6 Common Furnace Smells Explained

October 10, 2021
A thinking man

If your furnace smells while running, it’s attempting to tell you something’s up. We’ve put together 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 occurring 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 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 created 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 317-406-5382 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 large doses. So, it’s important to have an HVAC professional do routine furnace maintenance and have working carbon monoxide detectors.

Other signs of a cracked heat exchanger include:

  • Soot on or inside the furnace
  • Yellow burner flame, instead of blue
  • The chemical smell from the furnace, like formaldehyde
  • Water near your furnace, as long as the condensate drain isn’t blocked
  • Flu-like symptoms

3. Gas Smell From Furnace

It’s normal for your heating system to let off a little bit of gas when it turns on, 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 frequently, shut it down. If you know where your main gas supply valve is, shut that off too. Then call the gas company and us for help.

4. Furnace Smells Like Sewer

If your furnace smells like a sewer or rotten eggs, you’ll want to ensure 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 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 problem, you might have a sewer leak, so you’ll want to call 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 a while.

Cause: Dirty Ductwork

Your furnace works with air ducts to send warm air throughout your house. Mold can grow in the ductwork over time, especially if you live in a humid climate. You can eliminate 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 difficult. Your comfort is our top priority at Winters Heating and Cooling, so our pros are here to help you when you need us. When you need furnace repair in Franklin & South Indy that you can trust, call us at 317-406-5382.