Way O/T window air conditioner black mold

We have a window air conditioner in our house that's in the wall between the living room and the attached garage. Last summer it seemed like Marilyn was having a lot of respiratory and sinus infections and I seemed to have a lot of discharge down the back of the throat all summer. Skip ahead to last week when we took the cover off it and fired it up for the first time this season. Marilyn started stuffing up and ended up with a full blown respiratory infection that required a tough antibiotic to kick. So the other day we put two-and-two together and decided it was time to pull the air conditioner out of the wall and clean it out. This morning I had a neighbor help get it out and carried to the shop for a cleaning. After I took a few pieces of tin off I looked down at the fan and all I saw was black. The chamber around the squirrel cage fan was lined with white high density foam and it was pure black with about 1/6" of what I think was black mold. The fan itself was also caked with this stuff. I soaked it with soapy water, scrubbed and the rinsed and vacuumed the water back out while I rinsed. Did the same thing to the evaporator and condenser. When I scrubbed it the black gook was kind of beady, meaning it washed away in little beads and pieces instead of just a muddy stream. All in all it took a couple of hours. After I was done I had emptied the one gallon shop vac six times.

It's slick as a whistle now and ready to go back in, but I'm wondering if having it in that wall between the living room and garage had something to do with the suspected mold. It never sees sunlight or has the wind blowing on it and in the winter I put a cover box over the living room side that completely seals it up.

Maybe this cleaning is going to have to be an annual event from now on. Do any of you guys and gals here in the midwest have this problem with a window air conditioner? Is there anything besides bleach that we can spray in there to prevent mold? The condensation is draining away well so there never is any water sitting in the bottom. Marilyn is going to have her hip replacement surgery in 11 days so she needs to be healthy real soon. When she gets home from the hospital she's gonna want a cool house that doesn't make her sick. Jim

sounds like not enough air getting around it. During heavy use you may need to clean it more often then once a year.

I'd think about relocating it to where it gets air and sunshine. Sunshine will help kill the mold. Black mold is nothing to fool with.

Several weeks back there was a post on this, and I had mentioned I believe my problem with black mold on the hi dense foam duct on my window unit. I did as you, thoroughly cleaned the entire unit and and it took most of a hot sunday afternoon about a year ago. It was a bit of a task to get in all the areas to clean, my evaporator was coated with a felt of dust or fuzz etc. I did not have that thickness of black mold, but it was becoming very noticeable, even on the louver directing cold air out.

The rest of this house has central A/C, one area has the window unit, most run about the same time when hot, but I used to cool off that area and shut it off, bad move, condensate did not evaporate, hot and humid nights, perfect for mold. So now I just let it run thermostatically, fan can't be much power, has to be the compressor. This seems to evaporate the condensate, air flow, cold or just fan, alternating, went all last year after that cleaning and so far this year a little given the rainy weather, no sign of any black mold.

What is the ideal temp for black mold? A thought that popped in my mind is in the fall before I cover it up for the winter to remove the front and mist Clorox into the evaporator with the fan on but no cool. Not enough Clorox that it blows out at me in any amount, but enough to get some in there. Maybe a good yearly cleaning is in store just to get rid of the dust that holds moisture in there. Jim

I spray down the inside portion of my AC with Lysol spray several times a seson. Tends to keep the moldy smells down.

Take a small chlorine tablet u used for pool and break it up
and put it in the evaporator pan. Just a ideal. If any body that
smoke every time u breath out a little bac. And it gets into the
ac area and it likes dark cool wet places. Just an ideal

Here"s my take on "black mold" after reading all sorts of horror stories about it and scientific rebuttals...

If you are in the SMALL minority of humans that are allergic to it, it will bother you. For the rest of the population, we could roll around in the darned stuff and not be bothered by it. I don"t believe it grows IN (infects) humans, it"s just an allergy thing for a select few, and MILLIONS have been spent to get rid of the darned stuff that only truly bothers a TINY segment of the population.

Sorta like women thinking they need to be like Angelina Jolie and get their breasts hacked off, when medical science says that it makes sense for less than 1% of women.

But, hey, there's certainly nothing wrong with a sanitary AC, and if your wife seems better after the fact, it's ALL good!

I wonder how our forebears survived, living and working in close proximity to their farm animals, with all the mold and rot and fungus and spores that go with hay and straw and manure and moisture or in sod huts, or houses with thatched roofs or made of straw... Don't suppose there was any "mold" there do you? And, in many cases those folks were healthier than us and lived longer than we will in our sanitized world!

BTW, if you fear nasty-looking black mold, don't EVER have an ice cube in your water or other drink at a bar or restaurant!

In a past life I spent some time as a tech servicing those things and they are as much of a biology experiment as they are an ice machine!
CNN says common sense should prevail...

Sounds like a plugged drain. If you don't have a huge pool of water on your garage floor, something is seriously wrong.

Concrobium kills the black mold.

www.concrobium.com/

It does drain-right on top of the deep freeze if I don't have a drip tray under it. The drip tray has a drain hose that heads to a hole in the garage wall. Marilyn happens to be one of those few who is very sensitive to molds. We can't have the windows open because of the molds that grow in the grass during wet weather. Jim

I am one of those "few" who is allergic to mold, thus I tend to pay attention to what I may hear on the radio or read about it. I see that many of us are allergic to mold along with many other things. I heard on the news recently that it has been found that babies born by CC instead of naturally are much more prone to allergies. We all know about the great increase in CC births right?

I clean mine annually or every 2 years. Some is always there.
During the summer I periodically spray the air intake while it's
running with Lysol or the like. Works for me. I don't want the
house smelling like Clorox, but the idea ought to work. However,
the evaporator fan is not a slinger so the clorox never comes in
contact with the air flow, just the condensate that goes out to the
condenser fan.

Mark

Next time clean with bleach or any mold killer used in bathrooms.

The mold is caused by condensate getting pulled off evaporator. Use a slower fan speed. Don't open windows on nice days and let buckets full of humidity in. Run A/C 24/7 to keep moisture levels lower.

I have no idea where you read that black mold will not hurt us but you need to read more Black mold is one of the most harmful things you can be around.
Black mold can get in your lungs and grow very fast and that is bad news. If anybody sees black mold on your unit take it out or have it done. It needs to be cleaned very good,I use purple power cleaner. But please people if you see black mold stay away and get some one to help you.