Suggestions/Help on AC

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Elen

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Hi all. Recently we had a new furnace and air conditioner installed. Works great - no problems there. However, when the AC comes on - I can smell an odor which I believe is coming from the upstairs. (We live in an up and down, with a tenant upstairs). Each time the AC comes on I swear I can smell a combination of wet dog and garbage. My husband thinks I'm imagining things, but I really don't think so.
So my question is: is this at all possible, or am I truly a nutbar?
Any suggestions you can give would be appreciated. :)
 
Two possibilities:

1. Your smelling something being pulled into the return air ducts from the tenants upstairs.

2. Your condensate drain tube is clogged and building up water and possibly mold/bacteria in the drip pan.
 
You might also want to open up your air handler and have a look at your evaporator coils. If there is a problem with your condensate drain they may also be moldy. If so, first fix the moisture problem, then spray the coils with evaporator cleaner or Lysol.

Matt
 
From my limited knowledge of this system I would say that the smell is being sucked into the return air from the upstairs.
The condensate tube is downstaris with us, and it drains directly into a floor drain. I've looked at the floor drain and can't see a problem there with buildup, etc. So that said, it leads me back to the first sentence? If this is indeed the case, how do I combat this? (short of telling the tenant to clean up, which as you can imagine would go over like a lead balloon):eek:
 
The problem isn't necessarily with the floor drain. It could be in the condensate pan, drain line and/or evap coils. Otherwise, you might need to look into a furnace filter that removes odors. I believe these would be carbon fitlers. Short of that, place a air freshener in the return air duct.
 
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