My fridge just started making this weird noise- it sounds just like a fast rain, or like something is on fire. Not drip, drip, drip- much faster than that. At first I thought it was raining out, but it’s not. There’s no icemaker. I don’t smell anything burning or see anything wrong anywhere. There’s no water leaking anywhere that I can see. It’s really starting to freak me out. Anybody know what this sound could be?
Is it the sound of ice cracking? It could be running through a defrost cycle. If the coils are overly icy (or icier then you’re used to) you’ll hear the ice cracking when it kicks on. It’ll run in defrost for anywhere from 10-30 minutes or so.
Is it a fan spinning and hitting something? That happens if ice builds up in the wrong place (like in the fan housing), a motor comes off it’s mounts or a fan blade breaks loose.
ETA, you posted about 20 minutes ago, is it still going on?
Yes, it’s still going on. It seems like it may be connected with the fan- maybe a piece of paper is stuck to it or something? I have been making dinner this whole time so haven’t been able to really investigate it thoroughly besides making sure nothing’s on fire or leaking, but in a minute I am going to pull it out completely and check it out. It’s weird. It doesn’t sound like ice cracking.
A drastic (at this point) approach would be to pull the plug. If it stops right away, you know it’s electrical, if it doesn’t, then we could discuss your water dripping theory. But I hate to needlessly stop a running compressor like that.
Can you tell if it’s coming from inside or outside the box?
Since you’re planning to pull the fridge out, I’m guessing you think it’s coming from the outside. There might be a panel (metal, cardboard etc) you’ll have to pop off, maybe some insulation to deal with. Try not to touch it, fiberglass is a pain to deal with.
While you’re down there, if you can, pull out a vacuum hose and clean off the condenser coils, if they’re covered in dust. Your fridge will thank you for it.
Make sure you have a flashlight handy. There’s not going to be any light down there.
Okay. It’s not the dead mouse I found underneath the fridge. But ew! It does stop when I unplug it and starts right back up when I plug it back in. It’s coming from the back on the very bottom where there is a cover that is screwed in in several places, and the cord comes out of. I’m not able right now to totally pull it out and take that plate off- there is a 6-foot shelf on one side of the fridge and a counter on the other. I am satisfied right now that there is no immediate danger. I think. I will take it completely out and take that cover off tomorrow, if I am still alive. I am hoping it magically stops making that noise in the meantime.
That little edit at the end of my post is where I took out the part about not being freaked out if you find a mouse since they tend to find their way under fridges and it’s not unheard of for them to end up in the fan blades.
If it’s been going on for this long and continued though a stop/start cycle (when you unplugged it) hopefully you’ll be okay, but I’d keep an eye on it (especially if it stops) and deal with it sooner rather then later. The TL;DR version is that if the can’t spin, the fridge will warm up over the following couple of hours.