I created a grid, and after instantiating it, did the following:
$('.selector').on('pqGrid:refresh',function(evt,ui){console.log(evt);});
Things that should trigger the grid refresh do not log an event in the console.
If I do the initial creation of the grid with:
...
refresh: function(evt,ui) {console.log(evt);}
...
then it displays as normal.
I'm using pqGrid v 3.2.0