Why might a refrigerator on a shared GFCI circuit be a practical concern?

A refrigerator will run perfectly well on a ground-fault protected circuit; the problem is what happens when the protection trips. A GFCI on a kitchen counter circuit can trip for reasons that have nothing to do with the refrigerator — a small appliance with a leaky element, moisture at an outlet, or simply a device reaching the end of its life — and when it does, the refrigerator stops without anyone noticing, because a silent refrigerator looks exactly like a working one. By the time the food has spoiled the trip may have happened days earlier. The same reasoning applies with even greater force to freezers and to sump pumps, where the consequence is a flooded basement. The finding is a practical concern to raise with the client rather than a defect: a dedicated circuit, or at minimum awareness of what is protected, is the reasonable response.

The concern is not operation but a nuisance trip: a refrigerator that stops looks no different from one that is running, so spoilage occurs before anyone notices the circuit is dead.

GFCI protection interrupts a circuit on detecting current imbalance. Where refrigeration or a sump pump shares protected circuits, an unnoticed trip disables them silently, producing spoilage or water damage.

A Silent Fridge Looks Fine. Nobody notices a tripped circuit until the food has gone.

The sump pump case is the more serious version of the same problem, since the consequence is a flooded basement rather than spoiled food.

• •Calling the arrangement a code violation rather than a practical concern
• •Overlooking sump pumps on protected circuits
• •Claiming the appliance cannot operate on protected power