Why is my refrigerator sound like it is backfiring?
It makes this really, I mean REALLY, loud crack. Sometimes several at once. It started awhile ago. At first it was very minor and not too noticeable. Then it got louder and more frequent. One day I came home to both my freezer & the refrig at 50 degrees. Lost all my food. I unplugged it, the motor was hot, cleaned the fan and it has been cooling again & holding the temp. I am using a temp gauge to be sure. The crack/pop is more frequent & loud. Sometimes it sounds like a shot gun or a car backfiring. If I knew what part is at fault I could probably replace it myself. Motor, fan, compressor? What causes this and how? Really bad timing on the budget. Lots of internet info on refrig noise but it’s all humming fans, rattles, ice machine. I don’t have an ice machine and it is not a rubbing fan etc. It’s an expansion, overheating noise or something other than what people are asking- A sharp loud CRACK with crack.. pop follow ups then it’s quiet for hours. Any firm thoughts based on experience as a repair person, or had a repair for this, appreciated.
Our fridge (1999 Fisher and Paykel C450 Frost Free) used make a popping sounds sometimes when the compressor cycled off, or on and off quickly.
Make sure there is plenty of room around the fridge, so it can breathe. Does it have a fan on the outside that keeps it cool? If it does, make sure you clean both the coils (outside) and the fan regularly to make sure it stays cool. Also, test your door gaskets with paper, if the paper comes loose easily, get the gasket replaced.
Make sure no water from defrost cycles are getting on the compressor electrical compartment too. If, after performing all this, the compressor still makes the noise (yes, thats probably it), get a small desk fan and fire it up on full, blowing on the compressor (if it doesn’t already have a fan).
The cracking sound could be a blockage in the system. A lot of systems that run on R-134a can get blockages, so it could be refrigerant passing through the filter/drier (next to the very thin tube) getting blocked with stuff in the refrigerant. Get a service guy out and ask if he can de-gas, and re-gas, and ask that the filter/dryer is replaced too.
The thermostat might also be faulty, so make sure it maintains the temperature properly, most fridges can use the same thermostat. That could be the popping sound, possibly, its short cycling the compressor (bad overload protection, compressor starting with back-pressure), or it could be the thermostat terminals getting worn etc.
How old is your fridge? What make/model is it, and also, what refrigerant does it use? All this is available on the data sticker, which could be on the inside of a door, on the inside walls of the fridge, at the rear of the unit and sometimes at the bottom corner where the door sits. I have a video on YouTube about my fridge (etc). You can go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS9XkitIaLY which is my video about fixing our door gaskets, it also shows the model plate on the fridge.