If you’re discovering a smell from your heat pump, it’s trying to tell you that something is wrong. We’ve developed a list of the most common six heat pump smells, what causes them and how you can correct 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. My Heat Pump Smells Like Mold
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 referred to as dirty sock syndrome. You can deter this by scheduling regular heat pump maintenance and air duct cleaning.
2. My Heat Pump Has a Fishy Smell
If your heat pump smells like fish, there could be a couple of things wrong:
- Overheated motor
- Wiring problem
- Plastic components or coating is melting
- Other mechanical issue
Electrical problems are serious, so turn your heat pump system off right away at the breaker box and get a hold of us at 800-296-5088 for heat pump repair.
3. The Heat Pump Smells Like Rotten Eggs
Often when you smell 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 gotten inside it for warmth and died. One of our AZ Air Conditioning and Heating experts can remove the smell by cleaning your heat pump.
4. The Heat Pump Smells Like Sewage
As we reviewed earlier, 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 advise calling a company that does sewer line repair.
5. The Heat Pump Smells Burnt
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 problems in HVAC systems are unsafe and could cause a fire. If you notice this smell, shut off your heat pump at the breaker and contact us at 800-296-5088.
6. Why Your Heat Pump Defrost Cycle Smells
Like we talked about previously, a dirty socks smell can happen when your evaporator coils need sanitizing. You might encounter this smell when your heat pump has defrost mode.
It’s typical for your heat pump to have to turn on defrost mode during heating season. When the air is much colder, frost can form rapidly on the coils from condensation and impede heating. During defrost mode, your heat pump shortly switches to ac to remove the frost.
Having a AZ Air Conditioning and Heating HVAC technician clean the coils will help eliminate the odor.
Depend on for Your Heat Pump Repair Needs
It can be difficult to troubleshoot your heat pump by yourself. Your comfort matters to us at AZ Air Conditioning and Heating, so you can count on our specialists to support you when you need us. When you need heat pump repair in Los Angeles that you can count on, call us at 800-296-5088.