Flummoxed by a Freezer: A Puzzling Noise Mystery

[Zaqiqu]

So I've got this old freezer, perhaps from the early 80s. Every night, as I'm sitting in the living room poring over textbooks, this freezer grows louder and louder. Every night, once I've had enough, I walk up to the freezer, and as soon as my foot puts pressure on a floor tile in front of the freezer, the noise stops. I raise my foot, and the noise resumes. On and off, like flipping a switch: noise - this hum-like growl - and then no noise, then noise again. If I hold my foot gently atop the tile, the noise will remain; it is only once I've put a slight bit of weight that this noise ceases.

I am not nearly as interested in having some idea of what is causing the noise as I am in determining how the weight of my foot on a floor tile adjacent to those upon which the freezer rests can cause the noise to abruptly stop.

My initial hypothesis was that there could be some element of the freezer that hangs low to the ground, and that they weight of my foot pushes the surrounding tiles just ever so slightly in the negative-vertical direction that this element no longer makes contact with the floor tile immediately below it. However, as far as I can tell, the freezer is situated roughly 1cm above the floor.

Thus I am completely flummoxed. Any hypotheses?

 

[DaveC426913]

However, as far as I can tell, the freezer is situated roughly 1cm above the floor.

Its not hovering is it??
Why don't you wedge a matchbook under that corner's foot? That oughtta stop the noise.

 

[Nidum]

A common problem with cabinet construction equipment containing electromechanical gubbins . Some frequency being generated by the mechanism is resonating with the cabinet .

When you press on the floor you probably change the resonant frequency of the cabinet enough for resonance to cease .

 

[sophiecentaur]

Put one of those textbooks under a corner of the cabinet and pour yourself a nice drink.
You almost certainly have some resonance, somewhere. It could be the floorboard itself that's resonating. The time of day could be afffecting the temperature of the floor and releasing part of the board from the adjacent board. Try putting a heavy weight where your foot's needed and see if that helps. It's definitely a practical approach that's needed. Loads of experiments.