Whirlpool Freezer - Gray Putty Square & Copper Tubing?

Refrigerator & Freezer Repair
1

Whirlpool Upright Freezer, Model # WZF34X16DW

Greetings. I purchased this new freezer in December 2016. Within a week, I started hearing a loud buzzing coming from the back when the freezer was running. When I pulled off the cardboard cover from the lower back, I noticed the sound was coming from two copper pieces touching and vibrating as the compressor was running. The two pieces are located to the right of the compressor, consisting of a thicker horizontal copper tube coming out of the right side of compressor, and a thin vertical spiral tube coming out of the bottom end of a fat vertical cigar shaped copper tube (I believe it is the UV Dye Dryer), which sit just behind the right hand grill openings on the cardboard backing. The spiral tubing was touching the compressor tubing, vibrating, and making a loud noise. I also noticed that a square piece of gray putty like material (with plastic backing), about 2" x 2", was laying on the metal bottom of the freezer unattached to anything, laying just under these tubes. Part of the putty square was disrupted and looked like it had been wrapped around something. In holding it up, it seemed to be about the size to wrap and stick around half of the fat cigar shaped vertical copper tube (dryer), with the remainder of the putty square being long enough to go between the two pieces of copper tubing that were touching (the putty side touching the spiral tubing, and the plastic backing side touching the compressor tubing). Can you please confirm what that putty square is for, if that is where it goes, and how to properly reattach it, if possible? Should those tubes be touching? Does this need to already be fixed under warranty after only a week? Thanks for your advice!

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If the various tubes are touching they will make noise. The insulation you found was probably between them as you noted. Just separate the offending tubes, that’s what the tech would do. If you can easily see where that mastic was affixed use it, otherwise it’s not important. It probably did wrap around the drier where you say to reduce the noise and may or may not reattach to it. I wouldn’t worry about it, if you’ve stopped the noise you’re ok.

If that has an actual UV dye drier on it it’s been worked on. From the factory they do not usually include UV dye in the driers. Does it say UV on it? With an arrow pointing toward the thin (capillary tube) end? Or is that just a term you picked up somewhere? We’d use UV driers to find leaks as they distribute a UV fluorescent die through the sealed system.

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Thank you for the feedback! Yes, I was able to get the rattling to stop. As for the UV dye dryer, it was just a term that I picked up on the Internet to try and not call it the cigar shaped tube. The parts manual just has it listed as a dryer, and this is a brand new freezer out of the box, so it has not been worked on. Again, thank you for the help.