Just now, for only the third time in two weeks, my home fridge started making a continuous loud, whining, buzzing noise.
Upon opening the top-mounted freezer door, the noise seems to emanate from somewhere behind the freezer’s cold air-intake grate. Adjusting the freezer’s thermostat itself does nothing. However, when I manually adjust the fridge’s thermostat between coldest and warmest and back, it stops making the noise.
Whirlpool wants a flat $129 plus parts–that is if they can even get parts for this oldie but not moldie :smack: Sorry, couldn’t resist. Seriously, it was used when we moved here 12 years ago and could be up to 30 years old .
Any advice for a mechanically challenged SDMB user would be much appreciated.
It might be a fan that is starting to rub the fan housing. The t-stat adjustment probably cycles the fan off. It might be an easy fix if you can access the fan to see if it is rubbing. Or the fan itself could be wearing out.
While I’m usually about keeping stuff running as long as possible, I’d seriously consider dumping this refrigerator and getting a new one based on energy use if it is as old as you say it is. I recently replaced a 40 year old refrigerator that was working fine. What caused me to get rid of it was using a watt meter like this and finding out it was costing $20 a month to run (and my power bill is usually $60). I bought a new unit that is costing me $3.50 per month to run. And my electric utility paid me $30 and hauled it off.
It does sound like the evaporator fan. Fan could be going out or jthe frig is not defrosting properly and there is a build up of Ice. Considering the age of the unit I would consider a new one.
Seriously. Old refrigerators are energy hogs. If it really is up to 30 years old, you can save hundreds of dollars per year in electricity costs, and your new fridge will pay for itself in 5 years or so. Here’s an Energy Star savings calculator; if you can find the exact model number of your fridge (usually on the inner wall of the freezer), you can calculate how much it’s costing you.
replacement appliance will have a payback on energy savings can be in as short as maybe 2 years. the store or utility will remove for old one at no cost (in the USA) and the utility may give you a credit. a new device will be quieter and likely easier to maintain.
Not necessarily quieter. Ours is probably seven years old (came with the house) and screams. I had a repair guy over to look at the ice maker and asked him about it. He said this particular brand is just a noisy bastard, and that many newer ones are very noisy.
I agree it probably is the fan either worn out or rubbing. Yea, it can pay to update for efficiency reasons. A 12 year old fridge is not like a 40 year old job though. The poster could go to something like repairclinic.com and get advise and instructions for a self repair if desired. Sometimes the whole back of the freezer needs to come off from inside to gain access. The beauty of having old stuff is that you can feel free to work on it without worry so much about cosmetic damage.
I have a fridge problem, also, so I will hijack this thread. A minor problem. The water from the defroster drips down to the bottom of the inside of the fridge, and I have to sponge it dry several times a day. Apparently, something is blocking the water from running down into the pan in the back of the fridge. The fridge is against the wall and too heavy for me to move to investigate the back. I see nothing in the freezer section blocking anything.
It could just be ice blocking the drain hole/tube. If you can see the hole from the inside you can try pouring hot water down it. (obviously not too much for the pan, though)
