Refrigerator Tapping

I recently moved into my very first apartment. It hasn’t gone flawlessly.

I initially requested that the maintenance people look at the fridge. It makes this indescribably annoying noise. You know that noise you can make by putting your tongue to the roof of your mouth, sucking slightly, and pulling the tongue off the roof of your mouth? Ok, same noise. Why would it do this?

The only thing I can come up with is that the defroster’s fan could be contacting ice or another fridge part or something along those lines. The fridge only makes the noise while running: must be a moving part I’d think. But, it doesn’t always make the noise while running.

The maintenance guy had no clue what it was and just suggested that I wait and see if it goes away. It hasn’t, so I complain.
When the guy shows up I’d like to be able to say “check such and such” and get this fixed.

I had a refrigerator that did this, and it turned out to be the fan hitting some wires that ran near it. Sometimes the wires would shift and it would run quietly.

It could also be that the compressor in the thing is on the fritz. There may be a seal with an intermittent leak. If so, it won’t cool very well and you’ll still be paying full price for the power to operate the thing. Lucky for you it’s winter time and probably cool in your apartment already. Next summer you are probably going to find all of your Popsicles in a puddle at the bottom of the freezer. Have a nice day and good luck. :slight_smile: