If you’re recognizing a smell from your heat pump, it’s trying to tell you that something is wrong. We’ve created a list of the most popular six heat pump smells, what causes them and how you can fix 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. Heat Pump Smells Musty
If your heat pump smells musty, there’s most likely 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 frequent heat pump maintenance and air duct cleaning.
2. Heat Pump Smells Like Fish
If your heat pump smells like fish, there could be a couple of things wrong:
- Overheated motor
- Wiring issue
- Plastic components or coating is melting
- Other mechanical issue
Electrical problems are unsafe, so shut your heat pump system off immediately at the breaker box and contact us at for heat pump repair.
3. Heat Pump Smells Like Sulfur
Normally when you are dealing with a rotten egg smell, you have a gas leak. But your heat pump doesn’t use natural gas. If your heat pump smells like sulfur, a little animal may have creeped inside it for warmth and died. One of our A2Z Air Inc [techs can remove the smell by cleaning your heat pump.
4. Heat Pump Smells Like Sewer
As we discussed earlier, your heat pump is electric, so any rotten egg smells are connected to a gas leak in another place. If your heat pump smells like sewer, you might have a backed-up or broken sewer line. We recommend contacting a company that does sewer line repair.
5. Heat Pump Smells Like Burning
You might have an electrical concern if your heat pump smells like burning, burning plastic or burning rubber. This burning smell can be due to melting plastic on electrical wires. Electrical problems in HVAC systems are unsafe and could lead to a fire. If you notice this smell, turn off your heat pump at the breaker and contact us at .
6. Heat Pump Defrost Cycle Smells
Like we discussed previously, a dirty socks smell can happen when your evaporator coils need to be cleaned. 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 impede heating. During defrost mode, your heat pump shortly switches to ac to remove the frost.
Having a A2Z Air Inc HVAC technician clean the coils will help get rid of the smell.
Trust Us with Your Heat Pump Repair Needs
It can be hard to troubleshoot your heat pump by all by yourself. Your comfort matters to us at A2Z Air Inc, so you can count on our experts to help you when you need us. When you need heat pump repair in that you can rely on, call us at .
