A few years back I ran a new feeder to a range which had been relocated next to the fridge. That evening I get a call from my customer, calling me all kinds of names, because his wife had grabbed the fridge handle and the oven door handle at the same time. The shock she got was so bad she couldn't let go, and the husband had to knock her free.
I rushed to the house, meter in hand to see what the problem was. Everything on the stove checked out fine, so I put my meter from the casing of the fridge to the stove and got 120 V. I unplugged the fridge and figuring it was a ground problem I checked the receptacle.....it wasn't grounded. I then plugged the fridge into the 120 V outlet on the range, which I knew was grounded, and the fault cleared.
Since that time I've found MANY fridges to have a live casing, and the voltage ranges from 60 to 120. Every one of these were ungrounded, either because of old wiring or the ground prong was removed on the cord end. The casing of the fridge can be checked quickly with a "Volt Tick" tester.
I have only seen this happen on fridges - not on other appliances. Have any of you run into this before? And what would cause the casing to become live when the ground is lifted?
