Fishy Odors Coming from HVAC Air Ducts
A fishy smell may not be your air ducts. The most common causes for an unexplained fishy odor in the home is not mold or a dead animal, as most people may think. A rotten fishy smell coming from your air ducts can be quite unpleasant and alarming. This odor may not be coming from the air duct systems, the odor maybe coming from the inside of your furnace. Inside your furnace, there may have be an overheated piece of plastic in an electrical part inside your furnace also known as HVAC system. Most people will automatically call an air duct cleaning company to get their air ducts cleaned out, however this may not help because of it being the electrical panel that may have overheated inside your furnace. Having an air duct cleaning company out first to come do a duct cleaning will help in your overall indoor air quality (IAQ) for you and your family however it may not help with the fishy odor.
What to do next:
Turn off the furnace system and the AC unit, at the circuit breaker box. They should be labeled as furnace, and another breaker will be labeled as AC unit, they will be on separate breakers. These two Breakers should be very close together in your breaker box.
Check for issues: take off your furnace doors and check for any signs of flickering lights, overheated components or signs of any discolored panels or wires.
Call a professional licensed heating and cooling company in your State for an inspection on the furnace.
Telling them what you have discovered will help that company troubleshoot your situation and resulting in getting your furnace back up and running in a faster time frame.
Sending the company pictures what you have discovered for example: take a picture of the overheated panel so they can see what has happened.
You can also let them know what type of furnace you have by taking a picture of the side of your furnace that has a manufacturer’s label, that has the serial number and model number of your furnace. This will let them know exactly what type of circuit panel inside your furnace that they will need to bring out to your home.
The serial number will either be on your coil panel up at the very top of your furnace, shown in the picture below. Or will be on the right side or left side of your furnace. Other locations of the manufacturer’s label could possibly inside of the furnace doors.
