The characteristics of refrigerator noise in an anechoic chamber and in an actual environment were investigated. In order to predict the noise propagation in real apartment house, room acoustic simulations and measurements using different types of refrigerators were conducted. The sound-pressure level of the refrigerator noise in the real living room was much higher than in the anechoic chamber. In addition, an allowable sound-pressure level for refrigerator noise was determined by auditory experiments. For the stimuli of auditory experiments, the dry source of refrigerator noise was presented using a loud speaker at the position of the refrigerator. When the result of the subjective evaluation was at the level 2 (the noise rarely aware but comfortable), in which sound pressure level was about 25 dB(A), 95% of people were satisfied with the refrigerator noise. A semantic differential test using various adjectives was also conducted to evaluate the sound quality of refrigerator noise.