Help! My AC System Makes My House Stink in Roseville, CA

The air conditioner in your Roseville, CA, home should produce cool air that’s relatively odorless. If the AC system begins emitting bizarre smells, treat that fact as a cry for help. Here are three odors you might encounter from your AC system and what each means:

Gunpowder or Burning

The nature of this smell makes it fairly obvious that something inside your AC system is burning or has overheated, but you may wonder what that might be and why it happened. A likely explanation is that frayed or damaged electrical wiring has fired off a rogue jolt of electricity somewhere, which may have ignited. Another possibility is that one of your AC system’s critical parts, like its motor, has overheated or short-circuited.

Chloroform or Ether

Unlike some troublesome air conditioning odors, the source of this one is very easy to pinpoint. If you notice a vaguely sweet, bleach-like smell that resembles that of ether or chloroform, it means that refrigerant has leaked out of your AC system.

As soon as you notice this smell, we strongly recommend exiting your home and requesting professional assistance. Refrigerant is dangerous, and attempting to stop the leak and refill your AC system will only put you at risk of severe illness or worse. Instead, allow a trained HVAC service technician to perform the repair work required to find the source of the leak, plug it and restore your system’s refrigerant levels.

Garbage or Rotten Meat

In all probability, this is the smell of an animal that crawled into your AC system at an earlier point and died there. It’s not wise to attempt to remove it on your own. Until a professional arrives, it would be wise to run your fans and open windows.

If you smell something from your AC system that seems unusual, have it inspected right away. Call us at Jaguar Heating & Air and request professional repair and maintenance services from the best team around Roseville, CA.

Image provided by iStock

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