We lost power for about 10 days due to Hurricane Ian back in September but we didn’t have any water get into the house and nothing seemed to spill or leak before we had to get rid of it. We pulled everything out of the fridge that we couldn’t eat and had to throw out the rest. But we threw it out as it got too warm but before it molded over. Once everything was out of the freezer and fridge, we opened up the doors and left them open. Once the power came back on, because there was nothing in the fridge or freezer anymore, we were able to scrub the inside of it from top to bottom with soap and vinegar. We even scrubbed the ice maker. That’s why we don’t think the smell is coming from inside the fridge. When it’s on and the fan is blowing air from under the fridge, that’s when we seem to notice the smell. It was a couple of months ago that we started to notice it. My wife calls it the “Walmart smell” because she smells the same odor when we’re in the refrigerated section of the local Walmart. Thinking it was the drip pan, a couple of months ago, I cleaned the back of the fridge, took off the back access panel, and then did my best to clean the drip pan where I could get my hands and a cleaning cloth to it. After I did that, the odor seemed to go away. After another month or so, the odor came back and I repeated the process. The odor went away once again. A couple of weeks ago, the odor returned, so I repeated the process. However this time the odor not only didn’t go away, but it seems to have gotten worse. I can’t take the drip pan off because I believe it’s part of the fridge’s chassis, but I keep trying to clean as much as I can. However, now I think I may be wasting my time because it may be something else.

Link to a photo of the drip pan before I cleaned it

https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:35f9ebb9-dd4f-3c39-8261-dbdadac652b8

Link to a photo of the drip pan after I cleaned it.

https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:4fcd308e-6e5c-336f-ad2c-00ff387d4fa7