Mine has been replaced twice (the entire refrigerator once too) and it still does this and just did for 45 minutes straight. It relates to the ice tray with frozen ice stuck or frozen and unable to move while the harvest gear tries to turn the tray over to dump the ice. The gear cannot move the ice tray (rotate it) due to it being frozen together with the ice maker. This causes the gear to snap past the rotation lever thus causing the sound. It will stop making the noise once the ice tray has thawed out enough to turn freely. Apparently, the mechanism to thaw the ice tray out is defective on ALL of these so the unit will ALWAYS do this until you take an axe to it and toss it out into the street. You could disonnect the ice maker by lifting the arm on it's side but then you would not have any ice. Frigidaire has become a schlock company wholly owned by electrolux who also own quite a few other brands they bought in some sort of corporate market cornering maneuver some years back. WE NEED A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT.
My Frigidiaire Gallery is less than six months old and it started doing this knocking noise yesterday. It's a noisy refrigerator overall which I don't love but this noise was making me insane. Thanks to comments here I was able to resolve it because otherwise I'd be typing this from the looney bin. I took out the ice tray, pressed the door button and blew a hair dryer on full heat in there toward the back of the refrigerator for a few minutes (probably not even that long). I heard a little "tink" as a piece of ice fell off something back there. I kept heating it up until whatever it was melted. Sound gone! I resent I have to do this on such a new (and expensive) refrigerator but if it fixes it, I'm glad that's all it is. I appreciate this video and the comments though!!!
My problem was the black ice-maker fan. It was stuck and continued to try to turn, making the knocking noise. I removed the ice-maker tray and inserted a long handled screwdriver to help the fan break the ice. It worked. No more noise. Excellent advice thread. Thank you. My sanity is back.
Braden - this was my problem, I could see the ice holding the fan. I used a blow dryer to melt the ice but there was still something there. GENTLE probing revealed that this was some sort of soft black material, I made a small hook using a wire coat hanger and managed to pull it through the fan blade. I think this was some excess rubber seal left over from manufacture that over time got lodged behind the fan, when it iced up locked the fan blade. The knocking was the fan trying to move
As Ken Owen said, it is most likely the ice maker fan. Open the fridge and take out the ice maker. With one hand, shine a light to the back of the ice maker and and locate the black fan. With the other hand, press the ‘button’ to the top of the fridge that lets the fridge know that it is closed. You should see the fan attempt to move and make a clicking sound. Let go of the ‘button’ and using a long handle screw driver, attempt to rotate the fan to break it loose from the ice.
Check with your ear against the fridge to determine whether it's the top ice maker or lower. Pull out the associated tray and blast the back with hot 🔥 air pointing up to ice tray and you should be good. 3 mins with a hair dryer on high.
Our frigidaire is about 1 1/2 years old. We are currently on our 4th ice maker! All of them made that knocking noise and then stopped working shortly after. Now our 4th ice maker is doing the same.
My brand new frigidaire from lowes is doing the same thing, but worse. I makes a loud thwap knock sound in the middle of the night that wakes me, and my neighbors up. That is the only reason I got rid of my old fridge. loads of fun.
mine just started this today - took the ice maker out and blew my heat gun towards the fan for about 3 min and it thawed whatever was blocking the fan from moving. Very easy fix but after paying $1,500 for this fridge I shouldn't have to do it ;-)
Remove the ice drawer, look for the small black fan that is partially hidden at the rear. Use a long screwdriver to *gently* rotate the fan blades and clear the excess ice away from them. The problem can be caused by a partial thaw as well as not cycling the ice out for long periods of time.
Figured it out...ice dispenser top left corner had frozen solid block of ice blocking fan. Pull out ice tray and use hair dryer to melt all the ice. Put rag under to catch the melted ice. Back to normal.
know this is a cold post but I have the same fridge and suddenly the ice maker is making a terrible squeaky sounds and it d=seems to be coming from behind the electronic panel and not the ice making apparatus. any ideas?
I just bought one. Doing the same thing. Scares the shit outta me at night. Snap! Pop! Grinding noise. Figured I’d buy a good expensive one. Figured wrong
I have a whirlpool refrigerator, bought last year. since last week there’s very loud knocking sound from its back, drive me nuts! will never buy again!
Had this same issue today. It can easily be fixed. Remove the ice try and shine light towards the black fan. You’ll see that the fan is stuck due to ice build up. I took a long skewer to help the fan rotate while holding the button at the top left so the fridge would think it’s closed. Problem solved.
This is way too late for most of you.. but mine just had some ice stuck in the "blades" or part where the ice came out.. I knocked out that ice and now it's perfectly quiet
Spoony get a blow dryer and point it at the small black fan in the back for a a min or two and it will stop. It’s the fan that is frozen. You can also gently move the fan and the ice should break off.
My Frigidaire makes several noises. That knocking noise happens whenever you open the bottom freezer. My upper ice maker stopped working. Bottom ice maker still works. The noise is horrible. Never buy Frigidaire again.
it is coming from the ice maker cooling fan. the fan can fail electronically or simply freeze. mine did the same thing. check out the video for the frigidaire ice maker cooling fan
Gary Humphrey the fan blows cold air into the ice bin area. You can manually defrost the ice maker and it should solve the problem. Keep in mind that you may have to defrost the fridge 5-6 times consecutively to completely clear the coil. I manually defrost mine a couple times a week and it has been working great.
Ours just started doing it today. And was happening for about two hours straight. I don’t see that the fan is being blocked on mine though. The noise seems to be coming from the top of the ice maker. Is that the same place you heard yours?
I have the exact same problem. I also have a Frigidaire which I will NEVER BUY AGAIN!!! You need to turn off the refrigerator first, jut unplug it. In the freezer compartment, you need to remove the back panel to get to the blower fan. You will see the ice buildup all around the fan. That is causing the sound. Clean that ice, it will be okay until the next ice build up!!! Mine happens once a week now. It is just poor design! The water that spills from the ice maker is the problem.
Mine is doing the same thing it stops thumping when I open the doors and stars when I close them, it does not stop, Currently my ice maker is not making ice. I turned of the fridge and defrosted turned it back on and it is not making the noise however it has only been 2 hours.
I am sure this is due to ice build up behind the ice maker. Someone used a hair dryer to melt the ice which I am sure will work for this problem. However I agree that this should be a recall. Manufactures should not get away with this bad a product.My fridge had the ice maker fixed under warranty, the man that fixed it strongly suggested that I purchase the Sears extended warranty (I wonder why).
Turn off the bottom one. We have the top one making the ice and just fill the lower tray with it. Sucks to loose the bottom ice maker but better than listening to that knocking
Jose - thanks for posting this. So if you turn off the icemaker in the control panel - that turns off ONLY the top icemaker? I, too, installed the ice maker in the freezer as a hedge against the top icemaker failing / having problems as described here.
So I still have this fridge. The bottom ice maker has been manually off since we bought it. This one was the cause of the knocking. We only use the top and dump it into the bottom tray periodically. There have been times when we get no ice from the top but it starts working again after a couple of days. Its been an issue since DAY 1.
my brand new(1 week old) Frigidaire FFTR1835VW refrigerator clicks all day long! It clicks around 2 to 5 times per minute. Not knocking. Both settings are at Recommended as manual suggests. WTF!!?? I have NO ice tray, no water line, fridge and freezer are NOT stuffed with food. These new "modern" ones SUCK!! Notice how they never tell u it will click all fing day?! I love how this new efficient designs never shut up! I just want my old shit back.
Having the exact same problem...except that when I open the bottom freezer, the knocking stops. Starts again when I push the freezer drawer back in. Incredibly annoying. I will never buy another Frigidaire product.
Just called Frigidaire with the same issue. Of course they acted like it never happens. Asked me to record the sound. Ours does this randomly so I guess they think a person should stand in front with a recorded hoping to capture the event. I'm retired but not that desperate for things to do. They scheduled a service call and advised me to call the local repair shop to verify. Good thing I did as the call was scheduled for the day prior to what I had been told. Good news! The local dealer knew exactly what the issue was. They do it all the time! Sometimes multiple times on the same machine. Bad news? They advised to pay the $350 for the service agreement. They said we will need it! Hopefully the word gets out just how bad this Mexican piece of junk is before they buy one.
Mine makes the same noise but stops if I open any door. (left, right or freezer) Close the door or push the door close button and it starts again. Quite frustrating. If you listen to it too much, it will drive you crazy! Gotta ignore it. Gotta ignore it. Gotta....F___!
