What Causes Smelly Aircon & How To Fix It?
Why My Air Conditioning Is Smelly
A musty or rotten smell coming out of your air conditioner is simply annoying when you want to find refuge in a cool room on a hot day. The smell is not only annoying but breathing harmful debris, and dust particles can harm your lungs. Bad odors may influence your well-being, mood, and productivity.
Sometimes your air conditioner blows out smelly air along with the cool air that indicates the unit requires maintenance. The odor may vary from the earthy mold odor that gives your basement their characteristic musty smell to other smells like the strong cooking smell, the smell of powerful spices, or smoke smell from cigarettes or burnt food.
Causes
The most common question in everybody’s mind is ‘Why is the aircon smelly?’ The condenser coil causes the smelly air from your unit. This problem is called the ‘Odoriferous coil.’ This problem occurs when the unit’s condenser pan gets clogged not to be drained properly.
The water buildup encourages the growth of mold around the condenser coil and also on it. The mold smell gets blown from the unit through the air ducts. The smell gets into your home and annoys its occupants. Strong odors like the cooking of spices and smoke from cigarettes coat the aircon coil, which in turn blows back into the room.
Another cause of foul smell from the air conditioner is caused by sewer gas. In most of the units, the condensate line drips into a drainpipe, which stops the sewer gas from getting back into the plumbing lines. When the drain gets clogged, the water will not drip into the drain. The sewer gases may get sucked back if the trap is dry or broken.
Solutions
Regular cleaning of the coil can help you get rid of odoriferous coil problem that blows foul smell.
* Mix ¼ cup of household bleach with 1 litre of water.
* Dip a sponge in this solution and clean down the coil thoroughly.
* Wipe the coil with clean water.
* Repair the condenser pan if the water is not drained properly.
Advantages of Regular Servicing
It is highly recommended to service your air conditioner unit every three months. You can clean the air filter and the outer panel every 2 weeks. This improves the working of the unit and the quality of the cool air it provides. Regular aircon servicing provides the following benefits:
* Cooler air
* Lower power consumption
* Reduced water leakage
* Extends the lifespan of your unit
* Avoids unnecessary aircon repairs.
Even after cleaning the coils, the air blown out from the unit is smelly, then change the air filters in your home. Air filters not only trap dust, grime, and dirt, but they may also absorb strong smells. When the unit is working, the trapped smell is circulated back into the room. Regular changing of the air filters will increase your unit’s effectiveness and reduce the smelly air blowing from the unit.
The pleasure of enjoying the cool air from a properly functioning air conditioner is spoiled by the smell that emanates along with it. So be careful to maintain your unit properly to avoid smelly air.
