What actually removes it, rather than covering it?

Switch the unit off, empty it, and wash every surface a cloth can reach — the shelves, the seams, the gaskets and the drain pan — then prop the doors open until it is properly dry. A masking spray does nothing at all for the air path behind the panel.

Will charcoal or coffee beans fix it?

They help while the cabinet airs, and an open container of something absorbent changed daily is a reasonable finishing step. It is not a cure, though, and a smell that comes back after a proper clean belongs to the drain or the air path — ring Sub-Zero Appliance Repair Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Sub-Zero Service - Smell After Outage

Why Does My Sub-Zero Smell After a Power Outage?

What you are looking at	What it means
Food that spoiled warm	The juices travel under shelves and into seams, so the source is rarely where the smell is
Water standing in the drain	A pan or a tube left holding water turns sour within days of a warm spell
Gaskets and soft interior parts	Rubber and plastic take the smell up and breathe it out again after the surfaces look clean
The evaporator behind the panel	Every cooling cycle draws air past it, and reaching it is service work rather than an owner job

A smell that survives a wipe-down is in the drain, the seals or the air path, not on the shelves. Sub-Zero Appliance Repair Los Angeles reaches the parts you cannot on (310) 496-7399.

Empty interior of an undercounter wine cabinet: a solid wooden shelf above a slatted bottle rack, a vent grille in the back wall and the glass door open — In this frame

Rear air vent
Slatted bottle rack

Where the smell was made

Warm hours are the whole story. Protein and dairy break down quickly once the cabinet has drifted past its setting, and the liquid that comes out of them runs down the liner, under the drawers and into the drain. By the time the power is back, the source has moved somewhere you were not looking.

The part you cannot reach

Air is pulled past the evaporator on every cycle, which is why a cabinet can look spotless and still breathe out something sour. That surface, and a drain tube an owner cannot always reach, are where a visit earns its keep.

Two more things people ask

What actually removes it, rather than covering it?: Switch the unit off, empty it, and wash every surface a cloth can reach — the shelves, the seams, the gaskets and the drain pan — then prop the doors open until it is properly dry. A masking spray does nothing at all for the air path behind the panel.
Will charcoal or coffee beans fix it?: They help while the cabinet airs, and an open container of something absorbent changed daily is a reasonable finishing step. It is not a cure, though, and a smell that comes back after a proper clean belongs to the drain or the air path — ring Sub-Zero Appliance Repair Los Angeles.