Samurai, as I mentioned before .... code rules aside ... you really ought not be having nuisance tripping with refrigerators anymore.
The electronics within an appliance, as well as the effect a starting motor has on "power factor," have the effect of changing the time at which things happen.
Simply put, a simple resistance load, when put on an oscilloscope, will show both the volts and the amps as sine waves in time with each other. Any other load ... be it capacitor, inductor, whatever ... will change that timing, and may even change the shape of the sine waves.
Since a GFI works by comparing what goes 'in' with what comes 'out,' such a change in the waveform could be interpreted as a fault. It is claimed that internal design changes in the GFCI's make them more tolerant of this sort of thing - so no more nuisance tripping.
I must confess that every time I have seen a fridge trip a GFCI, or had reports of shocks, there were two things present: an exceptionally good ground path, and an old fridge. Replacing the old fridge with another one solved the problem in each instance. Fridges DO wear out, and current leakage seems to be one of the early symptoms.
GFCI's are ordinarily set at 5mA for "personnel protection." This is well below the 'usual' fatal level - more akin to an 'annoying shock.' GFCI's are made set to different levels, but that is perhaps outside the scope of this thread. Such other settings are for different purposes, and perhaps we ought not "fix" problems by using a 'bigger fuse."
