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by fifteenforty 1244 days ago
The no 1 reason I bought the Daikin model referenced over the comparable Mitsubishi Electric is that it has the ‘MOULD PROOF’ function. It runs the fan automatically after you have had it in cooling mode, to evaporate the moisture build up from the interior condenser coil, thereby removing the moisture required for the growth of bacteria and mould.

So far, it seems to be working! Better than relying on everyone to manually do it (literally this is the instruction in the Mitsubishi Electric user manual).

2 comments

That definitely helps and I used to do that in my car where the A/C got smelly pretty quickly. Just run the "fan" for a few minutes after you turn off the A/C and it doesn't get gross.

But one problem is the dust in the house. It will collect on the unit and hold moisture and give a great substrate for mold to grow. But regular cleaning usually takes care of that.

If you live in any kind of area with high humidity you just shifted the mold from the AC unit to the rest of your house. Hell even here in the desert I'm not sure I'd want to use that "feature".
We are talking about the tiny amount of water vapour left on the interior condenser. The idea is to bring that back up to room temperature so that it doesn’t stay there near the dew point. The total amount of water inside the house does not change!
It only becomes mold by sitting and growing. If the A/C dries it after use, it doesn't have any time to grow.

Yes, over time - any amount of moisture will produce some mold. But it will be negligible.

Where does mold even get the energy to grow, it really seems to spring up from nothing but water.
The surface of our planet is so rich in bio material that some tiny amount of mold can be found in almost all unfiltered air. Instead of trying to eliminate all of it, home builders focus on preventing it from growing. Indoors, mold often has everything it needs to grow except standing moisture, so it's important for everything to either dry out or circulate water.
The fins in the heat exchanger will get covered in dust and dandruff over time. This provides a reasonable media for the mold to grow on.
I live in the desert. Any humidity we can get in the summer is good.