what causes the fuse of the fridge to keep tripping?

for the past two days, i have been grappling with a household problem - my whirlpool fridge had decided to go on strike. i came home on tuesday evening to a darkened flat. it was not in total darkness as the staircase light was still on. i only realised there was a trip when i tried to switch on the kitchen's light. i tried a few other switches to confirm that it was a trip.

normally, when i go to the switchboard and flick the affected switch, things will get into motion. this time nothing happened. rather the switch kept returning to the 'off' position. the conclusion - one of the appliances had short circuited. my prime suspect was the fridge. i switched it off and then went back to the switchboard. true enough, it was the culprit.

i called my friend nah for advice. the next step was to replace the fuse in the plug head. i have a stock of used but working fuses. after i had put in a 'new' fuse, the tripping stopped but the fridge was still dead - the lights were off and the there was no sound from the motor and the fan.

the next day i decided to seek 'professional' help. i called my regular electrician, the one who services my air conditioners. he had helped me fix a fault with the same fridge before. he came checked and told me to get the agent's serviceman because the fault was with 'some internal wiring'.

sometime after he had left, i was moving some of the items from the freezer to a mini fridge in my room, when it suddenly came to life - the lights came on and the motor started humming. i thanked my lucky star for the saving on the repair bill.

then in the middle of the night it happened. the air-conditioner in my room stopped working. i got up to check and found out that the fuse of the fridge had tripped again. i switched off the fridge, and electricity to the other points was restored.

the next morning i called whirlpool south-east asia and that afternoon, the serviceman came with the necessary spare-part to fix the problem. the serviceman explained to me that it was the faulty heater that was causing the trip.

the fridge goes into a defrost mode once every eight hours. during this cleaning period, moisture or water may get into the heater, if there is a crack in it, and this will cause the electricity to trip.

once the faulty heater was replaced, the fridge starting working again. the repair bill - about $200.

the trouble that comes with a fridge that has stopped working is the food, especially in the freezer compartment, may go bad. afraid that contamination might take place, i cooked most of the meat in the freezer. so, yesterday evening we had a big pot of bak tuk teh and steamed egg with minced meat.