If you’re discovering a odor from your heat pump, it’s trying 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 most likely mold growing on wet evaporator coils or in the ductwork. This heat pump odor is often called dirty sock syndrome. You can avoid 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 problem
- Plastic components or coating is melting
- Other mechanical difficulties
Electrical problems are serious, so shut your heat pump system off right away at the breaker box and get a hold of us at for heat pump repair.
3. Heat Pump Smells Like Sulfur
Normally when you smell a rotten egg smell, you have 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 Speedy Air Conditioning experts can remove the smell by cleaning your heat pump.
4. Heat Pump Smells Like Sewer
As we mentioned earlier, your heat pump is electric, so any rotten egg smells are tied to a gas leak elsewhere. If your heat pump smells like sewer, you might currently 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 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 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 contact us at .
6. Heat Pump Defrost Cycle Smells
Like we mentioned earlier, a dirty socks smell can happen when your evaporator coils need to be cleaned. You might experience this smell when your heat pump goes into defrost mode.
It’s typical for your heat pump to have to turn on defrost mode during heating season. When the air is much cooler, frost can form quickly on the coils from condensation and impede heating. During defrost mode, your heat pump temporarily switches to air conditioning to remove the frost.
Having a Speedy Air Conditioning 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 alone. Your comfort matters to us at Speedy Air Conditioning, 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 .
