Fridge died after moving... any ideas?

[Cdshakes]

My in-laws just moved out of the city and into a over-55 community.  The house is about 19 years old...including all the appliances.
They bought a new fancy fridge and wanted to put the old one out in the garage for beer/soda...etc.  The guys that brought in the new one placed the old one out there.  When my in laws tried plugging it in, it tripped the gfi.  I've been reading about how fridges trip gfi's...etc.  I brought a 12ga ext cord with me, and tried it in a gfi in the kitchen--tripped that one too.  
I then tried it in the only other plug in the garage:  the plug for the garage door opener--- light comes on, but condenser will never kick on.  I tried it on different outlets inside the house (non gfi), condenser never comes on.  I tried (as a temporary measure) to pull out the gfi in the garage and just put a non gfi in there, to eliminate the ext cord--still nothin.  

So i'm wondering whether the condenser is just suddenly dead, even tho it was working fine when they moved in 2 weeks ago?  Or is the reason it's tripping the gfi the reason why the condenser isn't coming on...if so, what is that reason???

And, yes, i know putting a fridge in the garage isn't really recommended, just know a lot of people that have done this for years, and they wanted to do the same.

[Roly]

If the light came on ok it is getting power. I know it sounds simple but did anyone turn the thermostat off in the box ? Roly

[Cdshakes]

yeah, i messed with the dials in the back-- there were a couple-- one for the freezer, one for the fridge temp.  There was also some power saving feature--i changed that to the other setting. 
I wanted to bring my kill-a-watt with me to see if it was drawing anything more than the light bulb, but forgot it unfortunately.

One piece of info i didn't put in the original post is that it's a top/bottom standard config GE fridge.  No ice maker in it.

[p_toad]

Don't know if you check to see if they damaged the coils (on the back of my GE) or the compressor (down in the bottom of unit)...

you have a model number?   popping the gfci sounds like possible damage to the power cord, but

[K. L. McReynolds]

Building codes still allow a non GFCI receptacle in a garage---for the freezer/fridge out there. Our 23 cu. ft. freezer lives in the garage and has done fine for 8+ years.

Causes could be freon leak, oil leak, compressor died, or a compressor that needs 40A to start and is now on a new 30A circuit(the old breaker was used to the load).


It really is not worth fixing that old fridge, for the cost of a service call and parts, they can buy a new smaller model that will be much less expensive to run.

[R Clark]

How was the refrigerator transported to the new location?

I was always told that refrigerators and freezers should never be transported on their side.  If they are, then they should be turned upright at the destination and allowed to sit for 24 hours before turning on.  It's one of those things I've always done when moving them and I've never had a problem getting them up and running again.

[Roly]

Check and see if any wires under it got pulled off in the move. Does it have a fan inside the box and is it running or if it has a condenser fan is it running ? When first plugging in you should hear the compressor start up. If not I would look for damaged wiring. Some older friges would trip the older GFCIs for some reason. The laying on side could cause it as the above poster mentioned as it allows oil to be in places it should not be. Roly

[Cdshakes]

They said both fridges were carried with those strap things that go over the shoulder, and they both stand up, the fridge just goes straight up... wasn't on its side at all.  
I may pull the back off when i'm there and see if anything is undone.  Everything looked pretty intact, but i guess ya never know.
They aren't going to pay to get it fixed--I was just looking to see if anything else we could try before putting it at the curb.

[Roly]

As a last ditch effort before the curb, try shaking the compressor hard on its mounts.  Then plug in a non gfci outlet.   Roly

[Herb G]

My fridge did the same thing 14 years ago when we moved.
A small wire on the bottom of the fridge came off, and I put it back on.
Plugged in the fridge & it fired right up.

Usually if something happens suddenly, it's usually pretty simple to fix.
Something I learned from my Dad a long time ago.