Smells like burned
Since power outages aren't always polite and absolute, your fridge may have been subjected to low line voltages for an extended time and gee, Whirlpool still hasn't figured out how to protect their product from this kind of damage.
We lost one the same way years ago in CA; we came home after being gone for hours, smelled the fridge, checked the line voltage which was wandering around 25 volts +- ~2 volts.
Enough to burn the compressor windings but not enough to start it.
In that case, the electric company paid for the compressor replacement on our two-year-old Whirlpool.
If you can dig up anyone who was noting the line voltage, maybe you can file a claim with your utility.
×