Frigidaire Upright Freezer not cooling - scrap it or repair it?

[Brewmaster210]

I got a 2013 20.5 cubic foot frigidaire freezer from a guy who was using it for an interesting purpose. He was using it for homebrew fermentation, where he had to keep the temperatures in the 60's. So he was using an external controller to send power to the freezer plug instead of using the built in thermostat. The freezer stopped cooling, so he gave it to me, because he knows I love to tinker.

The first thing I found was that the start relay was completely melted and had black soot all over it - evidence it probably caught fire. (not sure why that would happen...). So i replaced the relay and capacitor, and the compressor fired right up. I thought that was going to be all I had to do, but it does not cool. The evaporator coils dont even begin to get cold. But the compressor sounds completely fine. I tested with a multimeter across the 3 prongs and from the prongs to ground, and resistance is perfect.

So, I know this either means I have a bad compressor (even though it sounds fine), or the refrigerant leaked out. I sorta think with this being a 2013 that the refrigerant wouldnt have leaked out that soon and that with the short cycling that he likely did to the compressor with that external temperature controller, maybe its just a bad compressor. What are your thoughts? Probably compressor? Or could really be 50/50, bad compressor or a leak?

Its about a $900 freezer (which are all sold out right now), but I might be willing to pay to get it fixed if I could keep total cost to under 500. I can get a new compressor on ebay for $150 or less, so it seems like a total repair under 500 might be possible if its just the compressor. But if its a refrigerant leak, i have a feeling the repair cost would be as much as a new one would cost. But then i guess if it was a refrigerant leak, i wont know till i pay someone to come test for a leak (vaccuum test maybe?), so theres a chance i could end up paying for the service charge and still need to scrap it in the end.