My guess is that the 'fridges & aircon units have suppressor caps to minimise spike generation on turn on & off. These present a useful leakage path to earth that trips the interruptor. - especially under switching conditions. Richard P > The fridge kept tripping the GFI interruptor. > ... but I still don't see why it needs to leak > that much current to the ground." Couldn't be the arcing from the fridge thermostat contacts opening and closing that drives the GFI nuts - could it? I have a self-designed electronic thermostat that drives a contactor on my 'fridge - and I have an appliance off a wall-wart on the same circuit that sometimes gets reset when that contactor cycles on or off (it's easy to tell when this appliance gets reset - it starts to make a loud squawk) ... RF Jim -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads