If your furnace smells while running, it’s trying to tell you something’s up. We’ve put together a list of the top six furnace smells so you can know what causes them and how to fix them. These include:

  1. Burning smell from furnace
  2. Furnace smells like burning plastic
  3. Gas smell from furnace
  4. Furnace smells like sewer
  5. Furnace smells musty

1. Your Furnace Smells Like Burning Dust

Cause: Dusty Furnace

If your furnace smells like burning, it’s likely occurring 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 off when you turn on the heat, causing 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 hazard. If you’re experiencing a melted plastic smell, turn off your heating system right away and call us at (818) 727-9993 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 created during the combustion process.

If it cracks, carbon monoxide can leak into your home. This colorless gas is fatal in heavy concentrations. So, it’s important to have an HVAC professional do annual furnace maintenance and have working carbon monoxide detectors.

Other symptoms of a cracked heat exchanger include:

  • Soot on or inside the furnace
  • Yellow burner flame, instead of blue
  • Chemical smell from furnace, like formaldehyde
  • Water around 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 give off a small amount of gas when it starts up, 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, shut that off too. Then call 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 make sure 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 think your sewer trap is dry, you can try pouring some water down the floor drain in your basement. If that doesn’t fix the problem, you might have a sewer leak, so you’ll want to contact a company that handles sewer line repair.

5. Furnace Smells Musty

If your furnace smells musty, mold and mildew have probably been growing in it for a while.

Cause: Dirty Ductwork

Your furnace uses air ducts to send warm air across 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.

Trust Us with Your Furnace Repair Needs

Troubleshooting your heating and cooling system on your own is difficult. Your comfort is our top priority at Enertek Air Conditioning & Heating, so our professionals are here to help you when you need us. When you need furnace repair in Northridge that you can trust, call us at (818) 727-9993.