Norcold 2.7 cuft refrigerator noise

[jage]

Yowch! $1424.99 for a single drawer...

http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?id=1261891

[Aldercrest]

Yeesh! Ouch is right! But it sure is quiet.

[jage]

Good thing the PO did it... less painful that way.

[Steve_382]

We just came back from about 3 weeks in Texas, NM, and Arizona. The 2.7 was so noisy that we just turned it off at night and quit trying to keep things in it that would spoil. After reading these posts, I decided to take a stab at improving the noise. I removed the fridge, added some foam insulation strips to the rails that it sits on to dampen any vibrations through the floor:



Then I added some of the same stuff on front of the cabinet where the fridge screws to the cabinet to dampen any vibrations there:



Finally, I taped some reflectix to the sides of the interior of the cabinet:



I also noticed that the cabinet hanger bracket on the right side had an aircraft nut that was touching the side of the fridge, so I reversed it so the nut was on the outside of the cabinet (think Jage mentioned doing this also).

Bottom line, maybe not purr-fect, but much better.

[BroncoHauler]

Your well written writeup reminded me of something. When we had our kitchen redone, the plumbing supply shop where we got our fridge showed us different sinks and one of the price differences was the sound dampening of the stainless steel sinks. The owner told us to get the base model with the features we liked, and then spray on automobile undercoating if we wanted it quieter.

We never added anything, but what's there are a few stick on rubber squares. I'm guessing you could add some Dynamat pieces to dampen the vibrations and noise.


Herb

[tomesd]

I wonder if dynamatting the fridge prior to installation would work to quiet one?

[Ford_6L_E350]

Maybe.

The real source of noise is the compressor. The rubber mounts are very soft and it can move quite a bit. And sometimes it sets up sympathetic, harmonic vibrations in other compenents like the stove top.

I put stiffer rubber mounts on my compressor and it helped tremendously. I also added 1/2" of foil backed hard foam insulation all around the refrig so the compressor doesn't have to run as much. It no longer keeps me awake, while it used to wake me up!

Mike

[jage]

Originally Posted by tomesd

I wonder if dynamatting the fridge prior to installation would work to quiet one?

been air. dun at.

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=487

Originally Posted by jage

The result of the whole project isn't really the silent fridge I hoped for, but the tone is much bassier and easier to live with. You can still feel the vibration in the counter, but it's not the "rattle everything to death" vibration it was.

[ChrisZedona]

Tips on installing new Norcold? It’s black not white and seems a bit bigger.

[gcvt]

Originally Posted by ChrisZedona

Tips on installing new Norcold? It’s black not white and seems a bit bigger.

That's what she said


I'll show myself out.