If your furnace smells while running, it’s trying to tell you something’s wrong. We’ve compiled a list of the top six furnace smells so you can learn what causes them and how to repair 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. Burning Smell from Furnace

Cause: Dusty Furnace

If your furnace smells like burning, it’s probably occurring when you turn on your furnace for the first time in the fall. Like anything else in your home, your furnace accumulates dust over time. This dust burns off when you turn on the heat, causing the burning dust smell from your furnace.

2. Furnace Smells Like Burning 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 created 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 256-801-4701 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 gets rid of carbon monoxide that’s naturally produced during the combustion process.

If it cracks, carbon monoxide can leak into your house. This invisible gas is fatal in heavy concentrations. So, it’s important to have an HVAC professional do routine furnace maintenance and have functional 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 plugged
  • Flu-like symptoms

3. A Gas Smell Is Coming From the Furnace

It’s normal for your heating system to give off a little bit 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, turn it off. If you know where your main gas supply valve is, shut 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 make sure you aren’t dealing with a gas leak. If you don’t, the problem 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 putting some water down the floor drain in your basement. If that doesn’t solve the issue, you might have a sewer leak, so you’ll want to call a company that handles sewer line repair.

5. The Furnace Smells Like Mold

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

Cause: Dirty Ductwork

Your furnace works with air ducts to distribute warm air across your house. Mold can grow in the ductwork over time, especially if you live in a humid climate. You can get rid of the mold by having an HVAC technician do air duct cleaning.

Trust Us with Your Furnace Repair Needs

Trying to fix your heating and cooling system on your own is hard. Your comfort is our number one goal at All Weather Heating & Air Conditioning Inc, so our pros are here to help you when you need us. When you need furnace repair in Huntsville that you can depend on, call us at 256-801-4701.