Cooler Shocking Me!

[alowell]

Hey guys,
I'm wondering if there is a quick check and fix to this one before I call in an appliance guy.

I just bought a double sliding door cooler to put my conicals in. I had to clean the he!! out of it this weekend and when I was finished, I plugged it in and received some small electrical shocks when I touched the inside of the cooler. MY thought is that a ground is out of place somewhere on the unit. IS this a bigger issue? Any ideas? This might be a glaring one, but it is a 110V service and pretty sure the outlet in the garage is not grounded. Would a grounded outlet fix the problem or is it at the appliance side of things?

Thanks, everyone. I know fooling with electricity is always a no-no for me, but I was wondering if there was a fix or check before I call in the big guns.

Thanks,
Andrew

 

[adam01]

Ground is usually attached to metal on the object. If there is no ground in the power code, then the system could have a voltage that will bite you if you are a good grounding path.

Two suggestions:

1. Make sure the cord has a grounding plug - maybe somebody cut off the ground pin.
2. Get a GFCI receptacle installed by an electrician to replace the garage receptacle.
This will make sure that there is no current going to ground.

The result of these two changes may be that you can detect there is a fault in your cooler somewhere... Finding it is the next step.

 

[Boar Beer]

Take the plate off your 110 v outlet and see if it has a green wire (the ground)
find out what you are working with.

 

[alowell]

Alright, first think I'll do is check the ground wiring at the compressor and such and then the outlet. If it still shocks me...on to an appliance guy! Thanks everyone

 

[RichBenn]

Yes, you need a grounded outlet. Green = earth ground, white = neutral (connected to earth ground where the power comes into your house), and black = hot. If you have a device that is not double insulated (think plastic on a drill), then without a three wire plug, any short can make the outside of the device hot and shock you.

If it's that way all the time, then probably the hot and neutral are reversed somewhere in the wiring or the hot is touching a ground. That's another reason for three wire and also GFI circuits - no shock, even under fault conditions.

 

[alowell]

Thanks, everyone. My 30A outlet (one I put in for the brewery) is grounded, so I will probably just try to get a Y-splitter with a 20A 3-prong adapter on one of the branches and plug the cooler into that. Right now it is being plugged into a separate circuited 15A outlet in the garage. Anyone know where I could find a 30A Y-splitter with a 30A receptacle on one branch and a 20A receptacle on the other?