If you’re noticing a smell from your heat pump, it’s attempting to tell you that something is up. We’ve put together a list of the most common 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 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 regular heat pump maintenance and air duct cleaning.
2. Heat Pump Smells Like Fish
If your heat pump smells like fish, there could be several things wrong:
- Motor is too hot
- Wiring issue
- Plastic components or coating is melting
- Other mechanical difficulties
Electrical problems are dangerous, so turn your heat pump system off right away at the breaker box and contact us at for heat pump repair.
3. Heat Pump Smells Like Sulfur
Usually when you are dealing with a rotten egg smell, you’ve got a gas leak. But your heat pump doesn’t run on natural gas. If your heat pump smells like sulfur, a little animal may have gotten inside it for warmth and died. One of our Bain Heating & Air Conditioning experts can remove the smell by cleaning your heat pump.
4. Heat Pump Smells Like Sewer
As we mentioned before, your heat pump is electric, so any rotten egg smells are linked 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 suggest contacting a company that does sewer line repair.
5. Heat Pump Smells Like Burning
You might be dealing with an electrical problem 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 troubles in HVAC systems are unsafe and could cause a fire. If you notice this smell, shut off your heat pump at the breaker and get a hold of us at .
6. Heat Pump Defrost Cycle Smells
Like we talked about above, a dirty socks smell can happen when your evaporator coils need to be cleaned. You might encounter this smell when your heat pump goes into defrost mode.
It’s common for your heat pump to have to turn on defrost mode during heating season. When the air is much cooler, frost can form rapidly on the coils from condensation and restrict heating. During defrost mode, your heat pump temporarily switches to cooling to get rid of the frost.
Having a Bain Heating & Air Conditioning HVAC technician clean the coils will help get rid of the smell.
Depend on for Your Heat Pump Repair Needs
It can be difficult to troubleshoot your heat pump by alone. Your comfort matters to us at Bain Heating & Air Conditioning, so you can count on our specialists to assist you when you need us. When you need heat pump repair in that you can rely on, call us at .
