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 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. 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 house, your furnace accumulates dust over time. This dust burns off when you turn on the heat, resulting in the burning dust smell from your furnace.

2. The Furnace Smells Like Plastic Is Burning

Cause: Electrical Problem

If your furnace smells like burning plastic or burning rubber, it might have an electrical issue. This smell of burning can be caused by melting plastic wire casing, which is a safety hazard. If you’re noticing a melted plastic smell, turn off your heating system right away and call us at 281-231-8768 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 seep 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, such as formaldehyde
  • Water around your furnace, as long as the condensate drain isn’t plugged
  • Flu-like symptoms

3. Gas Smell from Furnace

It’s normal for your heating system to give off a small amount of gas when it starts up, so you might notice a gas smell from your furnace. But it’s not normal to be smelling natural gas or rotten eggs throughout your home on a daily basis.

Cause: Gas Leak

If your furnace smells like gas continuously, turn it off. If you know where your main gas supply valve is, turn that off too. Then call the gas company and us for help.

4. Furnace Smells Like Sewer

If your furnace smells like sewer, or rotten eggs, you’ll want to ensure 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 suspect your sewer trap is dry, you can try putting some water down the floor drain in your basement. If that doesn’t fix the issue, you might have a sewer leak, so you’ll want to contact 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 uses air ducts to distribute warm air throughout your house. Mold can grow in the ductwork as time goes on, particularly if you live in a humid climate. You can get rid of the mold by having an HVAC technician do air duct cleaning.

Depend on Us for Your Furnace Repair Needs

Trying to fix your heating and cooling system by yourself is difficult. Your comfort is our top goal at JTech Mechanical, so our professionals are here to help you when you need us. When you need furnace repair in Magnolia that you can trust, contact us at 281-231-8768.