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Frequently Asked Questions About Domestic Refrigerator Repair:

Loud gurgling sound on new 134a refrigerator, air in the system?

Sir, My congratulations on your very nice WEB page. It is packed with a lot of information. I just purchased a new Sears Kenmore refrigerator last week. Ever since we turned it on it has a very loud gurgling sound whenever the compressor is running. When the compressor shuts off, the gurgling sound continues for maybe 15 or 20 seconds, and then stops. Of course, there is also the normal compressor hum and the freezer fan noise too. I have never had a refrigerator that made this much noise. It doesn’t appear to be a rattle, it's like it is caused by the refrigerant flowing in the system tubes and coils. Could I have air in the system? I called the Sears repair service and they sent a tech out to look at it. He said there was nothing wrong and that I should "just get used to the noise". I think there is some sort of a problem with it. What do you say? I would be most interested in any comments you might have. Is there any way to determine if there is air in the closed system? Thanks for your help,

I’ve heard there are many such problems with the new 134a systems. One of the resolutions Maytag will make in this situation is to have the system evacuated and an in line muffler installed. This is a small copper device that is silver soldered in place, that will sometimes, but not always, solve this kind of problem. It’s a fairly large job to get this done in your home.

In the last 5 years almost all refrigerators have been dynamically redesigned to meet new energy consumption requirements, and to use the new replacement refrigerant. There are no doubt many new bugs that haven't been worked out yet.

Sears, I would think, probably has some kind of customer satisfaction policy so if you're not happy with the product you can return it within a certain time. If the noise bothers you enough perhaps you could return it and buy a different one somewhere else.

Ask to listen to it run first though ;>).

However, the chances of air in a factory charged system are next to impossible. If air is in fact in the system it would make the compressor labor, which is a different noise than you describe, and it would run inefficiently and most of the time. Hope this helps.