Are you wondering how to prevent mold in a window air conditioner? Unfortunately, the environment of a window air conditioning unit makes it susceptible to mold growth, which can affect the health of all the occupants in the home.
If you think about the environment of a window air conditioner, it has all the elements needed to stimulate mold growth. These elements include moisture from the humid air and organic materials like dust and pollen. Together, the moisture and organic materials will cause mold growth quickly throughout your home.
The air conditioner will blow the mold spores into the indoor air that everyone breathes. Inhaling mold spores can cause you to develop several symptoms, including throat irritation, eye irritation, coughing, difficulty breathing, fatigue, allergic reactions, and asthma attacks. Nobody wants to experience these health issues, right?
6 Tips to Stop Mold in Your Window Air Conditioner
The good news is that you can prevent mold from accumulating in your window air conditioner. All you need to do is take the appropriate precautions to ensure mold doesn’t have a chance to grow in the air conditioning unit and spread throughout your home.
Below are the top 6 tips to help you get started:
Dehumidify the Room
Is there a high level of humidity inside your home? If so, that can increase the likelihood of mold forming in your window AC unit. The best solution to this problem is to install a dehumidifier in the room with your window air conditioning unit. It will help reduce the moisture levels around the unit to prevent mold growth from forming.
Set the humidity level on your dehumidifier to anywhere between 30% and 50%. That should be low enough humidity to prevent mold growth without making the air uncomfortably dry. Remember that too much dry air can also be bad, so you need to have a small humidity level in the room.
Related Article: Does a Dehumidifier Work with the Windows Open?
Clean the Filters Frequently
As indoor air passes through your window air conditioning unit, its filters block the contaminants before the conditioned air emerges. The filters help improve the air quality in your home by removing common contaminants like dirt, pollen, insects, carbon, odors, and anything else floating in the air.
If you’re like most people, you keep your air conditioner unit activated for 8 to 12 hours a day or more. The constant use will cause the filters to get dirty quickly. Once that happens, too much dust and debris will get trapped inside the unit. These organic elements will become food for mold.
Therefore, you must frequently clean the filters of your window air conditioning unit to prevent dust and debris from building up inside it. Not only will this prevent mold growth, but it will also improve the airflow inside your home.
Set a Moderate Cooling Temperature
An air conditioner uses coils to absorb the heat inside your home and transfer it to the outside. That is why the air conditioner must stick halfway out the window; it needs to release the indoor heat to the outside. Once the heat is taken out of the air, condensation forms on the coils.
Condensation is water produced when humid air encounters a cold surface. Water, of course, triggers mold growth in any environment, so too much condensation on the coils will increase the risk of mold growth in the air conditioner.
Don’t set a very low temperature on your air conditioner because that will cause a high level of condensation to form on your coils. Keep the air conditioner at a moderate cooling temperature to avoid excessive condensation and moisture on the coils.
Seal Any Cracks or Gaps
Your air conditioning unit must be installed tightly in the window. If there are any cracks or gaps around the perimeter of the unit, it will allow outdoor humidity to enter your home. That will make your indoor humidity problem even worse, resulting in a higher risk of mold forming in the unit.
Double-check your window air conditioner installation to ensure no air holes around the unit. If you see any, readjust the position of the air conditioning unit to eliminate all the air holes. If you cannot eliminate them, try sealing all the cracks and gaps with a sealant or insulation tape. That will help stop the outdoor humidity from getting inside.
Turn on the “Fan” Setting for 30 Minutes
Most window air conditioning units have a fan setting. When you turn on this setting, the air conditioner no longer produces cool air for your home. Instead, it simply blows room-temperature air back out into your home like any normal household fan.
Sometimes, it is a good idea to run the fan setting for 30 minutes after using the AC’s cool setting for a long time. With the fan setting on, the coils will no longer extract heat and humidity from your indoor air. The fan will help dry out the coils and the other internal components of the air conditioner to eliminate any moisture in the unit.
Clean the Coils Regularly
Dirt and debris can build up on the coils from all the contaminants in the indoor air. You don’t want clogged coils because they won’t be able to extract heat from the air efficiently. As a result, heat and humidity will build around the coils and increase the likelihood of mold growth.
Use a soft bristle brush and an AC-safe foam cleaning solution to remove all the dust and debris accumulation from the coils. Try to do this at least once a year, depending on how much you use the air conditioner and the contaminants in your area.
Conclusion
It is not too hard to prevent mold growth from forming on your window air conditioning unit. All it takes is easy home remedies and DIY tasks to keep your unit mold-free. The primary goal is to reduce humidity and allow smooth airflow through the AC unit.
However, if you’re still not confident in this process or don’t have the time to maintain your air conditioner, you could always hire a professional technician to oversee the maintenance of the unit for you. If you have any additional questions, leave us a comment below!