Clicking, Humming, Knocking: Which Refrigerator Noises Matter

Why is my jenn air refrigerator making noise? Ask When, Not What

Almost every guide to refrigerator noises is a list of sounds with a cause attached to each one, and the list is not very useful, because a hum and a hum are not the same hum. Two people describing "a buzzing noise" are as likely to be describing a healthy compressor as a failing fan.

The question that actually sorts them is a different one: when does it happen?

On a JennAir there is usually more than one machine to ask it about. A column pair, an undercounter drawer and a wine cellar all run their own compressors in the same room, and the first job is often working out which cabinet the new noise is coming from at all.

A refrigerator runs on cycles. The compressor comes on when the cabinet warms past its set point and goes off when it is back down. The defrost heater runs for a stretch every several hours and then stops. The evaporator fan runs whenever cooling is happening, and on many machines speeds up after the door has been open. Each of those has a rhythm, and the rhythm is what tells you whether a sound belongs to a machine doing its job.

So before anything else, listen for the pattern.

It comes and goes over hours. That is the appliance cycling. Normal.

It starts after the door has been open and fades. That is recovery. Normal, if it fades within about twenty minutes.

It runs constantly, or it changes pitch while the machine is cooling. That is the one to pay attention to.

The Sounds That Mean Nothing

It is worth being specific about the noises that get people worried and should not.

Gurgling, trickling, the sound of water moving. This is refrigerant traveling through the evaporator. A refrigerator that gurgles is a refrigerator that is cooling. Nothing to do.

A single sharp click, now and then. Relays and switches. There are several in a modern refrigerator and they all operate through the day.

A soft popping or ticking from inside the cabinet. Plastic expanding and contracting as the temperature moves across the defrost cycle. More audible in a quiet kitchen at night, which is why people notice it in a house they have just moved into and never noticed in the last one.

A brief whoosh when a door closes. Air pressure equalizing. On a well-sealed built-in it can be pronounced enough to make a door feel like it is resisting for a few seconds afterwards. That is a good sign, not a bad one.

None of these is a reason to call anybody.

The Two That Are Genuine Warnings

Here is the part that is worth knowing, because it is unusual.

Most things that go wrong with a refrigerator go wrong without notice. A control board does not degrade audibly. A sealed system leak announces itself as warm food, not as sound. A door seal fails silently and you find out from the energy bill or the frost.

A fan is the exception. An evaporator or condenser fan runs on bearings, and bearings get loud before they seize. That gives you something almost nothing else on this appliance does: weeks of warning, sometimes months.

What it sounds like:

• a whine that rises and falls with the cooling cycle;
• a rattle or a flutter that was not there before;
• a noise that gets briefly worse when the fan speeds up after a door opening;
• on some machines, a chirp or a squeal that comes and goes with humidity.

If the sound tracks the cooling cycle, it is on the cold side of the machine. If it runs whenever the compressor runs and does not change with the door, it is more likely to be at the back.

The second warning is a compressor that has got louder. Not a compressor that hums — they all hum — but one where the hum has grown. A compressor gets louder when it is working harder, and the reasons it works harder are often free to fix: a condenser choked with dust, a grille blocked by something stored against it, a door seal that stopped sealing three months ago. Those are worth checking before assuming the expensive thing.

The Three Free Checks

Before booking anything, there are three things worth doing, and none of them needs a tool.

Is the appliance level? A built-in that has settled, or a floor that was never quite flat, puts the cabinet under a twist. That does not damage it, but it changes how the doors seal and it can turn a normal compressor hum into a buzz you can hear through the cabinetry. A spirit level across the top shelf answers it.

Is anything touching it? This is the single most common cause of a new noise in a built-in kitchen, and the most satisfying to find. A drawer of pans in the cabinet next door. A bottle on a shelf resting against the side wall. A panel that was refitted slightly proud after somebody cleaned behind it. The cabinet transmits vibration beautifully, and a machine that was quiet on Monday can buzz on Tuesday because of something that has nothing to do with the appliance.

Is the bottom grille clear? It lifts off by hand. Behind it there is a condenser and a fan, and in a Miami kitchen both collect dust faster than most people expect. A vacuum and a soft brush is the whole job. It is also the one piece of maintenance on this appliance that reliably makes a difference to how hard the compressor has to work.

What Not To Do

Do not pull a built-in out to look behind it. These are fitted into cabinetry that was cut to them, usually secured to the surround, with a water line and an electrical connection at the back. There is nothing there for an owner and a good deal that is easier to break than to fix. The grille at the bottom is the access that was designed to be used.

Do not chase a noise by turning the machine off and on. A refrigerator that has been switched off should be left off for several minutes before it goes back on, and cycling it repeatedly to hear whether the noise comes back is hard on a compressor that may already be struggling.

Do not ignore a fan that has started making a sound. This is the one case where waiting genuinely costs money. A fan that is caught while it is noisy is a straightforward part. A fan that is left until it seizes takes the cabinet's temperature with it, and by the time anybody notices, there is a freezer full of food in the balance too.

When To Call, and What To Say

Call when the noise runs constantly rather than in cycles, when it changes pitch as the machine cools, when it has grown steadily over weeks, or when it arrives alongside anything else — food not keeping as long, more frost than usual, a door that has started to feel different.

When you do call, three sentences save a great deal of time:

1. When the sound happens — always, only while cooling, only after the door.
2. Where it seems to come from — inside the cabinet, or low down at the front.
3. What changed — how long it has been happening, and whether anything else changed at the same time.

That is usually enough to know what to bring, and on a built-in machine, having the part on the van is the difference between one visit and two.

A Note About This Make

There is a specific thing worth saying about built-in refrigeration in South Florida, and it applies to every make, this one included.

These machines are sized for the cabinet, not for the climate. A condenser that would coast in a temperate kitchen runs at a much higher duty here, especially in a closed-plan kitchen where the appliance is surrounded by cabinetry on three sides. That does not mean anything is wrong. It does mean the maintenance that matters most — keeping the condenser clear — matters more here than the manual assumes, and that a machine which has never had that done is louder than it needs to be.

If your refrigerator has been in the house for several years and nobody has ever taken the bottom grille off, start there. It is free, it takes ten minutes, and a surprising number of the noise calls we take end at that grille.