Strengthen an inbuilt kitchen cupboard to reduce vibrations

[Deleted User]

Hi,

I've got an inbuilt fridge / freezer and it's sitting on a rectangle box shelf 3 inches tall, which itself then just sits on the cupboard unit a little above the floor. The f/f makes a terrible vibration noise which I'd like to resolve, so I was wondering how best to do it? I was thinking of removing the front to the void it sits on then stuffing it with rockwool, or maybe some wood and stacking them. The wood idea might not work I suppose unless I take the f/f out to drill through the unit and secure the wood in place. My train of thought here is it might strengthen the wood it's sitting on.

I've previously tried sitting the f/f on an anti-vibration mat but it didn't make any difference, which makes me think filling this hollow hole with something or strengthening it might help.

Any other ideas?

Cheers

grumbler

First of all you have to find the actual source of the noise. If the compressor is suspended on the springs correctly it produces very small vibration.

And beware that some fridges have their condenser built into the fridge walls, so the air circulation is needed to cool them.

fenwick458

It sounds like you are trying to isolate the fridge freezer from the wooden carcass to stop the vibrations transmitting.
would be better to get to the source of the problem on the fridge, or at least try that first.
rockwool has very poor sound deadening qualitys, what you need is something with mass. the problem is you don't have alot of space around it in which to install this. you can get a 5mm mineral matting but it's unlikely you have 5mm around it.
I have spent quite a lot on soundproofing my boiler, it's in the landing airing cupboard. 
in hindsight, it would have been cheaper to just re-locate it to another room in the house, soundproofing is not cheap and if you have no room in which to do it it gets even more expensive, and isn't even as effective

king132

Rockwool is too soft. You need something more dense but not completely solid.
You can get polystyrene sheets quite cheap or left over from packaging Or a scrap piece of Celotex.

[Deleted User]

Cheers all. I'll look into pulling it out and checking the compressor but it's a new Neff fridge so I'm not sure how much I'll find out of place.

I've just looked online at Celotex and it looks a lot more rigid than polystyrene sheets, is that fair?

grumbler

both are rigid

they can block the sound, but not the vibration

I don't like the idea of filling, but IMO bubble wrap is more suitable for this.

[Deleted User]

Let's say I pull it out and there's nothing I can see on the back to reaffix, any ideas what to do then? Are you thinking bubble wrap as it's soft so could fill the space easily and maybe absorb vibrations?

I suppose the ultimate fix is not put it back into the slot of the cupboard housing but that seems a bit extreme. Equally the vibration noises which manifest into the living room and bounce off the walls are becoming annoying.

Thank you

fenwick458

need to find out what exactly you are trying to acheive, if you want to isolate the fridge from the kitchen cupboard to stop the vibrations getting out, bubble wrap, celotex, polystyrene will do nothing. it's got no mass, it cant stop the transmission of sound.
firstly take the fridge freezer out and look at trying to stop the problem at the source.
if you can't do anything about that, I would cut the bottom of the cupboard right out down to the ground. and then sit the fridge freezer onto a solid base, It depends on the height you need to get it upto but it wouldn't be far off 2 x 4" concrete blocks laid flat and a 600x600 paving slab bedded on top with sand & cement. thats only if you have a solid floor, if your going onto a timber floor don't bother just get a new fridge
but then the next issue, is the fridge in contact with the sides of the cupboard? is it a proper built in appliance, does the door fasten directly onto the fridge freezer door?
if it does you'd be better off getting a new fridge/freezer! 

[Deleted User]

Cheers all. I've taken some picture so you can see what I'm trying to explain:








I think what's happening is the fridge/freezer is vibrating on on the wood top section of the void, so I was wondering if strengthening it might help, or maybe filling it with something, wood or something else that might reduce vibrations. I'm not trying to soundproof it as I think reducing vibrations is the key.

Appreciate any advice, thanks.

grumbler

I thought you wanted to fill the gaps on the sides.

Reinforcing the shelf definitely cannot make things worse, but may help - by adding some rigid supports that fit tightly between the bottom and the top panels.

suki1964

Id definitely start with packing that space with support. Just cut to fit and hammer home