Chosen Solution
I have a Kenmore top mount refrigerator, model 253.6292, 6 years old. The freezer section is auto defrost. Yesterday I noticed the fridge sometimes makes ticking sounds that come from the temperature control panel inside the fridge section. The same ticking sounds also seem to come from inside the back wall of the freezer section (right top corner). From reading about how fridges work, I concluded that the ticking sound quite possibly come from a timer that controls the fridge, perhaps the defrost cycle since the ticking sound also comes from behind the freezer wall. Both fridge and freezer seem to be working fine, except for the ticking sound, which I can sometimes hear when the compressor is running, but also sometimes when the compressor is not running. Could someone please give me some input as to my suspicions? Does it sound right that the ticking sounds in the locations I described could be coming from a timer, possibly from a defrost timer? If so, is this something one can fix oneself or does it require an expert to fix it? Does it even need fixing, since fridge and freezer both seem to be operating properly? (Maybe the ticking sound is just a “cosmetic problem”, not an operational one?) I would appreciate any input I could get. I know absolutely nothing about fridges, but it seems like if it’s only an issue inside the temperature control panel, it may be a part that I could easily replace myself. Thank you very much!
Hi @angieincali, What is the full model number of the refrigerator as there are 24 models beginning with 253.6292, e.g. 253.62922010, 253.62922011 etc? I think that they’re mostly all the same in that they have a defrost timer, part #23 - shelves parts diagram that manages the amount of time between each auto defrost cycle. Perhaps it is starting to get noisy as it is a electro-mechanical timer switch Don’t know exactly the amount of time between each auto defrost cycle for your model but usually with most refrigerators it is somewhere between 8-12 hours. When the auto defrost cycle is started, both the compressor and the evaporator fan are turned off and the temp in the freezer is allowed to rise to 32 F (0 deg. C) to melt any accumulated ice from the evaporator unit, which is drained to the evaporator pan under the compartments. The melting process is sped up by turning on the defrost heater under the evap unit as you don’t want the food to even begin to thaw. When the temp reaches 32 F the bi-metal defrost thermostat operates which signals the timer to turn off the heater and to end the auto defrost cycle by turning on the compressor and the evaporator fan to drive the temps back down again. The whole process usually only takes 20-25 minutes and is repeated every 8-12 hours.
