If you’re discovering a smell from your heat pump, it’s attempting to tell you that something is up. We’ve created a list of the most common 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 probably mold growing on moist evaporator coils or in the ductwork. This heat pump odor is often referred to as dirty sock syndrome. You can avoid this by scheduling routine 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 difficulties
Electrical problems are unsafe, so shut your heat pump system off as soon as possible at the breaker box and get a hold of us at for heat pump repair.
3. Heat Pump Smells Like Sulfur
Usually 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 tiny animal may have creeped inside it for warmth and died. One of our LTS Plumbing & Heating Inc. [techs can eliminate 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 linked to a gas leak in another place. If your heat pump smells like sewer, you might currently have a backed-up or broken sewer line. We recommend getting in touch with 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 the result of melting plastic on electrical wires. Electrical troubles in HVAC systems are dangerous 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 earlier, a dirty socks smell can happen when your evaporator coils need to be cleaned. You might notice this smell when your heat pump has defrost mode.
It’s typical for your heat pump to have to use defrost mode during heating season. When the air is much cooler, frost can form fast on the coils from condensation and restrict heating. During defrost mode, your heat pump shortly switches to air conditioning to remove the frost.
Having a LTS Plumbing & Heating Inc. HVAC technician clean the coils will help eliminate the smell.
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 LTS Plumbing & Heating Inc., 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 .