is charging at 228V normal?

[Eric33432]

The NEC has required a minimum of two kitchen 'small appliance' circuits for donkeys years, although the early revisions were pretty lax on what was considered part of the kitchen. Current code is two 20A dedicated circuits solely for countertop appliances.

Strangely, as strict as the NEC is on some things, it does not require a separate circuit for the refrigerator, unless that has changed in the 2020 or 2023 code. The refrigerator can be on one of those two required 20 amp circuits. It does, however, require separate circuits for fixed in place appliances. So a countertop microwave can be plugged in to one of those two required 20 amp circuits, and a fixed in place microwave, dishwasher or disposal requires a dedicated circuit. Usually the 20 amp circuits feeds counter top receptacles such that the circuits alternate between different receptacles, but that is up to the electrician. I have never seen the receptacles wired so one circuit is on the top outlet and a different circuit is on the bottom outlet on an individual receptacle using a shared neutral (a/k/a "multi-wire circuit").

 

[pb2000]

I'm surprised the NEC is so lax on that front. In Canada, we require dedicated circuits for fridges and microwaves in addition to the two small appliance circuit rule.

That being said, they do have that pesky catch-all, of following manufactures instructions, and clicking a random full size fridge on homedepot.com has this in the manual:

Electrical information
• The refrigerator must be plugged into its own dedicated 115 Volt, 60Hz., 15 Amp, AC only electrical outlet