If you notice an odd smell coming from your heating and cooling equipment then it may be worth consulting a licensed contractor to have a look at the problem. Your appliances should be serviced regularly and in doing so will maintain a safe to operate appliance, having a dirty and smelly appliance can really affect your health and air quality.
A few smells to look out for:
- Mould or stagnant water smells
If your air conditioner smells like a stale water or mouldy odour, this could mean you have a drain blockage and water is accumulating within the drain pan and resulting in water stagnation. This can be hazardous for a few reasons:
- Stale water can develop into mould and mildew
- Prevents water from draining and resulting in a blockage
- Stale water is a breeding ground for mosquitos and vermin
- Mould is a main contributor to skin and eye irritation, respiratory problems, asthma, coughing and sneezing
If you are experiencing any of these problems then it is best to consult an expert immediately.
- Burning smells
This may be an obvious one! If your heating and cooling equipment smells like its burning, turn it off immediately and contact a contractor to have a look. A burning smell could most likely come from the indoor unit fan motor or any electrical component connected to the system. Burning smells can often result from a motor overheating due to a number of reasons such as:
- Lack of maintenance
- Blocked filters
- Airflow blockage
- Foreign objects stuck in fan motor or cowling
- Electrical components burnt out
These are just to name a few but if you notice a burning smell, best to be safe, isolate the power or unit if possible and call an expert to have a look.
- Wet socks!
Though this may sound funny, the smell isn’t!
We have had clients that have complained about a “wet socks” smell, though we haven’t yet pin pointed the culprit we have come to a few conclusions:
- Air cons installed near a cooking source and sucking in odours while cooking
- Body odour smells in high humid settings like gyms, wet areas and sometimes bedrooms
Its really hard to pin point and describe this type of smell but whatever is causing the smell can be rectified by cleaning the return air filters and indoor coils. A deep clean of both components can prevent the smells from persisting and eliminate them entirely.
- Decomposing smell
Just as the name suggests, vermin are very sneaking in getting into small spaces and sometimes they get into the places you least expect!
If you are experiencing a decomposing smell this may indicate you have a dead animal in your heating and cooling equipment. It isn’t often this happens but we have come across dead animals such as possums, rats and birds nesting out in a cool dry place.
They may pierce a hole in your ducting or enter through a small opening and nest there until they can’t find a way out, your ducting ends up being their final resting place.
If you have had rodent problems in the past, it may be worth calling an expert to have a look.
- Chemical smell
If you are experiencing a chemical like smell, check where your return air is located. Sometimes, your return air filter could be located near by a laundry, storage cupboard or garage which emit chemical and mechanical fumes. If this is the case, this could really affect your air quality and emit those same fumes throughout your house.
If your filter is located near a laundry or storage cupboard, try relocating those chemicals elsewhere and if it is located near a garage, be cautious starting your car while the air conditioning is running.
- Rotten eggs!
Finally, a rotten egg smell is quite foul but distinctive of a potential gas leak. If you smell anything that may resemble a gas leak it is advisable you stop operating the appliance immediately, isolate the gas main, open windows to ventilate area and call a licensed contractor. Carbon monoxide is very dangerous as it emits a potential fatal gas and is flammable.