If you’re recognizing a odor from your heat pump, it’s attempting to tell you that something is wrong. We’ve put together a list of the top six heat pump smells, what causes them and how you can repair 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 likely mold growing on moist 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 a couple of things wrong:
- Motor is too hot
- Wiring problems
- Plastic components or coating is melting
- Other mechanical issue
Electrical problems are unsafe, so turn your heat pump system off as soon as possible at the breaker box and call us at for heat pump repair.
3. Heat Pump Smells Like Sulfur
Often when you have a rotten egg smell, you’re dealing with a gas leak. But your heat pump doesn’t run on natural gas. If your heat pump smells like sulfur, a tiny animal may have gotten inside it for warmth and died. One of our Vogts Heating & Air technicians can get rid of the smell by cleaning your heat pump.
4. Heat Pump Smells Like Sewer
As we discussed before, your heat pump is electric, so any rotten egg smells are tied to a gas leak somewhere else. If your heat pump smells like sewer, you might currently have a backed-up or broken sewer line. We advise calling 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 due to melting plastic on electrical wires. Electrical troubles in HVAC systems are unsafe and could lead to a fire. If you notice this smell, shut off your heat pump at the breaker and call us at .
6. Heat Pump Defrost Cycle Smells
Like we mentioned previously, a dirty socks smell can happen when your evaporator coils need cleaning. You might notice 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 colder, frost can form quickly on the coils from condensation and restrict heating. During defrost mode, your heat pump shortly switches to ac to remove the frost.
Having a Vogts Heating & Air HVAC technician clean the coils will help get rid of the smell.
Trust Us with Your Heat Pump Repair Needs
It can be difficult to troubleshoot your heat pump by yourself. Your comfort matters to us at Vogts Heating & Air, so you can count on our specialists to support you when you need us. When you need heat pump repair in that you can depend on, call us at .