I had this same situation with one of my condensers a few years back. The condenser at the time was about 20 years old. The HVAC contractor recommended not disconnecting it, but we did it anyway. It cost me $350 to do this, but unfortunately a leaked developed. I ended up having to replace the unit.

If you lifted the condenser, I would be concerned about damaging the line sets. I suppose if you had long run there would be some flexibility to lift the unit. The problem becomes what with the pad rest on when you do your grading. Also how are you going to compact the soil underneath the pad? The pad must be level when you put it back down.

If it were my situation, and the degree of grading behind (toward house) the unit was not too great, I would investigate some type of 'diverter' to place around the pad and reaching the top level of the pad.

This would take care of drainage and allow for servicing the unit. I would envision something like edging material of some such.

V

You run the very real risk of twisting/straining the copper line set attached (welded) to the back of the unit. If you break this or otherwise cause a leak, you could end up like Mike and have to replace it, or at least have to go through the same motions of repairing the leak.

Will you be upset if you fail to spend $200-300 to have a pro take care of this, and your system ends up not working?

Per Weedmaster's comments, if you cause a leak, you will spend that amount to replace the refrigerant in the lines. Not to mention any repairs on top of that.

Current cost of having a pro take care of this is 1k. I'm also looking at alternatives