If your furnace smells while heating, it’s trying to tell you something’s up. 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. Your Furnace Smells Like Burning Dust

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 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 Burning Plastic

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 309-323-9584 for furnace repair.

Cause: Overheated Motor or Cracked Furnace Exchanger

An electrical burning smell could also mean your furnace motor is overheated or the heat exchanger is cracked. The heat exchanger safely gets rid of carbon monoxide that’s naturally created 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 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 near 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 let off a little bit of gas when it starts up, so you might notice a gas smell from your furnace. But it’s not typical to be smelling natural gas or rotten eggs throughout your home on a regular basis.

Cause: Gas Leak

If your furnace smells like gas frequently, 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 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 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 putting 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. The Furnace Has a Musty Smell

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

Cause: Dirty Ductwork

Your furnace works with air ducts to distribute warm air throughout your home. 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

Troubleshooting your heating and cooling system by yourself is hard. Your comfort is our number one priority at Freed Heating & Air Conditioning, so our professionals are here to help you when you need us. When you need furnace repair in Moline that you can trust, call us at 309-323-9584.