Kitchen Large Electric Appliances - knocking sound when refrigerator cycles on and off

I bought a Kenmore (made by Frigidaire) Model Jsi-23 last September and it just recently started making a low knocking sound every time it cycles on and off. I looked it up online and I'm worried it could be a faulty compressor. Of course it just went out of warranty 3 months ago - if it is the compressor is there a way to fix it? From what I've read it's not worth replacing. I bought it at Sears, do they really only warranty the compressor for one year? That doesn't seem fair, no compressor should start going bad after 1 year should it?

We bought a new refrigerator 5-6 yrs ago. It is the noisiest fridge I've ever heard, it also makes a lot of knocking sounds. The manual said that was to be expected and it was a by product of it being more efficient. Although I don't quite buy that excuse - it has operated flawlessly.

The motor/pump assembly that is housed inside of the compressor housing rests on springs.
When the motor starts and stops the torque causes the assembly inside of the can to jerk and will be when you are hearing this noise.

Mark is right in that yours could work for many years like this.

Haven't done anything with refrigerators for quite some time but it wasn't that long ago that compressors and the sealed system had a five year warranty.
Could yours have as well?

Even if you do have an extended warranty though you may have trouble collecting on it for just being noisy.

I don't really mind the noise, the only thing that concerns me is that it's a recent development and when I do an online search some people seem to point to it being a problem with the compressor.

Well, what we are saying it is a problem with the compressor.
The degree of the problem is related to how much it bothers you because there is no way to predict how long it will last.

If it is out of warranty then the least expensive way of dealing with it is to get use to it and then replace the compressor when it fails.
If you would prefer not to listen to it then get an estimate on having it replaced.

If it was me though I would first be absolutely sure there is no five year warranty on the compressor and sealed system.

Do you have the warranty papers there in front of you and it says for sure what the warranty is and have you called them anyway?

When the tech came to fix the original squeak of the compressor (that was fixed by leveling the legs) he told me there is only a 1 year warranty on the compressor.