Fan makes hum, buzz, rattle noise from Samsung refrigerator

In Samsung fridges sometimes there is a situation that the fridge starts to make a strong rumble. When you open the fridge door the buzz disappears, after a while the buzz and unpleasant sounds appear again.

Why is there a rumble, a rattle in the fridge?

Foreign sounds in the form of a rattle or a strong buzz sound appear for the following reason: the fan of the refrigerator freezer rubs its blades on the accumulated ice on the evaporator.

When you open the refrigerator door, the fan stops working. This is done specifically to save energy, there is no need to move warm air from the room around the refrigerator compartments. After closing the door, it takes time to stabilize the temperature, after a while, when the compressor of the refrigerator starts to work, the fan will turn on again and there will be noise.

In the photo above you can see the ice on the evaporator. On the left side the ice on the bottom of the evaporator, on the right you can see the ice on top of the evaporator. Below is a picture of the freezer fan.

The fan in the freezer compartment is on top, when the ice is on the evaporator, the blades knock on the ice. This is bad and needs to be corrected immediately as it can cause the fridge to break down. When there is a lot of ice, the fan will stop and stop moving air from the freezer to the refrigerator. In the cold storage room, when the fan is not running, the temperature will be the same as in the room after 5-6 hours, your food may get spoiled.

How to Fix the Rumble and Scratching of the Fan in the Refrigerator

If the fan has not broken down yet, and if it knocks, it still works and the situation can be corrected. We need to defrost the freezer. To do that, you have to pull out the food crates. To preserve the quality of food, you can take some thick blankets and wrap the boxes in blankets. This will greatly increase the melting time and you can safely defrost the freezer. You can also do the same with food from the refrigerator. Unplug the fridge from the power supply and open the freezer door.

The evaporator of the fridge is behind two plastic parts, one of which has a fan, the other covers the fan. If you know how, you can remove the plastic parts, it will allow you to visually control the defrost, if you do not have the appropriate skills, leave it as is. It will take about 6-8 hours at room temperature to fully defrost. The refrigerator is designed so that water will flow through a special opening it is at the bottom of the evaporator into a bowl mounted above the compressor.

There are situations when there is a lot of ice or the drain hole is frozen, water will flow into the freezer, prepare towels to collect water.

So, when you finish defrosting, close the freezing chamber, you can switch the refrigerator on, in a couple of minutes after switching on the refrigerator, the compressor will start working (time delay is a protective mechanism of the refrigerator, to relieve pressure in the cooling system of the refrigerator), together with the compressor starts working and the fan. In the refrigerating chamber there are holes through which air from the freezing chamber enters the refrigerating chamber, the flow of air creates a fan, in 10-15 minutes, if you lean your hand to the holes you will feel the movement of cool air. So the fan works, you can load the refrigerator with food. But that’s not all, the ice is not typical for the fridge, you have to find the reason, otherwise after a while the situation with the loud knock of the fan will repeat itself.

Why is the ice on the fridge evaporator.

Look at the photo below, the intention of ice was at the top of the evaporator and there is a lot of ice. The photo shows the RF28HFEDBSR refrigerator model.

Since there is no ice at the bottom, this indicates that the defrost heater is working properly. And the large amount of ice at the top indicates that the air in the cooler is very humid, with humid air coming from the cooler. Now we have to find out where that much moisture comes from, the air circulates in a circle between the freezer and refrigerator, and the moisture freezes on the evaporator. To some extent, this may be a design fault for the refrigerator. The heating element for the refrigerator looks like this.

As can be seen, mainly the heating element heats the side and bottom of the evaporator, but no heating of the evaporator at the top is provided.

Why does the ice

• If you have a refrigerator with a dispenser or an ice generator, you should check if water is leaking from the containers, if there is any leakage, you should eliminate it. This may be indicated by ice buildup around the ice generator. In most cases, a malfunction of the dispenser or ice generator is the cause of large amounts of ice on the evaporator in the freezer. If you have problems after a couple of weeks, do not use the ice generator for a while, if the problem with ice intent does not happen again, you should repair the ice generator.
• Check the seals on the refrigerator and freezer doors if they do not fit tightly, this also increases the humidity in the refrigerator. The refrigerator and freezer compartment must be sealed for proper operation.
• Make sure you do not put unpackaged food in the refrigerator compartment.
• There may be cracks in the plastic of the fridge-freezer case, in the freezer, through which humid air enters the fridge/freezer compartment.

Ineffective recommendations

There are recommendations that are practically ineffective, for example:

• Align your fridge – it is unlikely that your fridge is very uneven and aligning your fridge will make a difference.
• Turn the fridge off for 36 hours – this is a very long time and is accepted from the point of view that you defrost the fridge with the doors closed.
• Replacing the control board is ineffective because the ice, the problem of high humidity in the fridge and the cause of ice is not related to electronics.