Whirlpool Gold side by side frig compressor knocking

[jzadrazil]

I have a 5 year old whirlpool gold s/s frig and all of a sudden it is making a knocking sound underneath like a piston banging. It does about 8-9 hits and then gets softer and goes away. Frig is keeping cool but I know this is so wrong....its a model
GD5RHAXSSOO. It sounds like two bottles knocking together. I cleaned out under the unit really well but that didnt change anything. Actually, I just started shaking the whole frig and I can hear the knock if I get the frig moving pretty good. Definately under the frig is where the noise is from.

[Dan O.]

all of a sudden it is making a knocking sound underneath like a piston banging. It does about 8-9 hits and then gets softer and goes away.

If the sound is coming from the compressor (see the following link), the compressor is likely damaged internally and needs to be replaced ($$$+).

LINK > My refrigerator is making strange sounds. What is wrong with it?

I don't know anywhere else such sounds could come from besides maybe a foreign object has fallen behind the fridge and was touching the compressor during operation.

JMO

Dan O.
Appliance411.com
The Appliance Information Site
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[Nestor]

Zadrazil:

Your fridge has a motor/compressor hermetically sealed inside a (typically) black steel shell. Not only will the shell have rubber or spring mounts on it's feet, the motor/compressor inside it will be spring mounted (typically with three springs) to the inside of that shell.

When one of those internal springs breaks, the motor/compressor will move more than it normally does (especially when it stops) and knock against the inside of that shell.

What you are hearing is that knocking.

Since you can't open that hermetically sealed shell to replace the broken spring, the only "Fix" is to replace the compressor, and doing that is most often not economically practical because the cost of a compressor and the labour to replace it will generally be more than the cost of a new fridge. The only practical solution is for you to learn to love that knocking sound.

I have a fridge which has been knocking just like yours since 2006, but which otherwise still works fine.