Midea U Shape A/C Major Mold Issue Design Flaw!

Here is a heads up! This is a major design flaw in this U shape A/C. I have been coughing every morning for weeks now like I smoked a carton a cigarettes a day I dont smoke. Hers what I found inside the A/C Unit. Contacted Mieda about this no help. I will find out how to take this apart enough to fix the issue I promise. I never ever pay anyone to fix anything here ever. I think I already figured out a work around. Will do a video to show how I did it soon.

[TheKiloG]

I have already figured out how to get to the fan a video showing how I did this coming soon.

[paulvogl]

I have experienced the mold problem myself and have 4 Midea U Shaped window AC Units, I clean, vacume the filters every 2 weeks and the mold still shows up. I started using hydrogen peroxide in a spray bottle every two weeks to wash the dust off the barrel fan and it works. With the drive motor on the left of the fan blades I point the spray bottle to the right and wash the mold off the squirl cage. Two 12, 000BTU units and two 8, 000BTU units and all 4 have seen the HP wash for two years now with no side effects.

[vanleeaz]

I have a 8k version of this unit and absolutely love this thing. Had it since last July and run it for basically 8 to 10hrs a day. Turn on remotely when driving home and MBr is cold when I arrive. So, to hear he's having this issue I placed the video on pause to check out my fan blades. No issue like he is having with his unit.

Disclaimer: I own a HVAC company and I see this issue alot with minisplit units when the filter isn't cleaned and the unit is allowed to run. So, I'm cleaning these blades on every visit. The following are issues I would address.

1. His unit probably isn't sloped enough to properly drain the condensate dripping off the indoor coil, so it pools at the bottom and gets sucked onto the blades and sit there until the mold grows. 2. Doesn't clean the filter screen often and the dirt gets pass the filter and sits on the indoor coil and when dirt (which is a live organism) mixes with condensate(water) on the indoor coil, mold eventually grows on the coil and where ever the air blows. So, he needs to keep up with maintenance and this issue will become less of an issue.

What you can do if you don't want to hire a HVAC company to service is, 1. Clean your filter monthly when using the unit, even if it doesn't look dirty. 2. Go to Lowes or Home Depot. They have a spray can specifically for indoor coils to clean them. I would spray the coil and then spray the fan blades, let it sit for a few minutes, then with a 1 gallon pressure sprayer add clean warm water and spray off. You will see a noticeable difference and the air will smell better. Make sure there are slight pauses when rinsing so the water can properly drain. Problem solved.

[tssen]

I'm a commercial air conditioning service tech and we see this all the time on mini splits so it's not necessarily a flaw with the Midea. The problem is the fact the Midea is basically a mini split in a window unit form factor. When you have a variable speed evaporator fan combined with an inverter compressor and they run at lower speeds the evaporator is going to produce way more condensation This is because of the slow air speed across the evaporator. Combine that with humid ambient air and boom you got mold/bacteria. So we usually remove the cover and use a evap cleaner from Refrigeration Technologies called Viper Evap+ with a pump sprayer and then rinse. The foaming action breaks down the mold/bacteria and it has an inhibitor to prevent bacteria and molds from growing in the future.  

Also it's super important to have this unit pitched properly to prevent water from sitting in the air handler side so it can make its way back to the condenser easily. This unit does not have a drain for condensate water in the condenser. The water sits in the condenser and the condenser fan picks it up and sprays it onto the condenser coil to help increase efficiency. Jury is still out to determine how much this helps and I really think for longevity it should have a drain, time will tell.

[BobBeau]

I have the Midea U 8k BTU. I've been sick with a sinus infection for over 2 weeks. Decided to look at the blower with a flash light and my blower was worse than yours... Caked with mold. I removed the oscillating cover and directional fins with no issue, it's very easy. The black grate was a different story and requires much manipulation. You can get the bottoms loose but not the top. It was harder to get the black grate back over the tab when putting it back together. Anyway, I went to Lowes and got a spray bottle of mold armor 'rapid clean remediation' and a bottle of mold armor 'mold remover and disinfectant'. I started with the first one and sprayed the heck out of the fins on the blower. I let it sit for 30 minutes and went back with the second one (disinfectant). The disinfectant has a strong enough spray that it will knock off all the mold spores. Let that sit for another 30 minutes. You don't need to spend time trying to wipe each fin. Everything will drain to the bottom and then out the back. (I had to drill multiple holes in the outside rear of the unit. Be very careful not to drill too deep. Drill 1/4" deep at most). Fins look brand new now but this is definitely an issue and will be checking it often.

[Leviyahu]

I am allergic to mold/mildew, I bought 1 of these new from Walmart for around $380 and installed it in my bedroom window. I bought it on recommendation that another ac unit would actually help decrease the humidity in my room, and help with mold.
I installed it and didn't see how it was going to reduce humidity, I seen no drain for water.(I'm not knowledgeable on these things yet and assumed it was in the design to act like a dehumidifier too..) All it did was increase the humidity in my room.

Around just 24 hours of use I started sensing the first signs of mildew, and now not even a week later it is filling my house with mildew smell and triggering my autoimmunity making me dizzy and my skin burn.
This is by far the moldiest AC unit I've ever encountered and would like to return it to Midea.

Over the years me and my family have used a number of window units, some have years of use on them, and while they look dirty and wore out, and could use a cleaning, they still blow much cleaner air than this new unit..!

[therick]

I've had 2 of these for 2 seasons and I don't have any mold issues what so ever. I'm also a 30 year licensed refrigeration technician and I'm guessing it could be a few things going on with it or it could be a couple things going on at the same time. You might not have it pitched properly for it to completely drain to outside or more likely the path the condensation takes is restricted. In no way am I suggesting that you don't know what your doing or insulting your intelligence. It could have a refrigerant charge issue, not having enough or a very slow leak in it. Have you ever seen any ice build up on it? The fan motor might not be operating properly, being its a D.C. inverted motor it could be causing it not to remove the humidity properly. Do you live in a tropical environment with high humidity or does it rain a lot? And what temperature do you usually keep it set at? It might noy be running long enough to remove all the humidity out of the air if you have it set at a high temperature. Was it stored away for the winter without letting it completely dry out? It's most likely one of or a couple of the things I suggested going on with it. It's not the unit itself causing it because they would all be doing the same thing. I've seen window units that have had mold like this before but it was because of poor condensation draining and lack of maintenance keeping it clean. Unfortunately you would end up probably paying more for a company to look at it than buying a new one. We call window shakers throw aways because of that reason. I'd spray it down with a bleach solution to kill the mold and let it dry out, also give it a little more pitch to outside for better drainage. Run it and see if you notice the blower modulating at all, speeding up and slowing down to often. It should only start slowing down as the room temp gets closer to the setpoint, say if it's 78 inside and you have it set for 70 the motor should pretty much stay on hi speed till the room temperature get to say 4 degrees of the setpoint then drop to a medium speed and then drop to low speed at around 2 degrees from the setpoint. If the blower isn't running properly and it has a refrigerant charge issue along with a drainage issue then one of the symptoms would have is generating excessive condensation. The evaporator coil itself might be damaged or defective and it's not allowing the water to drain off it but to get sucked off it by the blower and splashed upward. Keep us updated please I'm interested in what you find wrong with it.

[AnjaliYogaWellnessInc]

I have this AC unit and have no mold issues at all. Are you sure you installed it properly? The AC support bracket needs to be slightly angled. You need to use a level to make sure it's right.

[lovewenwin]

Everyone is all sunshine and rainbows, so thank you

[carriejernigan]

I found all the mold on mine today, so searched online for help... which led me to your video. I have been so miserable due to extreme allergies for a while now and no medicine has helped. now I'm wondering if my health issues are from the AC

[tanner]

This happens on almost every minisplit. Any system with similar blower wheel. Many think this is caused by a negative charge created by static on the blower. Due to the material its made out of. No way to avoid.

[MsBlondable]

Mine has even more mold and it's less than 2 years old! I have faithfully washed the filter every week. And heating and air companies don't want to clean a window unit. I have never had this issue with any other window unit. Also the filter isn't tight enough and isn't long enough to keep out dirt from going through the Midea unit, that is a problem because it doesn't seal off the stuff it's supposed to be filtering out.

[dpa]

Mold loves damp air, when units (all of them) reach temperature the compressor shuts off but fans on some models (or settings that you can change) continue to move air creating a mold thriving environment. Don't let the fan run when compressor is off. You might need to manually turn it off. The other possibilities is that it's just not blowing cold enough to remove your humidity levels or amount of mold in your air is too high. First note, seal around your unit air tight so outside air carrying molds can't get in. You CAN adjust temperature of the air blowing out using Midea app settings. The unit has 3 compressor settings, LOW, MED, HIGH. It will adjust the compressor based on those levels, you don't have control over the compressor but you can control the fan speed for each of the 3 compressor levels. COMPRESSOR: Low=up to 40%, Med=up to 60%, High=up to 100%. 40/60/100% fan speeds are the "warmest" temperature and electrically efficiency. 1%/41% fan speeds are the "coldest" temperature fan settings. And you can adjust in between. Reason is compressor at 1% slowest fan speed for low compressor will be the same "compression" from 1% up to 40% fan speed, so slowing air flow = colder air when compressor is running at the same power between those fan speeds. This will remove more humidity, colder air but won't cool the room as fast as faster moving air flow. Same for 41% kicks the compressor up to medium power keeping fan speed low, and 61% kicks compressor to high power keeping fan speed medium. If not using the Midea app, you can just use DRY MODE on the unit using max compressor with minimum fan speed. Note when I tried dry mode in the app my unit ran fast fan speed so for me I need to manually use DRY MODE button directly on the air conditioner unit. Your issue is humidity and moldy air likely from outside getting in, and if humidity is too high when compressor turns off the evaporator coil won't dry fast if your room humidity it too high leaving water inside your machine creating that moldy environment. Another thing you can do is tilt your unit more down in the back to drain water out of the front faster. Also inspect that you aren't clogged in the water channels slowing water draining from front to outside. Really just making sure the unit doesn't run in fan mode after compressor is off will likely solve your issues. Removing more humidity would help too, running the unit colder. It's designed to be efficient and changing these setting will run colder and dryer, less efficient. One of these really should solve your issues. And if air is getting around your weather seal around your unit it's all lost, that outside mold will get sucked in to your air conditioning, make sure it's REALLY sealed around your unit air tight. You can have leaky windows other places but if mold issues, can't allow outside air to leak in around your ac unit. Good luck I'm sure you won't have these issues after doing these things. Any one of them is likely enough, might need to do all.

[bagpiperbagpiped]

I will give a comment. in my opinion, you need to run the fan after cooling for a significant amount of time. Why, mold loves damp and dark places. The outlet closes, and if you do not clear the moisture, mold will grow. I wish the unit would keep the air outlet in the open position, so it dry out. I think that is the problem.

[TopGunn]

Take the front cover off where the filter is and then there’s four screws to take out. Next you have tabs on the side. Slide your flat head in the side seem and pry a little little bit. Take your time and then once you get it out take apart the electrical plugs

[lesw]

So window ac’s do require maintenance. I hope you will do a video on how to clear the drain line of algae AND changing/changing the filter. I love this unit and realized my leaking was due to lack of maintenance on my part.

[renatofurnas]

This happens with all air conditioners units. This happens due to the condensation of water that happens with all types of air conditioning ( ductless, mini spits, window units). All these devices need a deep cleaning after a while.

[MrKoladge]

I'd be looking in different areas of your house for mold if that little ac is catching that many spores.

[steve]

Per the manufacturers instructions the support bracket should pitched down slightly in order for any condensate to flow out and away to the rear of the unit.

[ryanravencaller]

I’ve not had a u shaped ac yet but portable and regular window units, They all get mold, you want to run it on medium or highest fan only option for 30 minutes to 2 hours before shutting it off completely, I’ve found the timer/sleep setting works tremendously for this.