Our refrigerator is a little over 10 years old. It is a Samsung French-door refrigerator with ice and water dispenser. I don’t remember how much we spent on it, but a new one with similar features is around $1900.
The reason I ask is that it’s making strange noises, I think during the cooling cycle. Sort of a whining noise, like air trying to get through an obstruction. We defrosted it but it’s still making the noise. I haven’t called a repair person yet, hoping for any experienced guidance that might be out there.
(What did we do before we had strangers on the internet to ask about stuff like this?)
My buddy Jeff knows all there is to know about construction and home repair type things. Before the internet, I’d call him and ask what I should try first when troubleshooting. If it was over my head, Jeff would come over, drink my beer, smoke my herb, then fix my fridge.
When you say you defrosted it, what did that entail? To defrost a fridge, you’ll typically leave it unplugged, with the doors all wide open, for at least a day. Expect too see lots of water on the floor (stuff towels around it overnight to avoid some of the puddles).
I only ask because I know sometimes someone will defrost their fridge but I’ll later find out they left the doors open for a few hours or unplugged it for 45 minutes. If there’s any big blocks of ice in there, they can take a long time to thaw without any help.
If it’s only during the cooling cycle (by witch I presume you mean the compressor is running), pull it away from the wall, find the condenser fan (probably behind a cardboard or metal guard at the bottom and see if it’s clear. Often times the fan or the coils get so full of dust they can cause problems. If it builds up far enough or if you get some paper or something in there, it can certainly cause noise.
Also, you can look around for any fans inside the unit as well. If this is a fridge on top, freezer on the bottom and an ice maker in the fridge door, there’s a handful of fans. If you pull the drawer out far enough you might be able to see them in the upper/lower divider. Should be one to move air up the the fridge and one to send air up to the ice maker.
*Actually, here’s a shortcut. When it’s making noise, open the door and see if it stops. If it does, put your finger on the button and it should start again. This should help you locate the sound a whole lot faster. If the volume stays about the same, it’s probably coming from outside the fridge. If it’s louder, it’s probably inside the fridge and with the doors open, maybe you can figure out about where it’s coming from.
Thanks for all your comments. It doesn’t stop when we open the refrigerator door, but it does stop when we open the freezer. I’ll see if I can find the button for that.
We unplugged the refrigerator and left it for about 4 hours, until there was no more water appearing for the last 30 minutes. I didn’t realize it needed to be a full day.
The first thing we tried, before defrosting, was to clean all the dust out of the intake vent at the bottom of the back of the fridge, and from behind the fridge itself. The fridge had not been moved or had the back cleaned in the 10+ years we’ve used it.
All the fans, etc. are behind a metal plate at the back. Is it safe to remove that myself? I haven’t examined it yet to see if there are any warnings on it.
Additionally, when defrosting a fridge or freezer, it’s also important to let it completely dry-out. Any melted ice will leave water here and there that can refreeze, thereby keeping the problem in place.
That’s very promising. You might not be able to fix it on your own, but it’s a big step in the right direction. Even if it only means that when you call someone to fix it, you can give them that much more info and have that much better of a chance of them bringing parts they think you might need with them.
It’s certainly not always the case, but it’s a good rule of thumb. With no air circulating, it can take an awful long time for ice to melt in an insulated box. A trick would be to (not suggestion you do this) unplug the compressor so it can’t run and then turn the fridge on with the doors open and the buttons taped down. The fridge thinks it’s cooling so it’ll run all the fans and greatly accelerate how long it takes to melt the ice. When you’re at the grocery store, it’s how all their refrigerated cases remove the ice. Shut off the compressor and keep the fans running (freezers are different).
Yup, totally fine. The metal guards are there to keep prying fingers out of it, as well as pets and rodents. If it’s unplugged, you can take that off with no risk to yourself. However, it’s still worth steering clear of any wiring only because the compressor likely has a capacitor that could give you a zap if you touch the wrong thing. But you should be fine, at least in the sense that taking off the guard isn’t going to result in a big pile of parts falling out of the fridge. If you’re concerned, you might be able to get in there with a flashlight and see if you even need to bother.
Good point. On big freezers, they have a thermostat (well, a klixon) that, after it comes out of a defrost cycle, waits until the coils are below a certain temperature before allowing the fans to come back on. There’s a handful of reasons for it, but one of them is to make sure any water on the coils or steam in that area freezes so it doesn’t blow around and refreeze on the walls of the freezer or the product.
Interesting timing, I just thawed a set of frozen coils this past weekend for the second time in my life. After a big puddle mess ten years ago, I noticed my fridge was running more frequently than usual. I found the back wall of the freezer snowy and guessed that the defrost heater had failed again. It took about a whole day to thaw and I caught it before the glacier had completely turned to hard ice like last time. As you said, I mostly kept up with the water removal though there was a minor puddle. I didn’t get around to installing the new heater until tonight so fingers are crossed that’s the culprit … which is likely since the glass tube within which the heating element resides was blackened. The new part was $25, shipped. I noticed a date of manufacture label inside the fridge this time: July 2000. I think I got lucky with this appliance that came with the house I bought 12 years ago. It’s a relatively straight-forward repair, except for dealing with the stored food and dealing with the melting ice.
To OP: Removing the back wall of the freezer was pretty easy once the food contents, shelves and ice were removed and done away with and you’ll have to do this anyway if you hire a professional. I did find reinstalling that back panel a real PIA since the screws simply didn’t want to align with their holes and I can only really fit one shoulder into the (Side by side) freezer so it was hard to both lift the panel while compressing a gasket and turning the screwdriver. I hear the thing humming now so hopefully it’s trouble-free for another 10+ years.