridge says "7.9 amps" but only draws 1.5 amps when its running and I *think* somewhere around 4 or 5 when its in "defrost mode"..

You MIGHT have been able to run both your fridges on the same circuit BUT I would have done the same thing if I was rewiring my whole kitchen


Not too long ago, I had an old Viking fridge ( that the Amana replaced), the Woods upright freezer and the McClary fridge all on a SINGLE 20 amp circuit! the most everything drew ( fridges in defrost, freezer running) was 10 A!!! motor start up of all 3 at the same time was around 30 amps I think but I am not sure.. NEVER tripped the breaker, never had any problem... I DID end up splitting it up into 2 different circuits for other reasons though ( backup generator didnt like all that on the same "leg" during startup....

A.D