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My appliances keep beeping at me. How can I deactivate or bypass this refrigerator door alarm buzzer without affecting the rest of the circuit?

I thought I could just cut/connect the wires at the momentary door switch, but then I'd lose the interior lights. When the door and (I assume) switch is open, the lights (and eventually alarm) activate.

Can I just swap it out for a piece of copper wire and solder; or are there other properties/attributes to consider?

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Piezoelectricity is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials in response to applied mechanical stress. The word piezoelectricity means electricity resulting from pressure and latent heat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzzer#Types

A piezoelectric buzzer/beeper depends on acoustic cavity resonance or Helmholtz resonance to produce an audible beep.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzzer#Piezoelectric_2

voices
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  • Since you have already open up your fridge, desolder the buzzer, measure its resistance and solder a resistor with the same or "close-enough" value. A small 1/4W will do the trick. There are other ways too, but I think this is the simplest. – thece Jan 08 '19 at 21:25
  • @thece Do you think that will be alright? I thought maybe it might be more like a capacitor or something similar, because of the electric charge. – voices Jan 09 '19 at 06:19
  • see here https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/261080/amplify-piezoelectric-transducer-voltage . I really don't believe that it will matter, but you can try both. You don't mess with me uC or the rest of the circuit, you just replace the part that is making a sound with something that draws the same current, but does not make any sound. – thece Jan 09 '19 at 07:41
  • u -> micro, C-> controller – thece Jan 09 '19 at 08:11
  • Let us [continue this discussion in chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/88039/discussion-between-thece-and-tjt263). – thece Jan 09 '19 at 08:50
  • @thece not reading any resistance at all on this buzzer. – voices Jan 13 '19 at 18:12
  • What Empha says will probably work. To the rest of the circuit, that piezo element is gonna look like a capacitor, so if you want to be super thorough I guess you could change it out for a that, although I see no reason why just disconnecting the buzzer wouldn't work. – Harald Lindohf Jun 07 '20 at 20:59

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When i got tired of my microwave beeping i simply opened it up, located the buzzer on the circuit board and and clipped its two connections, which i then covered with electric tape so that no current could flow.

Has been working great for 4 years now without issue, nor do i see why there would be as long as no current flows, but i'm only a hobbyist.

I'd guess in your case that's the "BUZ1", black hockey puck with a hole in its center, next to the connector with a yellow and red wire. Perhaps you can bend it to expose the connections, or you may need to solder it off.

Empha
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  • Yes, it's designated BUZ1 on the PCB. Why would current-flow be a problem? I don't think opening/breaking the circuit sounds like a good idea. – voices Jan 08 '19 at 19:00
  • Right, my bad. I got it in my head that you shifted focus to the buzzer itself after thinking about modifying the door switch. Since i guess the refrigerator is controlled digitally the door switch probably only sets a value, which as you say then impacts the alarm and lights, and possibly more such as the fan. As such, the switch is probably a dead end and the buzzer is probably most realistic. If you don't want to remove it (as it would void warranty) then perhaps you could muzzle it? – Empha Jan 08 '19 at 19:18
  • I am focusing on the buzzer. I don't think it's digital at all. But I could be wrong. Why would you assume that? I don't think the door switch directly affects the fan either. – voices Jan 08 '19 at 19:55
  • Unless it's rather old i'd think it's digital since pretty much everything uses microcontrollers for control of the systems. In this case i believe that the door switch is connected to a microcontroller which then turns on/ off the lights, sounds the alarm after X amount of time and so on. It's simply cheaper and easier. Regardless, i still think you're better of just attaching a piece of electrical tape above the hole of the buzzer. The sound dies off pretty easily from them. – Empha Jan 08 '19 at 21:38
  • I can see three ICs. Nothing that really looks like a microcontroller though. I'll probably inject some glue into the acoustic cavity. – voices Jan 09 '19 at 06:15
  • You're right. There's a microcontroller on the reverse. Inscribed R5F2127 5NEHOFP FOHR. – voices Jan 09 '19 at 06:27