Hear a Loud Hum from Your Fridge?

11.3.22

Here’s What to Do.

You’ve had your refrigerator for almost 5 years now. It’s been reliable, dependable, and as spacious as possible for all your grocery needs. You wake up one day, however, and you hear a loud hum coming from the refrigerator. This can be scary for many reasons, it usually can indicate a problem with the refrigerator, and sometimes can lead to the whole refrigerator shutting down and not cooling at all, spoiling all those groceries in the process.

What can you do when you hear the hum? Well, there’s many things that can be done, and many ways to diagnose potentially saving you from getting a new refrigerator.

1. Damaged Condenser Fan

The condenser fan is located near the compressor and circulates outside air to cool the coils within the compressor to keep your refrigerator cool and your freezer cold. If the condenser fan is damaged or defective, it can cause the dread humming noise many people hear, and if left unchecked could cause extra damage to your fridge.

2. Dirty/Damaged Compressor

The compressor is in charge of pushing refrigerant through the evaporator and condenser coils. It usually makes a low humming noise that comes on periodically to push refrigerant through the system, and then shuts off, repeating this process a few times a day. If it is continuously making the humming noise, it may need to be replaced, or cleaned out.

3. Damaged/Defective Evaporator

If the humming noise is coming from the freezer, it could be the evaporator. This can happen due to multiple reasons. The fan blade could be damaged, the vents inside the freezer are obstructed, or too much frost and ice has built up in the unit. You can always defrost the freezer to check and see if that helps.

There are other minor reasons that could result in said humming, such as an unbalanced refrigerator, or a defective defrost sensor, however these are the major issues, replacing or fixing these could help extend the lifespan of your refrigerator.