Add evaporator coils to the long list of things you can’t clean with bleach
I hate it when everyone tells you to just clean something with bleach.
There some home improvement blogs will tell you to take diluted bleach and scrub moldy drywall with it.
But these people don’t realize that bleach is mostly water, so you’re going to feed the mold getting it so wet like this. That’s why there are special products out there like mold-killing paint and Concrobium that will destroy mold spores without saturating the area with so much water. But these are not the only things you need to avoid with bleach, as anything with metal is going to slowly corrode with repeat exposure. One of the most notable examples is the evaporator coil found inside a standard air conditioner. Since these components are known to harbor mold, many people are immediately driven to clean them with a diluted bleach cleaner. Doing this will most likely destroy your air conditioner’s evaporator coil. The corrosion from the bleach will be immediate and the effects will render the coil inoperable. Basically it will no longer absorb heat and cool your indoor air. That’s why there is a special aerosol cleaning made specially for evaporator coils in air conditioners and dehumidifiers. The cleaner is sold at most hardware stores and will keep your air conditioner smelling good if you treat it regularly. Now that I have started using air conditioner evaporator coil cleaning spray, I no longer get weird odors coming from my air conditioner during times of peak indoor cooling. And if any of that grime has caused dust to stick to the coil, it will melt away with enough of the aerosol cleaner applied to the area that is dirty.