Weird smell coming from outlets

House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

suresk

New Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2010
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
I have a new home I just moved into about 3 months ago. The last week or so, I've noticed a weird odor in my master bedroom that I finally tracked down to 2 outlets along one wall in that room.

The smell is a little hard to describe - maybe a little bit fishy, and sort of like insulation.

I know the usual cause of a smell like this is loose wiring that melts the plastic, but when I pulled one outlet apart I didn't see anything that appeared to be loose. I also didn't feel any heat around the outlets or on the covers themselves.

Any ideas on what could be causing this? I'm not even sure who I should call to come look at it if I can't sort it out. The smell started out pretty faint, but has gotten pretty distracting the last day or two.

Thanks for any help.
 
suresk, I moved this so that maybe some of our electrical guys might get a chance to see this and welcome to House Repair Talk.
 
Dead decomposing mouse in the wall or somewhere nearby is the usual culprit.They like to chew on the wiring insulation and end up cooked.
Get an electrician to look further and test the curcuit.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top