If you’re discovering a odor from your heat pump, it’s trying to tell you that something is wrong. We’ve created a list of the most commonly encountered six heat pump smells, what causes them and how you can fix 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 damp evaporator coils or in the ductwork. This heat pump odor is often referred to as dirty sock syndrome. You can prevent 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 several 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 get a hold of us at for heat pump repair.
3. Heat Pump Smells Like Sulfur
Normally when you have 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 small animal may have crawled inside it for warmth and died. One of our AZ Air Conditioning and Heating technicians can remove the smell by cleaning your heat pump.
4. Heat Pump Smells Like Sewer
As we discussed earlier, your heat pump is electric, so any rotten egg smells are linked to a gas leak somewhere else. If your heat pump smells like sewer, you might be dealing with a backed-up or broken sewer line. We suggest contacting a company that does sewer line repair.
5. Heat Pump Smells Like Burning
You might have an electrical issue 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 serious and could cause a fire. If you notice this smell, turn off your heat pump at the breaker and get a hold of us at .
6. Heat Pump Defrost Cycle Smells
Like we mentioned previously, 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 common for your heat pump to have to switch on defrost mode during heating season. When the air is much colder, frost can form quickly on the coils from condensation and impede heating. During defrost mode, your heat pump shortly switches to cooling to get rid of the frost.
Having a AZ Air Conditioning and Heating HVAC technician clean the coils will help get rid of the smell.
Depend on for Your Heat Pump Repair Needs
It can be confusing to troubleshoot your heat pump by yourself. Your comfort matters to us at AZ Air Conditioning and Heating, so you can count on our experts to help you when you need us. When you need heat pump repair in that you can count on, call us at .