Mini-split & ductless cleaning
That musty smell is mold in the pan — and it washes out
A unit that smells for the first ten minutes every time it starts is not "old". It is wet, dark and never cleaned, and the smell comes from the drain pan and the blower wheel. Both get washed, not sprayed over. $350 first unit, $300 each additional.
No fogging, no scented "treatment" over dirt — the smell leaves with the thing making it.
first unit, flat
each additional unit
a single-unit wash
fragrance, fogging or masking
The smell stops, because the cause leaves the room
Cooling condenses water. The water sits in a plastic pan in the dark, under a coil covered in dust. That is a growing medium, and the first minute of every start-up is you smelling it.
Pan, blower wheel and coil are washed until the runoff is clear. Nothing is fogged, sprayed or perfumed on top of the dirt.
Everything on that wheel is being flung into the room every time the unit runs. That is the actual argument, not the smell.
A slow drain keeps the pan wet between runs, which is what lets it come back. The line is cleared and flushed on the same visit.
You get the before and after of the part you cannot see. It is the least pleasant photo we take and the most convincing one.
What people ask about the smell
Almost everyone has already tried something before they call. Usually it was sold to them in a can.
“I sprayed a cleaner into the vents.”
That reaches the louvers and stops. The wheel is a drum of forty narrow blades behind the coil, and the pan is under all of it — a can cannot wet either, which is why the smell comes back in a week.
“Can’t you just fog it or use an antimicrobial?”
Not as the whole job. Treatment on top of a dirty pan buys a few weeks. Wash first, treat second — that order is the only one that lasts, and it is what we do.
“Is the mold dangerous?”
We are not doctors and will not sell you a scare. What we can say is what comes out on the photos and that it stops being in the airflow afterwards.
“It only smells at start-up. Is it worth it?”
That is the classic symptom of a wet pan drying between cycles. It is also the earliest, cheapest point to deal with it — before it is a stain on the wall under the unit.
How the smell gets removed
Four steps, in this order. Treating before washing is the mistake that makes people think this does not work.
Find where it lives
Cover off, wheel and pan inspected and photographed. Nine times out of ten the smell is in those two parts, and you see which.
Bag and protect
A sealed wash bag drains into a bucket, floors covered, electronics masked. Everything that comes off the wheel leaves in the water.
Wash, then treat
Coil, wheel, pan and louvers washed with coil-safe cleaner until the runoff is clear, then treated. That order, never the other one.
Clear the drain
The line is flushed so the pan actually empties between cycles — the step that decides whether the smell stays gone.
The same flat price as any deep clean
There is no "mold package" here. Removing the smell is what a proper wash does, so it costs what a wash costs — and the treatment is part of it, not an upsell at the door.
$350
first unit
Indoor head or outdoor unit — the same either way
$300
each unit after that
Any number of them, on the same visit
What the number covers
- Blower wheel, coil, drain pan and louvers washed until the runoff is clear
- Mold treatment after the wash — included, never sold separately
- Drain line cleared and flushed so the pan empties between cycles
- Before/after photos of the wheel, and the temperature reading
If the smell is not from the unit — a wet wall cavity, a trap that has dried out — we will tell you that and charge you for the cleaning we did, not for a problem we cannot fix.
The parts the smell comes from
Three frames of units we opened because of a smell. This is what was behind the front cover in each case.
The wheel 
The pan 
The filters 2 parts
wheel and pan, where it lives
~2 hrs
per unit, wash and treat
0
fragrance used
Photographs from our own visits, cropped and scaled and nothing else. The written-up jobs behind them are being logged now.
Mold & odor — FAQ
The five questions that come up on every smell call.
Why does my mini-split smell like a wet towel?
Because that is roughly what is inside it. Cooling pulls water out of the air; the water lands in a plastic pan under a dusty coil and sits there in the dark. The smell is what grows in that, and it is strongest in the first minute of a start-up.
Will the smell come back?
Not for a season if the drain line was cleared, which is why it is part of the visit. It returns fastest in units that run all day with the windows open and the doors shut — humid air in, water out, every hour.
Do you use bleach?
No. Bleach eats aluminium fins and the smell survives it. Coil-safe cleaner, mechanical washing and a treatment afterwards is what actually works and what leaves the coil intact.
Is this the same as a deep clean?
It is a deep clean, sold to the person who arrived because of a smell rather than because of a temperature. Same wash, same price, same photos.
How soon can you come?
Brooklyn is usually within two days, Queens and Manhattan within the week. Smell calls tend to be booked in July, which is exactly the wrong month to wait.
Goes well with
What tends to be booked once the smell is dealt with.
The smell has a cause. It fits in a bucket.
Book the wash and keep the photo of the wheel — it is the part of the unit nobody has ever shown you.
Get the smell gone