pe wrote:

We noticed same thing with Kenmore fridge purchased almost 2 years ago. It
is the model with freezer on bottom and pantry doors above. A sort of
metallic wheezing sound intermittently. Called for warranty service, and
the service guy told us it was noise caused by the refrigerent passing
through the transition from large to small (or maybe small to large) tubes,
and that there was nothing wrong and nothing to fix. Except for that
annoying noise, the unit has been working flawlessly since purchased. PE

Perhaps that is the same noise that I am hearing on my Kenmore/Whirlpool. The
20.6 cu ft refrigerator has worked fine so far (it's 2 months old) and it is
an Energy Star model so it is using a lot less electricity than our 20 year old
clunker. Aside from the annoying noise it sometimes makes within 30s of
cycling on, it is generally pretty quiet.