On a number of occasions I’ve taken a typical Embarco compressor from a box and moved it or handed it to a technician or whatever … and if you handle it or shake it in just the right way you here a metallic noise that sounds like, for lack of a better description, a metal ball rolling around inside a metal ball. Many compressors. Whatever this is, if you’ve handled a compressor you’ve heard it.
Well, now I have a Whirlpool side by side (ED5RHAXNQ00) that makes that same noise from time to time. Easiest to hear at night when the house is quiet … it makes the noise as the cooling system starts and then it goes away. Then back again a few minutes later for a second or two.
For YEARS I thought it sounded like the banging copper pipes make when they aren’t tied down properly until I suddenly realized that it was this metallic compressor noise that I so poorly described.
It’s not a fan noise, it’s not a blade hitting a housing or a bearing noise .. this is that deeper metallic clanging. Knocking/clanging for a time and then fading in volume until it’s gone …
Is that a sign of the compressor failing? For a week it was getting louder and lasting longer each time the unit started.
Then Monday I started looking to see lead times on compressors … and we haven’ heard the noise since.
Any thoughts?