In short
Most new refrigerator noises come from something touching something else, not from a failing compressor. On this machine the first suspect is cabinet not level, or touching a wall or cabinetry.
What you observe
- A ticking or chirping from inside the freezer — Something is touching the evaporator fan blade — usually frost.
- A buzz or hum from the bottom rear that comes and goes — The condenser fan or the compressor, and the timing tells you which.
- A rattle that stops if you press on the cabinet — Panel, tray or tubing resonance rather than a component fault.
- NEAR MISS — noisy and also not cooling — Then noise is the symptom and cooling is the fault; the cooling-failure page ranks it properly.
Causes, most likely first on a Smad refrigerator
- Cabinet not level, or touching a wall or cabinetry — A cabinet resting against a wall transmits ordinary compressor vibration into the structure behind it. Ranked first on a Smad refrigerator: it turns a normal, healthy vibration into a complaint without anything having failed.
- Ice maker filling, harvesting or running dry — A fill valve opening, a mould heating and cubes dropping all make noises on a schedule rather than continuously.
- Refrigerant tubing or a wiring loom resting against the cabinet — A loom or a line touching sheet metal turns the compressor's normal hum into a resonance you can hear across the room.
- Condenser fan hitting dust, a bag or a stray object — The condenser fan lives underneath or at the back, where light debris collects and gets drawn in.
Check in this order, and why
- Push gently on the top corners and see whether the cabinet rocks — Check the gap behind the cabinet at the same time — contact with the wall is enough on its own.
- Switch the ice maker off for a day and see whether the noise goes with it — A noise that disappears with the ice maker off is answered.
- Look at the rear of the cabinet for tubing that touches the frame or another line — Lines should have air around them; a contact point is the noise.
What an owner can safely check
- Level the cabinet on its feet and pull it far enough forward that nothing touches the wall — A cabinet standing square on all four feet with clear air behind it loses most of its noise.
Tools: spirit level, adjustable spannerAbout 20 min
- Turn the ice maker off at its switch or arm for a day and listen — If the noise goes with it, the ice maker is the source; if the bin is empty as well, the water supply is the real fault.
About 10 min
- STOP HERE if the next check needs a panel off or a meter on live terminals — That is where the owner checks end and a service call begins, whatever the ranking says.
Before you open anything
Safety
Disconnect power at the plug or the breaker before opening anything, and give a capacitor time to bleed down before you reach past a board. Nothing sharp goes near an iced evaporator: thin tubing, refrigerant under pressure, no home repair. Refrigerant work is licensed work, so the sealed system is where the owner job ends. Empty the cabinet before you move it.
When to call a technician
Call when the noise is a grinding that worsens, when it tracks the compressor exactly and the mounts look sound, or when a fan is clearly the source and it is behind a panel. A noise alone is rarely urgent; a noise with warmth in the cabinet is. If your unit is an absorption model running on gas, the gas side is not owner work: a licensed gas technician handles the burner, the flue and any smell of gas.
Nearest pages of this class
What this page does not cover
This page covers the Smad refrigerator as a class, not one family or model line. Where a family- or model-specific page exists for your unit it is linked above and it is the better answer — read it first. Deliberately not here: part numbers, wiring colours, panel removal order and torque figures, all of which differ between families under one nameplate.
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
