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Cacophonous fridge freezer

onlyconnect

pfm Member
We have a fridge freezer that is about 15 years old.

It works fine except for an enormous clanking racket which is tiresome.

Anyone had success in trying to quieten an old fridge freezer? Other than by turning it off!

Tim
 
enormous clanking racket
All the time or at the end of the cooling cycle when it sounds like an oil drum of spanners rolling down a hill and coming to rest at the bottom?
 
All the time or at the end of the cooling cycle when it sounds like an oil drum of spanners rolling down a hill and coming to rest at the bottom?

Pretty much all the time except when the thermostat says it is cold enough.

It does vary a bit of course!

Tim
 
Have you tried tilting it very slightly back or forwards to se if the noise changes? Some times the motor just needs biasing one way or the other.
 
Is it sitting firmly on all four legs?
You can usually adjust the fronts on their thread.
Alternatively judicious use of a beermat can help.
 
Agree with above.

In my experience, these things usually only have two moving parts.

1. The compressor unit. This is the big black lump usually at the back at the bottom. They usually sit on some sort of rubber mountings and it may be worth checking if anything around that area is loose/rattling. As above, just moving the appliance a bit can help a lot. If it's a a problem inside the compressor, there's little you can do other than decide whether the machine warrants a replacement.

2. They have a fan which circulates cold air from the freezer part, around the fridge part. It will probably be behind a panel on the back, about the same level as the freezer element. This is usually pretty silent, but it is possible something has moved and the fan blades are catching something.

Our last machine had such a fan which failed due to worn bearings. I got a replacement for about £15 from our local 'Allspares'. (It's where all the pro's go) They give advice as well.

If it is an 'auto defrost' machine, make sure you don't disturb the thin white heater element wire, or if you do, put it back exactly where it was, to avoid getting problems with ice build up.

Mull
 
There's a variety of audiophile damping and isolation products on the market. Why should your freezer not benefit as much as your sonndek? I'd start with a minimum of three tiers of mana under it and see how you get on.
 
Earplugs not only end the misery of listening to noisy white goods, but disappointing audiophile products too.
 
We have a fridge freezer that is about 15 years old.

It works fine except for an enormous clanking racket which is tiresome.

Anyone had success in trying to quieten an old fridge freezer? Other than by turning it off!

Tim

Get rid (responsibly of course). In all probability it is costing you a fortune to run, compared to something more modern.
 
Have they really become much more efficient? I guess the insulation on a new unit would be better.

Tim

http://www.which.co.uk/energy/savin...s-explained/fridge-and-freezer-energy-labels/

Apparently 1999 was the cutoff before which the energy consumption could be much higher.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_energy_label

Anything made now will at most be an A+, apparently new machines have half the running costs of typical 10 year old models and current machines cost about £20-£70 p.a. to run.
 
http://www.sust-it.net/running-costs-of-old-appliances.php (shows 50% electricity saving point as 1987, so my extrapolation was a bit wrong), of course these people want to sell you the link to bur a fridge, so they aren't necessarily neutral.

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&r...7nGjPAuPnCyskHMSw&sig2=SXbYZ4VY_rVG5ZpH0hnGQg

Look at figure 13, for a comparison of fridge/freezer perfromance between 1998 and 2010. There is also a small amount of evidence that fridge performance degrades with time in that report.
 
There's a variety of audiophile damping and isolation products on the market. Why should your freezer not benefit as much as your sonndek? I'd start with a minimum of three tiers of mana under it and see how you get on.
A great idea. And he could take all the food out and fill it with bass traps, too :D
 


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