If you’re noticing a smell from your heat pump, it’s attempting to tell you that something is wrong. We’ve put together a list of the most popular six heat pump smells, what causes them and how you can correct them.
- Heat pump smells musty
- Heat pump smells like fish
- Heat pump smells like sulfur
- Heat pump smells like sewer
- Heat pump smells like burning
- Heat pump defrost cycle smells
1. Your Heat Pump Smells Like Mold
If your heat pump smells musty, there’s probably mold growing on wet evaporator coils or in the ductwork. This heat pump odor is often known as dirty sock syndrome. You can deter this by scheduling routine heat pump maintenance and air duct cleaning.
2. My Heat Pump Smells Fishy/Rotten
If your heat pump smells like fish, there could be a few things wrong:
- Motor is too hot
- Wiring issue
- Plastic components or coating is melting
- Other mechanical difficulties
Electrical problems are unsafe, so turn your heat pump system off as soon as possible at the breaker box and call us at 414-207-4034 for heat pump repair.
3. The Heat Pump Smells Like Rotten Eggs
Usually when you are dealing with a rotten egg smell, you have a gas leak. But your heat pump doesn’t utilize natural gas. If your heat pump smells like sulfur, a small animal may have creeped inside it for warmth and died. One of our Done Right Air techs can get rid of the smell by cleaning your heat pump.
4. The Heat Pump Has a Sewage Smell
As we mentioned above, your heat pump is electric, so any rotten egg smells are connected to a gas leak somewhere else. If your heat pump smells like sewer, you might have a backed-up or broken sewer line. We advise getting in touch with a company that does sewer line repair.
5. My Heat Pump Smells Burnt
You might have an electrical concern if your heat pump smells like burning, burning plastic or burning rubber. This burning smell can be caused by melting plastic on electrical wires. Electrical issues in HVAC systems are unsafe and could cause a fire. If you notice this smell, turn off your heat pump at the breaker and call us at 414-207-4034.
6. Heat Pump Defrost Cycle Smells
Like we talked about earlier, a dirty socks smell can happen when your evaporator coils need sanitizing. You might encounter this smell when your heat pump has defrost mode.
It’s common for your heat pump to have to switch on defrost mode during heating season. When the air is much colder, frost can form fast on the coils from condensation and interfere with heating. During defrost mode, your heat pump shortly switches to cooling to clear away the frost.
Having a Done Right Air HVAC technician clean the coils will help eliminate the odor.
Depend on for Your Heat Pump Repair Needs
It can be hard to troubleshoot your heat pump by all by yourself. Your comfort matters to us at Done Right Air, so you can count on our experts to assist you when you need us. When you need heat pump repair in Milwaukee that you can count on, call us at 414-207-4034.