Sometimes a burning plastic smell can be the sign of an electrical failure.
Burning plastic smell from furnace vents.
The smell of burning plastic could be a sign of an overheated household appliance a kitchen accident or a problem with the hvac system.
Something in your ac is overheating.
After a while plastic shielding on wires can wear out crack and occasionally fall into the heating area of your furnace resulting in a nasty burning plastic smell.
This is not the first time you ve used the heat and the burning smell won t go away.
Turn off your furnace and remove your registers so you can clean or remove any objects that don t belong.
Malfunctions in the heater can cause the plastic wire casings to fail and meltdown.
Cleaning the plastic out can be a real pain as well.
One of the most common burning smells you ll experience with your furnace will happen when the unit is turned on for the first time of the cool weather season.
Have an hvac specialist check for burning electrical components if you notice a burning electrical smell coming from your vents.
The most common reason you might experience a burning smell when you first turn on your heat for the season is that dust has settled on your furnace heat exchanger.
In most cases the dusty burning smell coming from your furnace is actually quite normal.
It should go without stating that this is a serious problem.
Parts that may need to be replaced include.
Plastic coated wires that may have caused an electrical fault the fan belt.
That means there s probably something in your furnace or heat pump that s overheating.
Usually this means a foreign object such as a toy has found its way into your heating system.
If you re just turning it on for the first time this winter chances are the furnace is actually burning away any dirt and dust that accumulates inside.
This could be anything from a plastic bottle cap to one of your children s plastic toys.
This could mean that something larger than dust fell onto your heat exchanger coils.
There are 3 potential reasons you ve noticed a burning plastic smell coming out of your air conditioning vents.
Over the warm months while the furnace is not used dust from the home will settle in the combustion chamber.
Another smell coming from your heater could be that of burning plastic or rubber.
If your house smells of burning plastic take caution.
The heat exchanger of your furnace gets extremely hot when it operates and this heat will burn any dust that has accumulated on the parts over the summer months.
There s a fire in your home somewhere and the ac is re circulating the smell it s just your heater burning off dust.
Heaters and furnaces may smell of burnt plastic when their parts are broken or worn out.
A plastic or rubber object burning will give off fumes and can be hazardous to breathe in.
Turn off the heat and call a professional.
If you smell something that smells a lot like gunpowder this is probably because there s a circuit board or other electronic component in your furnace that s burning up.
You see smoke coming from your vents.
If something is overheating it can lead to more expensive damage.
