In short
Taking the AWBC series on its own, a new noise or vibration resolves most often to compressor mounts that have hardened with age. No page above this one covers the fault for the brand as a whole here, so the order below is complete rather than a refinement. 3 of the 5 causes below can be checked without a tool; the rest need a technician.
What you actually see
- A new whine that is there whenever the compressor runs — Continuous and tied to the cycle, which places it at the back of the cabinet rather than inside it.
- A buzz or rattle that arrives and leaves on a schedule — Anything that comes and goes on a cycle belongs to a part that switches on and off with that cycle.
- A scraping or ticking from inside the compartment — Inside means the fan and the ice around it, not the compressor at the back.
- A gurgle or a trickle a few minutes after it stops — Normal on nearly every cabinet. It is refrigerant and meltwater moving, and it needs nothing done about it.
- NEAR MISS — the noise came with the cabinet warming up — Cooling loss changes the priority completely, and that is covered on its own page.
Causes, most likely first on the AWBC series
- Compressor mounts that have hardened with age — Hardened mounts do not fail, they just stop isolating. The noise rises gradually over a season and nothing else about the machine changes, which is the signature.
- A cabinet that is not standing level or square — Any cabinet that is rocking on three feet transmits into the floor everything it should be absorbing. The noise is real; its source is the levelling, not the machine.
- The condenser fan at the back, dusty or obstructed — It runs whenever the compressor does, so its noise tracks the cooling cycle exactly. That pattern is the cleanest way to identify it without pulling anything apart.
- The ice maker cycling, filling and harvesting — Half the noise complaints on cabinets with ice makers are the ice maker doing its job. Isolating it takes a day and rules out a whole branch of the list.
- The defrost cycle: sizzling, popping and dripping — Cyclical, short-lived and always followed by a trickle is the defrost cycle, which is a machine working correctly rather than a machine failing.
The order to work in
- Record it on a phone from two places — One recording at the open door and one at the back panel will usually settle which side of the cabinet you are dealing with.
- Decide first whether the noise tracks the cooling cycle — A noise that starts and stops with the compressor belongs to something that switches with it, which removes half the list at once.
- Switch the ice maker off for a day if there is one — It costs you nothing but ice and it eliminates a whole class of scheduled noises.
- Note whether the noise survives the machine being switched off — If it does, it is not the machine, and everything below is the wrong list.
Before anything comes apart
Safety
Power off first, every time: unplug the machine or switch off its breaker before a panel is touched, because a capacitor can hold a charge long after the supply is gone. The sealed system is off limits. It is licensed work, and a system opened without the right equipment is a system that cannot simply be closed again. No step on this page asks you to defeat an interlock, and none should be improvised into one.
Models in the AWBC family
Reference| Model number | Family key |
|---|---|
| AWBC15PGA2A | avallon:refrigerator:awbc |
| AWBC15PSA2A | avallon:refrigerator:awbc |
| AWBC15SGA2A | avallon:refrigerator:awbc |
| AWBC241GGFD | avallon:refrigerator:awbc |
| AWBC242PRG | avallon:refrigerator:awbc |
| AWBC242PRG** | avallon:refrigerator:awbc |
| AWBC242PRS | avallon:refrigerator:awbc |
| AWBC242PRS** | avallon:refrigerator:awbc |
| AWBC242SG | avallon:refrigerator:awbc |
| AWBC242SG** | avallon:refrigerator:awbc |
| AWBC24PGA2A | avallon:refrigerator:awbc |
| AWBC24PSA2A | avallon:refrigerator:awbc |
| AWBC24SGA2A | avallon:refrigerator:awbc |
When to call a technician
Here is where owner work ends: what you can see, reach and clear with the machine isolated is owner work; anything on the sealed system, and anything needing a reading rather than an observation is not. On this page that puts compressor mounts that have hardened with age on the far side of the line.
Other problems covered for the AWBC series
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
