Why Your Refrigerator Compressor Makes a Clicking Noise and Refuses to Start

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IMAGE FOR ILLUSTRATION PURPOSES ONLY. You head into your kitchen to get a glass of water, and you realize that your refrigerator is totally silent. Then you hear it; a small hum, followed by a loud, sharp click of what sounds like metal on metal. Three minutes later, that same hum and click repeats again. When you open your freezer, your ice cream is already beginning to melt. That click click click sound is the universal distress signal of a dead refrigerator. Most people assume that the entire appliance is not repairable and will start looking for a brand new one, but in fact 80% of the time your compressor motor will actually be fine, the problem just lies with one small and cheap electrical part on its side. Below is a detailed electrical and mechanical explanation of exactly why your refrigerator is clicking, what is actually not starting, and how to accurately diagnose it: 1. What is that "click" actually (Overload Protector)? This clicking is NOT coming fr...

Will a Voltage Stabilizer Really Protect Your AC From a Lightning Strike? Let’s see....

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The sky has gone dark and a dangerous thunderstorm is approaching. Suddenly it becomes very windy and there is a giant flash of lightning right nearby the house. Looking into the house at the voltage stabilizer that is plugged into the wall next to the very expensive air conditioner, you say to yourself "Don't worry my stabilizer will protect it".


That is by far one of the most common and costliest mistakes made by those involved in the appliance industry.

In the event of a direct or close to direct strike of lightning to the utility line or to your house the voltage stabilizer that you're using is of no use and will not protect your AC; both will most likely vaporize.


So here are the specifics of why a stabilizer can fail in a lightning strike, and what it takes to truly protect your house.


1. Fluctuations vs. Transient Surges (The big difference)

So that you will understand how the stabilizer can fail, you need to understand what the stabilizer's main purpose is.


Fluctuations: These are from the utility, and referred to as "dirty power". This involves when the voltage normally seen as 230V for instance, is instantly seen as 180V (because all the people in the neighborhood is using their AC) or 260V. Fluctuations can be gradual, lasting for hours.


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Lightning Surge: A lightning strike is known as a "transient voltage spike". This spike is not a gradual increase or decrease in the voltage, but an immediate, high-powered injection of between 10,000V to 50,000V, traveling through the wires within a nanosecond.


2. The Voltage Stabilizer and why it cannot act quickly enough?

The voltage stabilizer is an electrical apparatus that involves a transformer, an auto-transformer and some switches referred to as relays.


If the voltage coming from the utility line begins to dip down, the stabilizer will send a signal to a relay that will electronicallyswitch the unit to another coil within the transformer so it can "boost" the voltage up to normal. This process is electromechanical, and will occur in milliseconds.


Lightning moves at roughly 1/3 of the speed of light. Therefore, by the time the microchip within your stabilizer can sense that it is experiencing an over-voltage (and it takes microseconds for this), the lightning bolt has already been traveling down your wires and is frying your AC's microchip. A mechanical switch will not act any faster than lightning can travel.


3. The Myth of the "Air Gap"

Some people will tell you that modern stabilizers have "high voltage cut-offs".

They do, and these units will physically shut off the power to the AC if they detect over-voltage levels. However, the physical gap between the 2mm metallic contacts within this switch is actually very small.


The lightning will have traveled miles through the atmosphere where it is really just one big conductor (even though it is an insulator). Can you seriously believe that a tiny 2mm air gap in a plastic relay can possibly withstand a 50,000V surge? The 50,000V spike will easily leap over the small gaps as though it was never there.


4. The only effective remedy is a Surge Protection Device (SPD).

Expensive electronic items such as ACs will not be protected from surges by an ordinary voltage stabilizer; only a Type 2 SPD will protect them.


An SPD does not "shut-off". The SPD is hardwired into the main breaker box in your house and contains metal oxide varistors (MOVs). Normally, these MOV's look like solid blocks to electricity. However, a 10,000V surge in your wires is strong enough to create an electrically superspeed highway directly into your house's earth grounding rod.


The extra force from the surge then goes directly into the ground, instead of following the wire and directly into your appliance.


Conclusion: Your voltage stabilizer will do just fine if the powergrid suffers an occasional "lazy" voltage, but in the face of a lightning strike your voltage stabilizer is virtually useless. The ONLY thing you can do to save your air conditioner from a lightning strike besides have a whole-house surge protector installed in the main breaker box is to physically unplug it.