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. The Furnace Smells Like It’s Burning

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 up when you turn on the heat, causing 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 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 254-307-9572 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 exhausts carbon monoxide that’s naturally produced during the combustion process.

If it cracks, carbon monoxide can seep 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 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 near your furnace, as long as the condensate drain isn’t blocked
  • Flu-like symptoms

3. A Gas Smell Is Coming From the 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 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 contact 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 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 extremely 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 solve the issue, 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 likely 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 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

Troubleshooting your heating and cooling system on your own is difficult. Your comfort is our top goal at Bell Air Conditioning Inc, so our pros are here to help you when you need us. When you need furnace repair in Temple/Belton that you can depend on, contact us at 254-307-9572.