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How to quiet the loud noises the refrigerator makes at night.

It’s not the internal fan making a “sputtering noise”, it’s the entire Whirlpool fridge/freezer (2001) making an extremely loud klanking noise between 2-4 AM! Although I’m sure it’s just the 24 hour cycle causing the parts inside to shift because heat and cool temps manipulate metal parts etc. it’s still waking up in the middle of the night!!! Customer service from Whirlpool.com is a bit of a runaround without any answers and I don’t want to tamper with the machine. Possibly there’s a way to change the settings to stop this irritating noise without having to purchase a new model. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!! There’s probably many others asking the sane question!!! Thanks

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Hi @paulhewitt ,

What is the model number of the refrigerator?

Does it make this noise at any other time that you’re aware of?

Just asking because I’m wondering if it is the compressor trying to start after an auto defrost cycle or maybe if it is just restarting after having been switched off due to the set temperatures in both the compartments having been reached earlier and now they have risen and they need to be cooled back down again.

Then again if it is more of a clunk than a clank it may be the ice breaking off the evaporator unit during the auto defrost cycle.

Normally there shouldn’t be that much ice build up to cause large chunks to break off as the auto defrost cycle should occur at least once every 8-12 hours but there can still be a cracking sound which may be loud if the night is quiet The auto defrost cycle lasts for about 20-25 minutes

During the defrost cycle the compressor and evaporator fan are both turned off and the temperature in the freezer compartment is allowed to rise to 32 deg. F (0 deg.C) to melt the ice built up on the evaporator unit. A defrost heater under the evap unit, is also turned on to speed up the process as you don’t want the frozen food to even begin to thaw. The ice meltwater then drains to the evaporator pan under the compartments near the compressor. When the temp reaches ~32F the heater is turned off and the compressor and the evaporator are both turned on again to drive the temps in both compartments back down to the set temps.

You may have to check the evaporator unit to see what the ice build up on it is like or keep a check to see if the auto defrost cycle is happening regularly at whatever set time interval (it varies between manufacturers depending on the fridge design).

If you can find the service manual for the refrigerator (or sometimes there is a “tech sheet” located in the back or behind the kick plate) you may be able to find out how to “force” an auto defrost cycle to see if it is working OK.

I don’t know how to reset when a defrost cycle occurs except perhaps by disconnecting the power to the refrigerator for say 10-15 minutes (at a suitable time) and see if that resets it back and it starts timing from then and see if the noise timeframe moves at all to something more suitable.

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Paul Hewitt will be eternally grateful.
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