The Saga of an U-Shaped Air Conditioner_
My experience with Midea's recall situation
6/27/2025
Last month I received an email from Amazon (ugh I know, note the lack of an hyperlink) that the three AC units I purchased back when I had a good job and money were subject to a voluntary recall. The supposed issue is that the design doesn't allow water to drain sufficiently and so can cause mold to develop, leading to all sorts of nasty respiratory issues.
However, after reading around, it really seems that this is not so uncommon for any type of air conditioner. Mold can develop in an AC for any number of reasons having nothing to do with the condensate it produces during normal operation, and it just so happens that the Midea has a more prominently visible fan than most others. Additionally, some (apparent) HVAC experts on Reddit even claim that plenty of newer designs actually leverage the condensate in order to eke out a bit more efficiency.
In any case, since I have had increasingly bad allergies (probably just from living in NYC for 20 years), I inspected all three of mine. One of them did indeed have mold on the cylindrical blower fan, so I set about researching how I might clean it.
The first video I found was, in retrospect, laughably bad if mildly charming.
TL;DR: He suggests snipping a piece off of the metal grate so that you can ham-handedly pull it out in order to then tediously clean the blower fan with cotton swabs. No thanks.
The guide I did follow was a more-or-less teardown of the front portion of the unit. I appreciate the effort he put into explaining everything and the clarity of the video.
After removing the fan, I used soap and pressurized water through a nozzle accessory I keep attached to my shower head (IYKYK). The mold and dust came off rather effortlessly. At the end of my own efforts, I somehow ended up with fewer screws (heh heh) than I started with. Thankfully, the unit shipped with plenty of extra hardware and uses mostly the same kind of self-tappers throughout.
But the real heart of this story has to do with the fact that only unit I'm going to get refunded as of now is not moldy but has the dreaded "EC 07" error. Either due to damaged electronics due to water ingress or just a plain motor failure, the outside fan will not spin. I originally inquired about this issue and was told that I should just apply for the recall.
The process is actually quite simple: after confirming that your model and serial number qualify, you are sent a link to download a phone app and to take a picture of the side of the unit with the serial number and the power cord cut. Now anybody who has done even a small amount of electrical work will know that reattaching a power cord is an extremely simple procedure. Just sayin'. In my case it's moot because I have little interest in attempting a DIY repair for the EC 07 error.
In the past, I was able to get rid of old air conditioners by making a request with the DSNY. However, they do not yet handle the newer types of refrigerants, including the flammable R32 type used in Mideas. And you best bet that there are now tons of Reddit threads of New Yorkers trying to figure out what to do with their recalled Mideas. On one side, you have people with the $100 to just pay Pigeon Air Conditioner or Load Up to take it off theirs hands.
But far more appealing to me is the mention of Certain Scrap Yards that will pay you a modest sum for bringing it to them. I assume it's mainly the copper they're after. What they do with the R32… who knows. That's up to you/me and your/my own environmentalist ethics to decide. At the very least, I'll be loading the unit onto my Wike bike trailer, which I dub the "HMS Bleeding Heart". With any luck, this bit of smug virtue signalling will offset any possible emission of greenhouse gasses.
At the moment, however, I'm pursuing asking/demanding a shipping label from Midea, since early versions of the recall indicated the option to return it to them. Redditors are already getting worked up into a litigious fervor over it.
