Why is my Midea U-shaped AC still covered in mold after the recall fix?

The reality is those drilled drain holes only fix outdoor base pan pooling, not the moisture sitting inside the indoor blower assembly. becasue inverter units cycle down to low speeds rather than cycling completley off, the evaporator coil stays cool and damp for hours on end. Add in the fact that the basic mesh screen lets plenty of fine household dust slip right past, and you get wet dust adhering to the blower wheel fins. Mold is pretty much inevitable once that mix sits in the dark. You don't necessarily have to toss the machine, but cleaning it properly means taking off the front plastic shroud and the Styrofoam housing around the squirrel cage fan. I pull mine outside at the start of every season, spray the wheel down with foaming coil cleaner, and work between every fin with an old bottle brush before rinsing it out. It's tedious work, but it completely clears that musty smell. A good habit once it's clean is running the AC in **fan-only mode** for twenty or thirty minutes before you shut it off for the day so the housing dries out completely.

If you'd rather not deal with a major teardown every year, you might want to look away from the deep U-shape designs. Traditional window units or the **LG Dual Inverter** models tend to have better internal airflow thru the chassis. They don't trap damp air in quite the same way, so while all window units eventually collect dust, they don't turn into sealed terrariums anywhere near as fast.

What worked for me without doing a full teardown was using a cheap 1-gallon pump sprayer loaded with warm water and Dawn, followed by a mist of Concrobium mold control so the spores don't bounce right back. Also check your pitch. When I mounted mine, I leveled it by the book, but water was still sitting in that front trough under the blower wheel. I stuck an extra 1/4" shim under the indoor sill bracket to force a harder backward tilt toward the outside. That extra slope dumps the standing water immediately and stopped the swamp smell for good.