What you are most likely looking at
On a Candor refrigerator this begins at the outlet, because a surprising share of dead-appliance calls end at a tripped device or a plug that was never fully home. That puts no power at the outlet at the top of the list here and damage or disconnection from moving the cabinet at the bottom.
What owners actually report
- The display works but nothing cools and no fan runs — Power is present and the cooling circuit is not being commanded.
- It worked until the cabinet was moved — Moving loosens plugs, kinks cords and trips protective devices.
- NEAR MISS — the appliance runs constantly but does not cool — That is a cooling fault and it has its own page.
The causes, ordered
- No power at the outlet — A tripped breaker, a tripped GFCI upstream, a switched outlet turned off or an outlet on a circuit that failed silently. Supply is proved before anything is condemned, because a dead outlet and a dead appliance look identical.
- A tripped GFCI or a switched outlet — Garage and basement outlets are commonly protected or switched, and the reset may be in another room entirely. It sits here because an electrical cause is both the cheapest to rule out and the one with real safety weight.
- An extension lead or a shared circuit — Refrigeration draws a hard surge to start. Light-commercial cabinets need their stated clearance on every side, and they are almost always installed tighter than that.
- Damage or disconnection from moving the cabinet — A plug pulled half out or a cord crushed against a wall is the most common post-delivery fault.
Where to start, and what each check rules out
- Wiggle the plug at the outlet with the power on — Intermittent life at the plug is a finding, and it means stop using that outlet.
- Put an ear to the compartment for a fan or a hum — Any sound at all changes the diagnosis from no-power to partial function.
- Plug a lamp into the same outlet — It settles the supply question without any tools at all.
What an owner can safely do
- Push the plug fully home and check the outlet with something else — Do this before anything else; it is free and it is right often enough to matter.
- Reset any tripped device on the circuit once, and note whether it holds — Once. A device that trips again is reporting a fault, not asking to be reset.
- STOP before opening the compressor compartment — Testing a relay or an overload means working at the compressor terminals. That is a technician job.
Safety
Safety
Never run a refrigerator from a light extension lead or a power strip — the starting surge is what matters, not the running load. Unplug before pulling the cabinet out, and stop immediately if a plug or outlet is warm.
When this stops being a home repair
The owner side is the plug, the outlet and the circuit. Past that point it is a technician, and with a failed compressor the conversation usually turns to whether the appliance is worth the repair.
Related pages of the same kind
What this page does not cover
What this page does not cover: model-specific figures, part numbers and service sequences for any single Candor family — it describes how a light-commercial refrigerator behaves as a class. Where a more specific page exists for your unit it is linked below and should be read first.
Links: - [Common Candor Refrigerator Problems](/blog/candor-refrigerator-problems) - [Candor Refrigerator: Abnormal Noise or Vibration](/blog/candor-refrigerator-abnormal-noise)
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
