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When I purchased my new refrigerator 3 years ago, I also purchased a black box, about the size of a brick, to prevent voltage surges.  The box is labeled 2500V.  Recently, and several times a day, the box trips and the fridge stops operating.  I reset the rocker switch on the box and all returns to normal,  until the next time....might be hours or days.  My question:  is the CFE supply at fault, or my house wiring, or the box or the fridge?  I can't figure out why this would suddenly become an issue, and only in the pantry.  No electrical problems or tripped switches in the rest of the house.  Any thoughts?

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It totally shuts off or goes to yellow for a period of time? Mine says RETARDO, ALTO, NORMAL, and BAJO. According to the booklet that came with mine (from Steren and made specifically for refrigerators), there's a built-in 15-minute delay after the power normalizes before the regulator will switch on the refrig, supposedly protecting the unit. Perhaps look for the green NORMAL light to go back on and wait 20 min to see if it powers up on its own?

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2 hours ago, cottoncarpet said:

When I purchased my new refrigerator 3 years ago, I also purchased a black box, about the size of a brick, to prevent voltage surges.  The box is labeled 2500V.  Recently, and several times a day, the box trips and the fridge stops operating.  I reset the rocker switch on the box and all returns to normal,  until the next time....might be hours or days.  My question:  is the CFE supply at fault, or my house wiring, or the box or the fridge?  I can't figure out why this would suddenly become an issue, and only in the pantry.  No electrical problems or tripped switches in the rest of the house.  Any thoughts?

Does it show V or VA? 

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3 hours ago, modeeper said:

You need a multi meter to know what your voltage is.  They're cheap.  Check the socket next time it goes off.  If it isn't 110-120V the problem is with CFE or an external connection or the home's breaker or fuse  To check the "brick" connect your multi meter to the output..  If it is 110-120 your brick is OK,  The only way you can check your refre is to plug it into an outlet from a different source.  Difficult to do if it's a big one.  Happy checking!

You must be new to Mexico, Modeeper.  Per Federal statute, the voltage is different in Mexico than up north or in most places in Europe. A simple search will show you that the ideal voltage is 127 volts per phase on a three phase system like most have in Mexico. It further states that if one is within 10% of that, that is acceptable. Only some homes are connected to all three phases. Most are connected to one or more often two phases.

I just checked my two voltage meters my Kill-A-Watt meter shows that one phase is at 127.9 volts and my second and less accurate radio shack voltage meter on a second phase shows that is close to 130, maybe 129.

Ten or more years ago the voltages I had in my house were less close to 127 volts. The CFE utility is getting better and better with time, at least in my neighborhood

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Cottoncarpet, are you absolutely sure than the outlet is grounded? Just because it's got a three pronged cover is no guarantee. If it is not grounded then your voltage regulator is really of no use because, if a surge had occurred, it would have no where to shunt the excess to get rid of it.

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I believe most Mexican fridges are designed to handle power fluctuations. I have never had my fridge on a voltage regulator (although I do my electronics and washing machine) and it's still working fine 10 years after purchase. But I did have the house built myself and the electrical wiring is to NOB standards, so definitely grounded, etc.

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"says" is the correct English in the statement. It refers to the things you say and do on a regular basis in the present tense.

BTW, everybody knows that a spike is driven into the ground to act as a ground. But, if there is no ground wire to any of the outlets then it's function is superfluous. There may also be a ground wire in the conduit but it may not be connected in the actual outlet. Electricity wired properly in this country is a crapshoot because there are no inspections. It's much better to check all these things for yourself and correct them before there's a problem... and that's whether you're renting or owning.

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The spike can have a ground wire (supposed to be green) connected to it... and the green wire may snake into the conduit. But that doesn't mean it's attached to anything within the conduit. I have both a voltage meter and a surge bar that I used to tote around when looking at rentals. The surge bar (Belkin Surgemaster but there is more than one kind) has two lights on it... one says "protected" and the other says "grounded". Both should be lit. It's the simplest way to check each and every outlet. Lived in houses that 1) had no ground or even ground wire 2) had the wire but it wasn't connected.

I'm sure you're aware of all this but others are not. There was one ground spike wired to one outlet when I moved into this house. I knew it before moving in and it was the first job I had done. While running ground wires, it was also discovered that my electricity was running into the neighbour's storage area. It isn't any more. They "forgot" to tell me. Heads up. You're in Mexico and you're on your own. Assume nothing.

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Now I'm sure that you didn't understand what I wrote. What you just quoted is the answer to someone who just stuck a three pronged adapter into a two pronged outlet. A two pronged outlet is a dead give away that the outlet probably isn't grounded.

To ground my whole house, the green ground wire had to be run through every conduit because it wasn't there except for the one plug. Then every outlet had to be properly attached to the newly run ground wire which then was attached to the spike in the ground. In all, I have three spikes... one of which is directly below the meter and is attached to the meter.

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Just a note:. In Canada a ground rod should be about 8' to 10' long and driven into the ground all the way. If you can't drive it down that far because of rock, you can use a ground plate which is a square metal plate that you bury ... You also need to use the correct size ground wire.. Usually a #6AWG  from the ground rod/plate to the fuse/breaker panel.

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58 minutes ago, modeeper said:

That's funny!  So in Guatemala does the ground rod have to be longer or shorter?  Does it have something to do with proximity to the Equator or is it in the alignment of Jupiter and Mars?  :lol::lol::lol:

How long have been in Mexico? You really don't know? Let me give you a hint; we are at 103 degrees longitude by  20 degrees latitude. Therefore I have 3 grounding rods each 20 decimeters long which are pounded slightly below ground level and 20 decimeters apart, which are wired to each other in an area under the grass next to the pool, which is regularly watered that act as my ground. They are connected to each grounding circuit for each phase I have at my home. So you can see how to figure it out. (There are 10 decimeters per meter)

It all depends on the variables.

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43 minutes ago, johanson said:

How long have been in Mexico? You really don't know?

Since 1981.  If we were in one of the local bars singing 100 bottles of beer on the wall, at what number of beers would we arrive when you passed out face down into a bowl of bean dip?

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Do you swim in that pppppppoooooool? Shocking!  :P

OK: Serious ground rod with #6 copper cable to the entrance box‘s buss bar. Then, bare “common“ wire from each fuse/breaker protected circuit from there to every outlet or wired appliance at their dedicated ground connection. That should defeat most spikes, especially if protection devices like surge protectors and voltage controllers are used. The “common“ refers to the fact that the white wire (-) at every outlet or light fixture also leads to the buss bar in the main breaker (entrance) box. The black wire (+) is the “hot“ wire and must always be carefully isolated from all other wires and/or metal box contact. 

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RV when I did the house remodel which included upgrading the wiring it was 2007 and in those days there were many more power outages in many neighborhoods. So when I made plans to go solar, I also included a battery backup system so that should the CFE power fail, I was separated from the grid and the batteries gave me electricity at night and the photovoltaic solar panel provided power during the day for the house and/or my 8 Trojan deep cell 6 volt battery System.

When they decided what to do about a grounding system, I stressed the importance of same and the 3 rods where installed as explained above. So far everything is working great. I don't remember the size of the grounding wires connecting the rods together or running to the breaker boxes for the three phases my house has. I just remember being impressed about how large they were, so much larger than the 12 gauge I am used to when I would do rewire projects at home in the states.

These days CFE is so reliable that power outages are few and far in-between and when the power  goes off it's either for a second or three and very occasionally for a few hours and almost no one puts in a battery backup system in, in this part of Mexico anymore.

 

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3 hours ago, RickS said:

mopeeper continues to lead the unwary along his desired road. It’s called ‘playing into the hands of....’’

 

 

mopeeper?  :lol:  Oh you'd miss me if I were gone.

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