An experimental study has been peformed to develop a scheme for fault detection and diagnosis(FDD) in a vapor compression refrigeration system. This study is to analyze fault effect on the system performance and to find efficient diagnosis rules for easy determination of abnormal system operation. The refrigeration system was operated with a variable speed compressor to modulate cooling capacity. The FDD system was designed to consider transient load conditions. Four major faults were considered, and each fault was detected over wide operating load range by separating the system response to the load change. Rule-based method was used to diagnose and classify the system faults. From the experimental results, COP degradation due to the faults in a variable speed system is severer than that in a constant speed system. The method developed in this study can be used in the fault detection of refrigeration systems with a variable speed compressor.