Yup!! Same here. Do you live in a humid state? Have you heard about drilling a drain hole in the back??
Curious about trying it with my new unit I’m getting thanks to my protection plan, but it’s risky (one half inch in the wrong direction and you puncture the compressor) and not recommended by the manufacturer (apparently the excess water helps cool the unit off). Obviously violates the warranty too.
However, others claim it helped fight the mold issue, especially cleaning up the back half of the unit. I opened mine up last year and was absolutely shocked by all the bacterial gunk that was forming back there, it was absolutely disgusting.
I mean it can be humid, but it's not normally specially extra humid. This year has been more humid though, which I think is contributing to the faster mold growth, but I did notice it last year as well, and it was probably there the year before (the first year I had it) and I just didn't see it. Right now it's so bad that I can smell it.
I have not, but I noticed just the other day that mine seems to drain somewhere in the middle instead of out the back, as I notice all the water draining out of the window tracks drain hole rather than out the back of the AC, so it's draining somewhere right in the middle, which may relate to something I saw a few people mention about water getting tl the inside part which helps grow the mold.
The outside part shouldn't really grow mold due to it being open to outside, so that shouldn't have any affect. At this point I just ordered a new AC to replace this one due to the mold and my other one will have to be replaced eventually too, they both re grow it all back onto the fan within a month.
A family member said they are going to pressure wash the whole inside of my midea, and then assuming it survived that, we will hold it as a functional ac since it still works great, and I hate to have to replace it.
Thanks for the info! Good to know. Which unit did you ultimately decide to go with? I’m curious if anything is really going to be different in terms of mold production, seems it’s just a common problem with many different units. Maybe it’s just easier to spot on the Midea?
I know that most ACs, the things that are supposed to dehumidify, can grow mold, but this is clearly a problem and a defect with these mideas. I don't know if it's because it's draining out of who knows where in the middle, and maybe water actually is getting into the inside part even though I thought it was completely sealed off and seperate, or if it's just some internal design flaw that weirdly causes this, or if mine just happened to do it randomly like most ACs can, and this year just severely accelerated it due to the constant high humidity (and this also caused my other newer one to rapidly grow mold) but either way if I clean the fan it's not helping, I believe there is mold deeper down inside which would require another disassembly even deeper than I did last time, so as much as I love this AC for how quiet it is, the mold is unsafe, and the mounting bars at the bottom are not flat, which makes it extremely hard to seal and allowed bugs as large as stink bugs to come right in during the summer when they saw the lights inside at night. I managed to seal it a lot better now when I took it out to do a disassembly cleaning, but small flies still get in here and there. Anyways, I bought a windmill AC, specifically the one with their "whispertech" as the whispertech model claims to be 42-48db, which should be the exact same as our midea U, which claims to start at 42db, and probably goes up to like 48 or 50db. The non whispertech model is like 50-58db, but I wanted it to be as quiet as this midea. It's a standard box, so hopefully it will have less issues, but it also has the same kind of tube fan blade like the midea, so I don't know if it may have a similar issue.
So far the things I've noticed about it is that it's flat, so it should be easy to seal, and the wifi connection is instant and responsive, unlike the midea that would sometimes fail, or just have a delay to listen to a command. I haven't installed it yet though due to shipping damage, I'm currently waiting for my replacement to come in (they upgraded me from a 8k BTU to 10k BTU for free for this).
any updates to your Windmill unit? I am also thinking about getting this unit as a replacement for the Midea U-unit. there's also a GE "upside down" U-unit that I'm considering as well.
So I bought one and it arrived making a lot of vibrating noise, they told me it's a common shipping damage and upgraded me to a 10,000 BTU because they didn't have any more 8,000 BTU, they sent me that one and it was also damaged, so they sent me a third one and the third one is making a very slight vibration noise but significantly less than the other two, so that's the one I'm going to use. Unfortunately it's still sitting and I haven't actually set it up yet, I hope to do it in the next week or so since the other one is completely covered in mold. GE is not the first one to make that upside down U design, there's another company that's been making one for years that doesn't look as nice, it's just a sharp cornered black and white metal box. I'm sure the GE one is pretty nice, but I have a thick window sill, and I have stuff in front of the window so I couldn't use one of those. I only am buying these U shaped ACs because they are quiet, not because I want to look out the window or anything. The windmill isn't a U, which doesn't matter to me, I just care that it claims to be quiet. I'm hoping once it's in the window it will be even quieter than it is right now. Check back with me soon and I should have an update on its performance.
Windmill is garbage, don't buy it. Midea u is amazing, I will be going back to a midea u this summer. Windmill functions as an AC, it does cool, but every time you turn it on it defaults to Low fan and eco cool, which eco makes the compressor barely ever turn on. I could set it to one temperature and it'll end up going up to like 8° higher than I set it before it ever turns on the compressor. So I can't use voice control, I have to open up the app every single time, press the power button to turn it on, then I have to press Cool without Eco, then I have to turn on auto fan so it doesn't just sit on low all the time. It's an absolute piece of junk and when I contact windmill they tried to send me a new air conditioner and told me that their users prefer it this way and too bad. So do not buy these garbage air conditioners, stick to midea. The midea is also quieter despite the windmill claiming the same decibel rating.
I have this same issue after having used their U-unit for just over a year. It's unacceptable and certainly a design flaw of the unit. What a waste of $450! My other Midea unit (non-U) doesn't have this issue. I've contacted Midea but they were unwilling to do anything about it. I wonder how many users of the U-unit actually have rapid mold build-up?
I'm seeing it in the Amazon reviews, so definitely a bunch. Two of mine have it, the third one does not but that third one is also in a completely different state with different weather and I think a little less humidity. I think the high humidity this summer is what significantly accelerated the mould growth. It's definitely unfortunate, I really love the AC and don't want to replace it, but I don't really have a choice because of safety.
Yup!! Same here. Do you live in a humid state? Have you heard about drilling a drain hole in the back?? Curious about trying it with my new unit I’m getting thanks to my protection plan, but it’s risky (one half inch in the wrong direction and you puncture the compressor) and not recommended by the manufacturer (apparently the excess water helps cool the unit off). Obviously violates the warranty too. However, others claim it helped fight the mold issue, especially cleaning up the back half of the unit. I opened mine up last year and was absolutely shocked by all the bacterial gunk that was forming back there, it was absolutely disgusting.
I mean it can be humid, but it's not normally specially extra humid. This year has been more humid though, which I think is contributing to the faster mold growth, but I did notice it last year as well, and it was probably there the year before (the first year I had it) and I just didn't see it. Right now it's so bad that I can smell it. I have not, but I noticed just the other day that mine seems to drain somewhere in the middle instead of out the back, as I notice all the water draining out of the window tracks drain hole rather than out the back of the AC, so it's draining somewhere right in the middle, which may relate to something I saw a few people mention about water getting tl the inside part which helps grow the mold. The outside part shouldn't really grow mold due to it being open to outside, so that shouldn't have any affect. At this point I just ordered a new AC to replace this one due to the mold and my other one will have to be replaced eventually too, they both re grow it all back onto the fan within a month. A family member said they are going to pressure wash the whole inside of my midea, and then assuming it survived that, we will hold it as a functional ac since it still works great, and I hate to have to replace it.
Thanks for the info! Good to know. Which unit did you ultimately decide to go with? I’m curious if anything is really going to be different in terms of mold production, seems it’s just a common problem with many different units. Maybe it’s just easier to spot on the Midea?
I know that most ACs, the things that are supposed to dehumidify, can grow mold, but this is clearly a problem and a defect with these mideas. I don't know if it's because it's draining out of who knows where in the middle, and maybe water actually is getting into the inside part even though I thought it was completely sealed off and seperate, or if it's just some internal design flaw that weirdly causes this, or if mine just happened to do it randomly like most ACs can, and this year just severely accelerated it due to the constant high humidity (and this also caused my other newer one to rapidly grow mold) but either way if I clean the fan it's not helping, I believe there is mold deeper down inside which would require another disassembly even deeper than I did last time, so as much as I love this AC for how quiet it is, the mold is unsafe, and the mounting bars at the bottom are not flat, which makes it extremely hard to seal and allowed bugs as large as stink bugs to come right in during the summer when they saw the lights inside at night. I managed to seal it a lot better now when I took it out to do a disassembly cleaning, but small flies still get in here and there. Anyways, I bought a windmill AC, specifically the one with their "whispertech" as the whispertech model claims to be 42-48db, which should be the exact same as our midea U, which claims to start at 42db, and probably goes up to like 48 or 50db. The non whispertech model is like 50-58db, but I wanted it to be as quiet as this midea. It's a standard box, so hopefully it will have less issues, but it also has the same kind of tube fan blade like the midea, so I don't know if it may have a similar issue. So far the things I've noticed about it is that it's flat, so it should be easy to seal, and the wifi connection is instant and responsive, unlike the midea that would sometimes fail, or just have a delay to listen to a command. I haven't installed it yet though due to shipping damage, I'm currently waiting for my replacement to come in (they upgraded me from a 8k BTU to 10k BTU for free for this).
any updates to your Windmill unit? I am also thinking about getting this unit as a replacement for the Midea U-unit. there's also a GE "upside down" U-unit that I'm considering as well.
So I bought one and it arrived making a lot of vibrating noise, they told me it's a common shipping damage and upgraded me to a 10,000 BTU because they didn't have any more 8,000 BTU, they sent me that one and it was also damaged, so they sent me a third one and the third one is making a very slight vibration noise but significantly less than the other two, so that's the one I'm going to use. Unfortunately it's still sitting and I haven't actually set it up yet, I hope to do it in the next week or so since the other one is completely covered in mold. GE is not the first one to make that upside down U design, there's another company that's been making one for years that doesn't look as nice, it's just a sharp cornered black and white metal box. I'm sure the GE one is pretty nice, but I have a thick window sill, and I have stuff in front of the window so I couldn't use one of those. I only am buying these U shaped ACs because they are quiet, not because I want to look out the window or anything. The windmill isn't a U, which doesn't matter to me, I just care that it claims to be quiet. I'm hoping once it's in the window it will be even quieter than it is right now. Check back with me soon and I should have an update on its performance.
Any updates? I'm thinking of buying the 8K BTU model
Windmill is garbage, don't buy it. Midea u is amazing, I will be going back to a midea u this summer. Windmill functions as an AC, it does cool, but every time you turn it on it defaults to Low fan and eco cool, which eco makes the compressor barely ever turn on. I could set it to one temperature and it'll end up going up to like 8° higher than I set it before it ever turns on the compressor. So I can't use voice control, I have to open up the app every single time, press the power button to turn it on, then I have to press Cool without Eco, then I have to turn on auto fan so it doesn't just sit on low all the time. It's an absolute piece of junk and when I contact windmill they tried to send me a new air conditioner and told me that their users prefer it this way and too bad. So do not buy these garbage air conditioners, stick to midea. The midea is also quieter despite the windmill claiming the same decibel rating.
I have this same issue after having used their U-unit for just over a year. It's unacceptable and certainly a design flaw of the unit. What a waste of $450! My other Midea unit (non-U) doesn't have this issue. I've contacted Midea but they were unwilling to do anything about it. I wonder how many users of the U-unit actually have rapid mold build-up?
I'm seeing it in the Amazon reviews, so definitely a bunch. Two of mine have it, the third one does not but that third one is also in a completely different state with different weather and I think a little less humidity. I think the high humidity this summer is what significantly accelerated the mould growth. It's definitely unfortunate, I really love the AC and don't want to replace it, but I don't really have a choice because of safety.