So no real surpriese here… title is close to what is going on in the description. Most of the time my AC unit has a normal smell, but from time to time, it just seems to have this rotten/sewer type smell. I notice it, and especially the GF notices it… so something must be done. It’s a rather difficult problem to solve, so I have already involved the landlord and when they came over, of course it wasn’t stinky, and they did a simple thing to look like they were doing something but of course… as we all know… THESE PEOPLE NEVER DO ANYTHING AND THEY NEVER GET ANYTHING DONE BECAUSE THAT WOULD INVOLVE LOSING FACE AND OHHHH… WHAT A FUCKING TRAGEDY THAT WOULD BE… HAVING TO ADMIT THAT THEY DO NOT KNOW EVERYTHING ON THE FUCKING PLANET… THAT THEY ARE NOT GODS ON EARTH… OHHHH… WHAT BLIGHT IT MUST BE TO ENCOUNTER SUCH A CONDITION!
Your AC unit may need cleaning. Or maybe a rat got in there and died? I don’t know.
Your landlord isn’t going to pay for cleaning… it costs about 3000 per AC to do this properly. If it’s a window unit you can perhaps pull it out and hose it down outside. It would also cut your electric bill if you do this as well.
Or maybe it’s a live rat with flatulence.
What type of aircon is it ~ window, split or central? With central units there’s often a shared fresh air duct to the rest of the building so you get to experience the septic tank aroma every so often. When it starts to stink check out either the basement or roof and see if there’s a similar smell.
Have you eliminated the girlfriend? ( As a possible source of the smell)
They turn into little rat fossils when they die, like hard as a rock. I remember pulling one out of our ceiling once back home like that. I don’t believe they really smell at that stage. Good for practical jokes still though.
I get this when searching for bad smells from an air conditioner.
It could mean there’s a backed up sewer line or ruptured sewer pipe somewhere near your ductwork . And that will emit a smell of methane, which can fill up your home with a foul smell. Methane is a hazardous gas.
or
An air conditioner that smells like rotten eggs or sulphur almost always means one thing: there’s a gas leak in your house, which is getting into your ductwork . Natural gas is a hazardous substance
Also.
What’s the brand of air conditioning? It shouldn’t be hard or very expensive to have one of their technicians come have a look at the problem.
Calling your landlord to fix a problem in your apartment in Taiwan, classic! The OP really is a comedian.
Or maybe there’s just mold in the AC unit. I mean it’s dark and wet inside.
Well, assuming the OP is accurately describing the smell, mold would smell, moldy. OP seems to be describing methane, which if it was me, I wouldn’t hang around waiting for the landlord to deal with, get a maintenance guy in, if maintenance guy finds the problem, pay the bill for fixing the problem and then try to have a reasonable conversation with the landlord so the bill can come out of the rent.
But that’s just me.
The only way you’d get sewer smell in the AC is if the OP has one of those ducted AC that is rare as hen’s teeth in residential properties. It’s either window unit or ductless AC. So the problem has to either be mold, or something crawled in and died. If it’s central AC then you do need someone to look at it. But again central AC is rare as hen’s teeth in Taiwan for residential properties.
It’s kind of a window unit… but it’s not in a window, if that makes sense. I live in a newish building, so it seems there was an intentional space for an air conditioner unit that would typically go in a window. The back end hangs outside on the side of the building, I’m on the 7th floor, so that is not accessible. The water drips from a hose that leads back into the front storage room of the apartment unit and it drips down a utility sink. This has already been checked as it’s the only part that is accessible.
Also, my apartment is on the top floor of the building and there are some pipes and stuff on the roof, but they’re not that close to the AC unit.
It’s a Panasonic.
They’re not particularly rare, I’ve a couple of apartments with ducted aircon and have friends and colleagues with the same.
Is it a later addition to the building, i.e. someone built the apartment on top of an existing building? If it is there could be all sorts of complications with drainage and ventilation. Are you sure the smell is coming from the aircon rather than being blown around by the aircon? It’s pretty easy to remove the front panel on the window type and just check it’s not full of mold or other nasties.
Sure, but in that case the OP should be talking to building management, since central AC tends to be centrally maintained.
Not in any of the residential places I know of. The “fresh” air duct is part of the building infrastructure and is the responsibility of the building management. Any air-conditioning, including ducting, inside the apartment is the responsibility of the apartment owner. Moot point anyway as the OP doesn’t have central air.
It’s not a rooftop apartment, it’s on the top floor of the building, the 7th floor of a 7 story building. By coincidence, there is a rooftop unit above me, but given its setup, I can’t see anything that could affect my AC unit.
not the case.
In a PM someone said that since the smell is not constant, it’s possible that its coming from an extractor fan from the unit below. Anyway, I’m sitting here with it on and don’t smell anything… that could change by morning. Will probably need to get someone to take a look at it.