It's up at top and you have to remove the upper grill. Use a hose type vacuum to clean the side away from the fan. the right side ( The fan pulls air through the condenser ) There a several videos on YouTube showing how to do it. Here is a link that might be useful: Cleaning Subzero Condenser

Cleaned the coils, through they were pretty clean to begin with. One clue: the condensate pan was virtually dry and the coils are mostly warm w/ only a few inches actually cold/cool...which is why I suspected that the refrigerant was low to begin with. Of course, no one seems to want to work on window units these days. The Samsung is only five years old, while a former Fedders that came with the house when purchased 30 years ago was already a decade old and served well for another ten. I guess that don't make 'em like they used to.... With R-22 being phased out and its exponential jump in price, I guess no one wants to bother with older units. Even the web-advertised "DuraCool" product becomes illegal in the US after July 31. I really hate having to scrap something after just 5 years. I want things to last like my Land-Rover or Vermont Castings wood stove.... This post was edited by apg4 on Mon, Jul 14, 14 at 15:05

I agree 100% with your expectations Brook and to answer your question. " I really just want feedback if its the norm for them to completely miss this or they have been negligent in their inspection and maintenance." Unfortunatly it's the norm for outfits selling maintenance contracts to be negligent. Some reasons why contractors like selling contracts is (A) Being paid to come out and see if there's anything they can sell customers. (B) It's done in spare time of their choosing when they don't have other calls. (C) 99% of maintenance labor is done by the inexperienced techs on staff. Adding insult to injury is that maintenance should have already been preformed before summer is half over. Not to twist the knife but I've serviced and repaired thousands of units over a period of decades and the amount of gunk on those coils was rarely found unless it had been a few years since they were cleaned. The exceptions are when unit sit's near Cottonwood trees,a patch of Dandelions or whoever mows lawn blow's mower discharge onto coils. Ok,now to leave you with something you didn't already know and can use in the future. To do a good job cleaning coils,turn electric power off at disconnect or breaker before you start. I can't tell if top is off in pics but it need's to be so you can get hose inside to blow trash out in opposite direction from which it entered coil. Use a garden sprayer,empty dishwashing detergent bottle or such to squirt a solution of 5% dish soap,5% liquid laundry detergent and 90% water into coils on both sides. Let it soak a few minutes then hose out coils. Most hose end spray nozzles have threads onto which a leaf sweeper nozzle can be screwed. Using the jet from leaf sweeper is better but not necessary. By far the easiest but most important thing homeowner can do is change filter before it's so dirty it restrict's airflow. Notice I said"before it's so dirty",not every xx weeks. Filter change intervals can range from twice monthly where occupants work in dirty environment,have 3 pre-teen boys,2 cats, 3 large dogs and old carpet that shed's to once every 4 months for a single bank teller with no pets. To do it's job,the filter must fit slot,otherwise dirt laden air by-passes the route of least resistance and stick's to indoor coil where efficiency drop's dramaticly. I highly recommend merv 8 pleated paper filters. $2 fiberglass filters are better than no filter but not much better. At this point the super handy can do more but that's for another day. Best of luck.

Just one of the many reasons why SZ is well worth the expense. That’s a lot of plastic I see at the bottom of your Miele fridge. You wont see that when you remove the metal grille at the top of a Sub Zero.