--- title: "Refrigerator making a noise" description: "Frigidaire refrigerator making a noise — refrigerators are among the few appliances that give warning before they fail, and the noise is usually it." url: "https://frigidairemiami.support/symptoms/refrigerator-noisy/" date_modified: "2026-09-08" Appliance type: "Freezer, refrigerator" --- # Frigidaire refrigerator making a noise ### What to do in the next ten minutes Work out where the noise is coming from — open the freezer and hold the door switch, then listen at the back at floor level — and record ten seconds of it on your phone. That recording is the most useful thing you can bring to the call, because half of these noises stop the moment a technician is standing in the kitchen. ### The noise that is worth acting on immediately An evaporator fan that has started to chirp is telling you it will stop within weeks. When it stops, the fresh-food side warms up while the freezer stays cold — which is the complaint on another page of this site — and the food goes. Booking the noise costs a fan; booking the warm fridge costs a fan and a cabinet full of food. ### The noises that are not failures These cabinets gurgle after the compressor stops, tick as the plastics contract during defrost, and hum steadily when the compressor is running. A new machine is often noisier than the twenty-year-old one it replaced, because the fans run at variable speed and the compressor is smaller and runs for longer. Where the noise is one of those, we will tell you rather than sell you a part. The evaporator fan is failing A chirp, squeal or rattle from inside the freezer that changes when the door is opened. It gets louder over weeks and then the fridge section starts to warm. The condenser fan or the drain pan A rattle or buzz from the floor at the back. A pan that has shifted on its rails is free to fix; a fan with a worn bearing is a part. The compressor relay is clicking A click every few minutes, usually with the cabinet not getting cold. That one is not worth waiting on. Record ten seconds of it The noise is the diagnosis and it rarely performs on demand. Open the freezer and hold the switch A noise that stops when the door opens and starts when the switch is pressed is inside the freezer. Look at the pan under the back A drain pan out of its rails buzzes against the compressor and is a two-minute fix. Chirping, rattling, buzzing or a bang from the back What it usually means A chirp that changes with the door is the freezer fan — cheap now, warm food later A rattle at floor level is usually the condenser fan or a loose drain pan Clicking with no cooling is the compressor relay and is worth attending to quickly What to do in the next ten minutes Work out where the noise is coming from — open the freezer and hold the door switch, then listen at the back at floor level — and record ten seconds of it on your phone. That recording is the most useful thing you can bring to the call, because half of these noises stop the moment a technician is standing in the kitchen. The noise that is worth acting on immediately An evaporator fan that has started to chirp is telling you it will stop within weeks. When it stops, the fresh-food side warms up while the freezer stays cold — which is the complaint on another page of this site — and the food goes. Booking the noise costs a fan; booking the warm fridge costs a fan and a cabinet full of food. The noises that are not failures These cabinets gurgle after the compressor stops, tick as the plastics contract during defrost, and hum steadily when the compressor is running. A new machine is often noisier than the twenty-year-old one it replaced, because the fans run at variable speed and the compressor is smaller and runs for longer. Where the noise is one of those, we will tell you rather than sell you a part. ### It only does it at night. It probably does it all day and you can only hear it at night. That is worth saying, though, because a noise that genuinely follows a cycle — defrost, for instance — narrows things. ### Is it safe to keep using? A fan noise, yes, for a short while. A repeated click with no cooling, no — that is the compressor trying to start and failing, and it is worth switching off at the socket until somebody looks. --- **[Read full article: Refrigerator making a noise](https://frigidairemiami.support/symptoms/refrigerator-noisy/)**