Hi Dione, Is the BEKO also a frost free freezer? It'll be interesting to know if you've found a silent frost free freezer or have you chosen a model that is not frost free? Interesting though that the engineers must have accepted that the noise you were getting was unusual otherwise they wouldn't have tried to correct it. Well done to Currys for letting you exchange it but sadly most of the earlier contributors to this thread bought fridges from COMET.

I don't want to rain on your parade but I called my cousin who bought a Bosch frost free fridge freezer recently and she tells me that hers also makes the same clucking sounds (she's heard mine). I don't want to harp on but I do suspect that all (or certainly most) frost free fridge freezers that have been designed and made in recent years probably make the same sounds. It would certainly be worth while doing a bit more research along these lines as all of us in this thread have purchased a frost free fridge freezer for the first time and perhaps should have known that frost free freezers cluck loudly. (although I don't know how if we've had no previous experience and we wouldn't think to ask). After all we wouldn't buy a petrol lawn mower expecting it to be silent would we? No I doubt that the "average shop assistant" would know what a frost free fridge freezer sounds like unless they had one themselves and then may not think to tell a prospective customer but that may not be an excuse as far as consumer rights goes.

Luckily for me this clucking noise comes and goes and is by no means constant (It is still annoying but I guess I am also "getting used to it") but as you say when it does come on it can last for up to an hour. I wonder on what grounds you can get the ff replaced, you cannot argue it is not fit for purpose (because it works OK) They claim the noise level of the unit (FUFL1810P) is 44db. I guess if you can prove that it is louder than that you can claim that it doesn't perform to the advertised spec but how do you prove that because it doesn't say where that noise level is measured (is it directly in front or behind the fridge or 10 meters away?). However there should be more knowledgable consumers experts on this forum than me. Certainly, when I was looking around prior to my purchase I was told by a shop salesman that frost free freezers are noisy, he said he had one and wish he had never bought it. OK he was trying to sell me a "low frost" fridge/freezer but it also wasn't a Hotpoint. I haven't been able to research whether ALL frost free fridge freezers are noisy ( and is therefore something that has to be accepted if you want a frost free freezer) or whether it is only Hotpoint models. If all frost free models are noisy (or even just Hotpoints) and it wasn't pointed out to you by the Currys salesman then you may have a case to pursue that route as dissatisfaction or unsuitability. It'll be interesting to know if as a consumer there is real case for complaint however I doubt the rest of us on this forum have a path to complain as the retailer (to whom we must initially direct our dissatisfaction) no longer exists.

I maybe a bit late joining in this conversation but I also bought the FUFL1810P from Laskys (an internet arm of Comet). Same story, the annoying clucking noise. I contacted Indesit (who make Hotpoint now) and asked them if it was normal as I had never owned a frost free fridge before and had been warned that frost free fridges can be noisy. They offered to send an engineer but warned me as I didn't take out the extended warranty, if there was no fault then they would charge a call out fee of £50. The girl on the line couldn't tell me if it was normal or not. I had second thoughts and called them again and this time the guy seemed to know a lot more about the workings of that fridge and explained that with frost free freezers (at least these Hotpoint models) the fridge is cooled by drawing air from the freezer and there are relays and solenoids that switch in and out to let the cold air into the fridge through the holes at the back of the fridge. I concluded from this that it is highly likely that the noise I am hearing is "normal" and cancelled the visit of the Engineer as I didn't want to be hit for £50. The damn thing is still clucking but seems to be working OK. The guy at Indesit said" Like all noises that surround you, and I live near a railway track, you get used to it and after a while you don't notice it" Well I haven't got used to it yet! As for the model you ordered having handles, I know what you mean as the illustration on Comet's web site showed the wrong model. The FUFL1810P doesn't have handles. I went into a Comet shop to check that before I ordered on line because I didn't want handles. The picture for the FUFL1810P on their website was not of the FUFL1810P. Anyway I guess you are stuck with it now since the demise of Comet but you have the comfort of knowing that you are not alone having to listen to regular clucking from your Fridge/Freezer as I suspect that is normal operating noise for this model and maybe other frost free freezers but I haven't been told that by a professional who really knows.