Said It Here

Refrigerator making a revving, clicking, or grinding noise

These repeated starting-and-stopping, revving, or grinding sounds are usually caused by a failing or unevenly spinning fan. If left unaddressed, the freezer blade can frost over and cause the appliance to stop cooling entirely. This leaves owners unsure if they have a few days to fix it or if they need to immediately pack their food into ice coolers.

Overview
People affected4 accounts across 1 forum
Workarounds found6 items attempted
Community agreement6 total upvotes
Editorial ConsensusSynthesized across r/appliancerepair
Verification standards →

Core Friction Pattern

Analysis of 4 peer accounts across online developer and community forums reveals that “Refrigerator making a revving, clicking, or grinding noise” repeatedly surfaces due to edge-case mismatches between standard defaults and real-world environments. Standard troubleshooting frequently falls short, compelling practitioners to develop custom workarounds.

Top Peer-Reported Fix
researching possible causes online, such as ice blocking the fan or a dying motor

+5 alternative community-tested workarounds cataloged below.

Editorial Commitment: Every workaround and quote here is curated from verified public discussions without affiliate commissions or paid placements. Always review system configurations before applying community-tested solutions.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

6 items+ Contribute

Found another way around this?

Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.

  1. 1
    researching possible causes online, such as ice blocking the fan or a dying motor
    Did this help you?
  2. 2
    Defrosting the freezer's back wall to clear potential ice buildup.
    Did this help you?
  3. 3
    Removing the back panel to inspect the evaporator fan, motor bearings, and rubber bushings.
    Did this help you?
  4. 4
    Stocking coolers with ice in anticipation of complete cooling failure.
    Did this help you?
  5. 5
    having the landlord replace the broken component
    Did this help you?
  6. 6
    hiring someone to repair the air damper
    Did this help you?
Tried another approach not listed above?+ Share your workaround ↑

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/appliancerepair4 people · November 2026

“My refrigerator has started regularly making noises recently.”source ↗

“It’s usually a repeated revving sound that keeps starting and stopping like in this video.”source ↗

“Also, sometimes a clicking/grinding noise.”source ↗

“Does anyone have any idea what may be causing these noises, and how to fix it?”source ↗

Unique_Half9506 · r/appliancerepair · 2 upvotes

“I cleared it out and didn't see any frost buildup. The fan seems to be spinning (I shone a flashlight on it) but maybe a little unevenly.”source ↗

turbodenim · r/appliancerepair · 1 upvotes

“Assuming it is the fan, does this type of thing typically fail quickly or do I have a couple days? Want to know if I should start stocking coolers up with ice”source ↗

turbodenim · r/appliancerepair · 1 upvotes

“Mine did that before the freezer blade frosted over and it stopped cooling.”source ↗

ShiftObjective2326 · r/appliancerepair · 1 upvotes

“The fridge in the house I just moved into makes this noise on and off all night.”source ↗

“I’m wondering what causes it and if there’s anything I can do so I don’t have to hear it all the time.”source ↗

memo-sploof · r/appliancerepair · 1 upvotes

Where this came up

r/appliancerepairappliance repairhome maintenancetroubleshooting

People with this problem also raised