Refrigerator Smell

About six months ago, our refrigerator began emitting an odor. We're pretty sure it's from the outside of the fridge because, thanks to losing everything in the fridge during Hurricane Ian, all of the food was replaced and the fridge's interior was scrubbed from top to bottom. My only guess was that the drip pan had some "gunk" in it and needed to be cleaned. This particular model of GE side-by-side fridge doesn't have a removable pan. So I did my best and got as much dirt and "gunk" out of the pan as possible and the smell went away for a while. My wife describes the smell as "The Walmart smell" because, every time she walks by the refrigerated section of the local Walmart, she smells the same smell. The smell came back about two weeks ago and I cleaned it out even better this time and also thought about buying stock in Band-Aid. It's tight quarters in the back of a refrigerator. The smell didn't go away this time. We even cleaned out the grille on the bottom-front of the fridge to no avail. It seems to function just fine, but there's that smell. Any ideas?

If stuff totally defrosted in the freezer section, sometimes items become fluid that flow to the bottom of freezer section and get under the plastic lining. The "stuff" gets on top of pieces and parts that are above the pan. In many newer models the lining is basically impossible to remove because it is installed from the rear early in the assembly process.

Maybe it needs to become a workshop unit and wife gets a new one....

That's one of the possibilities we've considered. Don't know if it's possible to remove the inside linings or not. But it's not even our fridge. We rent the house. But in the past two years, they've had to replace the A/C, the washer and dryer, the kitchen faucet and now we're in the middle of having to replace the master bathroom shower faucet that, for whatever reason, has now taken a total of almost a month and they're still not done. The landlord has a maintenance contract with a local company. I would've replaced the faucet myself but it's corroded on to the point where they had to cut the handle off with a sawsall. It was the same with the kitchen faucet. Our water here sucks. We've had to have so many things replaced that, even though it's no fault of our own, we don't want to get the landlord upset to the point where they either raise our rent substantially or they don't renew our lease next year. The house was built in 2006 and I don't believe anyone has ever done any kind of repairs, let alone maintenance, on the house until we moved in about five years ago. So if the fridge just smells, we'll put up with it unless it starts not cooling. But if there's a way to get rid of the smell, we'd like to explore that possibility too.

Sometimes the plastic liner of the fridge absorbs the odors. As PF says, often the seams and openings accumulate food based liquids and solids that ferment. One of the best deodorizers when cleaning a fridge is 20 mule team borax. I mixed it with dish soap when I cleaned out an RV fridge. After it was clean, we wiped it down again with just the 20 mule team solution and left it to dry. Lastly, we put an open box of baking soda in the back of the fridge to capture any residual odor.

Wow that brings back some bad memories from last fall. I came down here 10 days after Ian and volunteered to help my condo's maintenance guy with cleanup. They gave me the job helping him inspecting and emptying 144 refridgerators. I would say that probably 33% were totally empty with the door propped open. Always a welcome sight. On to the next unit. About another 33% had a few items, not a big deal. But the last 33% had fully loaded freezers. Chicken, pork, beef, fish. Massive amounts of brown liquid spilling out onto the kitchen floor. When we would first open the condo's door you could smell it. At that point the maintenance guy would just shake his head and say Mark I can't deal with this and leave. So I was on my own. As far as cleanup, I had no water, just a spray bottle of cleaner and paper towels. The brown liquid and maggots were in every nook and cranny. There is no way you would ever save those units. Oh did I mention the buildings were 4 stories and we had no elevators. My knees still hurt. OTOH, maybe that's because we still don't have elevators.

I had a similar problem with my refrigerator emitting an odor that just wouldn't go away. After trying everything from cleaning the drip pan to scrubbing the interior and exterior of the fridge, I finally discovered the culprit - it was the water filter! Apparently, when water filters get old or clogged, they can start to emit a foul smell. I replaced the filter and the smell disappeared almost instantly. So my suggestion would be to check and possibly replace the water filter in your fridge. It might just do the trick!

We'll give that a try. Thanks. :)

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Originally Posted by Travis32

I had a similar problem with my refrigerator emitting an odor that just wouldn't go away. After trying everything from cleaning the drip pan to scrubbing the interior and exterior of the fridge, I finally discovered the culprit - it was the water filter! Apparently, when water filters get old or clogged, they can start to emit a foul smell. I replaced the filter and the smell disappeared almost instantly. So my suggestion would be to check and possibly replace the water filter in your fridge. It might just do the trick!

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A foul smell from the filter usually means there are bacteria growing inside it. You really don't want to let the filter get that old. That's why they are usually recommended to be changed every 6 months or at least once a year.