If your furnace smells while heating, it’s trying to tell you something’s up. We’ve put together a list of the top six furnace smells so you can learn what causes them and how to repair them. These include:
- Burning smell from furnace
- Furnace smells like burning plastic
- Gas smell from furnace
- Furnace smells like sewer
- Furnace smells musty
1. Burning Smell from Furnace
Cause: Dusty Furnace
If your furnace smells like burning, it’s probably happening when you turn on your furnace for the first time in the fall. Like anything else in your home, your furnace gets dusty over time. This dust burns up when you turn on the heat, resulting in the burning dust smell from your furnace.
2. Furnace Smells Like Burnt Rubber or Plastic
Cause: Electrical Problem
If your furnace smells like burning plastic or burning rubber, it might have an electrical problem. This smell of burning can be caused by melting plastic wire casing, which is a safety issue. If you’re noticing a melted plastic smell, turn off your heating system right away and call us at 319-208-2351 for furnace repair.
Cause: Overheated Motor or Cracked Furnace Exchanger
An electrical burning smell could also mean your furnace motor is too hot or the heat exchanger is cracked. The heat exchanger safely exhausts carbon monoxide that’s naturally produced during the combustion process.
If it cracks, carbon monoxide can leak into your house. This colorless gas is fatal in large doses. So, it’s important to have an HVAC professional do annual furnace maintenance and have functional carbon monoxide detectors.
Other signs of a cracked heat exchanger include:
- Soot on or inside the furnace
- Yellow burner flame, instead of blue
- Chemical smell from furnace, such as formaldehyde
- Water near your furnace, as long as the condensate drain isn’t blocked
- Flu-like symptoms
3. The Furnace Smells Like Gas or Rotten Eggs
It’s normal for your heating system to let off a small amount of gas when it turns on, so you might get a gas smell from your furnace. But it’s not normal to be smelling natural gas or rotten eggs throughout your home on a regular basis.
Cause: Gas Leak
If your furnace smells like gas continuously, shut it down. If you know where your main gas supply valve is, turn that off too. Then contact the gas company and us for assistance.
4. The Furnace Smells Like Sewage
If your furnace smells like sewer, or rotten eggs, you’ll want to ensure you don’t have a gas leak. If you don’t, the issue could be with your sewer lines and not your furnace. This is especially true if it’s been very dry lately.
Cause: Dry Sewer Trap or Sewer Leak
If you suspect your sewer trap is dry, you can try pouring some water down the floor drain in your basement. If that doesn’t solve the problem, you might have a sewer leak, so you’ll want to call a company that does sewer line repair.
5. The Furnace Smells Like Mold
If your furnace smells musty, mold and mildew have probably been growing in it for a while.
Cause: Dirty Ductwork
Your furnace works with air ducts to send warm air throughout your house. Mold can grow in the ductwork over time, particularly if you live in a humid climate. You can eliminate the mold by having an HVAC technician do air duct cleaning.
Depend on Us for Your Furnace Repair Needs
Troubleshooting your heating and cooling system on your own is difficult. Your comfort is our number one goal at Ilten's, so our professionals are here to help you when you need us. When you need furnace repair in Cedar Rapids that you can trust, call us at 319-208-2351.