My fridge has been very loud for probably a month. I was pretty sure it was going to be the compressor, because Samsung fridges are lousy with compressor issues. The the type of sound was a loud, mechanical buzzing. After playing around with a frequency generator, it sounded about 120 Hz. That wasn’t a diagnostic tool, I looked it up just now to try to convey the noise to you.

Anyway, after pulling the fridge out and getting my ears back there, it was clearly not the compressor. But it was coming from the bottom of the fridge. So, it pretty much had to be the blower in the freezer. The hardest part was getting the drawer out. I saw tutorials where they just lift out the plastic bins, and there was no way I could get mine out. Mine did not fit out when the drawer was pulled out. I checked the manual. It says they just lift out. The manual also had dimensions of the drawer when pulled out, and I found my drawer was short by 6 inches! The stupid telescopic rails were stuck! I gave it a really good yank, and the drawer pulled out the entire 21 inches. I have no idea how long we have not had full drawer access. Makes getting ice cubes out a lot easier.

So, got it pulled apart, found the blower. Tested that it was the noise. It was. And I looked for a replacement. The OEM blower assembly was $143! I was taken aback. I found a third party blower on Amazon for $25. Went with that. That came last night, and I installed it during lunch today. Took 45 minutes.

I have a neighbor with nearly the same fridge, that had nearly the same issue. Except it was the circulating blower in the upper fridge portion. His wife insisted they call Samsung to come out for the repair. It cost them $1000.

  • BoxOfFeet@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    4·
    7 days ago

    Oh, those look really nice. I didn’t really want the Samsung, but it was basically the only one that fit in my space constraints and had an icemaker that I could find. And find quickly, as my previous one died. The next appliance on my list is the dishwasher. Hear any recommendations on those?

    • Crozekiel@lemmy.zipEnglish
      4·
      7 days ago

      Very USA specific advice - may vary wildly outside the US:

      Best recommendation for dishwashers - don’t buy the “middle of the pack” units. Either get the cheap cheap one and come to terms with how loud it is going to be, or be prepared to drop $1k and up. The middling priced units are trying to do more than they can at that price point and end up sucking a lot. Cheap cheap ones, basically any brand will be pretty OK, they will usually work fine if you follow instructions. Might not last as long, but are generally pretty simple to work on as a trade off. You won’t want to carry on a conversation in the same room as it while running. If at the other end of the spectrum, Miele and Asko are both pretty solid machines. Maybe a high end Bosch or KitchenAid if you can’t find Miele or Asko in your price range, but again, don’t look at the middling priced ones.

      Also, be prepared for dishes to be wet when the cycle ends. I don’t care what fancy mumbo jumbo the thing you are looking at claims about “superior drying technology” using magic rocks (seriously) or highly specialized fans and ducts… It will not dry dishes as well as a pre-2012 unit that got hot enough to cause you harm if you grab stuff bare handed at the end of a cycle. Some will be worse than others, but none of them truly “dry” dishes anymore.

      • WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world
        4·
        6 days ago

        Just to add on to this comments last point. I have a high range Bosch and it opens after the wash cycle and that dries them really well. Better than the magic rocks the next one up came with at the time.