If your nose tells you that something is wrong with your furnace, you’d probably be wise to pay heed to that warning. A variety of different smells coming from the furnace in your McMurray, PA home could be indications of onsetting difficulties with the unit, if not of outright disaster. Here are a few furnace odors that you shouldn’t ignore.
1. Burning
A furnace should heat your home and many such units burn gas to accomplish this feat. However, to smell something burning as the unit works is usually a bad sign. The one instance during which it might not be concerning is if you’ve just turned the unit on after a spring and summer spent idle. In that instance, the smell is likely just that of burning accumulated dust.
However, if this smell persists, something may be genuinely wrong. For instance, you may have an overheating blower motor, especially if you notice the odor of burning plastic. Burning or fraying electrical wires in a heat pump may make themselves known through the stench of burning ozone.
2. Dirty Socks, Rotten Cheese, Etc.
This miscellaneous assemblage of awful locker room smells typically means one thing if it starts coming from your furnace: bacteria growing in your system drain pan. Other trapped biological matter, like a dead animal, may also be the source of this stench. Needless to say, if you smell these odors, you should call a professional as soon as possible and get the matter sorted out.
3. Dust or Must
As mentioned, some amount of dusty odor is normal once a furnace has been turned on after months of not working. If the smell persists, however — particularly if it is a wet, dusty smell — you likely have a rather serious dust or debris accumulation issue in your system. The solution is to temporarily turn the system off and either clean it or hire a professional technician to do so for you.
All of the above smells point to either imminent or already-existing furnace malfunctions. To fix them, call Bruno Plumbing & Heating Inc in McMurray, PA, and ask for our heating repair services.
Image provided by iStock
