The answer first
The Artt ATTM refrigerator family covers two listings in the roster below, and on that platform a new noise on any of them comes from a short list of moving parts. A refrigerator that has started making a noise it did not make before is almost always telling you about air movement rather than about the sealed system. The order below starts with what you can hear from outside the machine and only then asks you to move it or open it.
What you observe
- A steady buzz or whirr that changes the moment the freezer door opens — On most designs the evaporator fan is cut by the door switch, so a sound that stops with the door open is coming from inside the freezer compartment and not from the back.
- A scraping tick that speeds up and slows down with the fan — Something is touching a blade once per revolution, most often a frost ridge on the evaporator cover or a wire that has migrated into the shroud.
- A vibration that only appears for a few minutes at a time — Something resonating at one particular speed or pressure, which on this kind of cabinet is usually tubing or a drain pan touching the case rather than a failing part.
- NEAR MISS — the noise arrived together with food going soft — Noise plus a cabinet that is no longer holding temperature is a cooling fault first and a noise second; work the cooling page and the noise usually resolves with it.
Causes, most likely first on the ATTM line
- Evaporator fan fouled by frost or running on a worn bearing — Ranked first on the ATTM line, because it runs whenever the cabinet calls for cold, which is most of the day, and the space it turns in is the one place in the machine where ice is expected to form. Every listing here is one base number with a different tail, so a cause that is true of one of them is true of all of them unless the tail is the thing that differs.
- Cabinet out of level, feet not down, or the case touching a wall or a worktop — Second on the ATTM line, because a cabinet that is not carried evenly on all four feet has nowhere to put the movement a compressor makes, so it puts it into the floor and into whatever it is standing beside.
- Drain-pan or suction-line resonance against sheet metal — Third on the ATTM line, because it takes a few millimetres of movement for a tube or a pan to find the case, and once it has, a panel the size of a door is being driven like a loudspeaker.
- Start relay or overload cycling on a compressor that will not run — Last on the ATTM line: it belongs last on a noise list because it is uncommon, but it is the one entry here that is not a nuisance: a machine that clicks and falls silent is not cooling while it does it.
The order to work in
- Classify the sound before you move anything — Stand at the machine and decide whether it is continuous, cyclic or once-per-start. That single answer removes two thirds of the shortlist and costs nothing but a minute of listening.
- Check the level and the clearances before opening anything — Rock the cabinet corner to corner, look for feet that are not carrying weight, and check that the case is not resting against a wall, a pipe or a run of cabinetry.
- Kill power for a few minutes and listen to the restart — Everything that only happens under starting load — the grommet knock, the relay clatter — happens on the first few seconds of a restart, and nowhere else in the cycle.
Before any panel comes off
Safety
Nothing above needs a panel removed. Once one does, unplug the appliance or switch off its breaker first, because a capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off. A refrigerator is heavy and top-heavy with the doors open, so walk it rather than tipping it and get a second pair of hands before it comes out of a recess. Keep fingers clear of the machine compartment while it is plugged in: the lower fan starts on its own..
Models in the ATTM family — Written for the whole roster above rather than for one listing; a page written for a single model would go further than this one does. Numbers reproduced from the platform data for this label.
Reference| Model number | Family key |
|---|---|
| ATTM18** | artt:refrigerator:attm |
| ATTM18**2 | artt:refrigerator:attm |
Where the owner side ends
Call once the level, the clearances and the visible obstructions are all clean and the sound is still there, because what remains is a bearing, a grommet or a relay and each of those is a part change rather than an adjustment. If you smell anything hot or electrical while the machine is making the sound, unplug it and leave it unplugged until someone has looked at it.
Other faults covered for the ATTM line
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
