When it comes to mold in the drain pan of your air conditioner, an ounce of prevention is the best cure. Once established, a hidden mold colony is difficult to evict.
Contamination of your household air with airborne spores is one likely result. Plugged drain lines, an overflowing drain pan and severe water damage to your home is another. Airborne spores are sucked into the return ducts of your A/C. Some escape filtering and deposit on the surfaces of the evaporator coil. Condensation forming on the coil drips into the drain pan and carries spores with it. The warm, dark, wet environment of the pan is ground zero for mold replication. Soon, millions of new spores are infiltrating the supply duct and circulating throughout your Metro-Detroit-area home.
Prevent mold in the drain pan starting at square one with these tips:
- Change your filter on time. Better yet, change it more often. Some manufacturers recommend bimonthly changes. During peak use during the cooling season, monthly changes are more advisable. A dirty, clogged filter is a mold spore’s first stop on its way to a new home in your drain pan.
- Cut off the food supply. Mold has to eat, and what it feeds on are microscopic organic particles afloat in your household air and drawn into ducts. Careful housekeeping, including regular vacuuming and attention to hygiene throughout the home, can starve mold and discourage growth.
- Call your HVAC contractor. Schedule an annual A/C service check to prevent mold before it gets started. The technician will disinfect the evaporator coil — mold in the pan usually means mold in the coil, too — and the drain pan. He’ll verify that drain lines are open to prevent overflow and flush the lines with bleach to kill mold hidden inside. Time-release tablets of mold-killing biocide will be placed in the drain pan to keep it mold-free throughout the cooling season.
Serving Rochester Hills, Grosse Pointe, Troy and Metro-Detroit for more than 65 years, Aladdin Heating & Cooling is your local source for comfort control and healthy interior air quality. Contact us about a cooling system inspection to prevent mold in the drain pan.
Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about preventing mold and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
Aladdin Heating services Novi, Farmington, Farmington Hills, Southfield, Oak Park, Ferndale, Beverly Hills, Berkley, Royal Oak, Birmingham, Bloomfield Twp., Bloomfield Hills, West Bloomfield, Madison Heights, Clawson, Sterling Heights, Warren, Troy, St. Clair Shores, Grosse Pointe, Grosse Pointe Woods, Grosse Pointe Farms, Grosse Pointe Park, Detroit, Utica, Shelby Twp., Rochester, Rochester Hills, Auburn Hills, Lake Orion, Oxford, and Clarkston.
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