Why My AC Smells Like Pee? - 7 Reasons

Table of Contents

Air conditioners are designed and manufactured to provide you the comfort in hot and dry climate conditions. They not only cool down the temperature of your house but also purify the air by removing dust particles.

However, these machines can be extremely uncomfortable if they don’t operate properly due to malfunctions. One such case is the pee smell coming out of an air conditioner.

Sitting in an air-conditioned room with such a disgusting smell spread everywhere is not easy. In this article, we’ll take a look at a few reasons behind this smell and how you can avoid this unpleasant experience.

Reasons For AC Pee Smell

On the off chance that you are encountering a horrendous pee smell in your cooled room, that doesn’t imply that somebody has peed around your air-cooling system.

A ton of smells are like the scent of pee, and it’s tough to separate. There are different purposes for these scents, and we will examine these in detail.

1. Dead Skin Cells

This might be surprising to you but your skin cells can be the reason behind the disgusting pee smell coming out of your AC. What happens, in this case, is that when the dead skin gets peeled off your body, it stays in as tiny particles in the air due to extremely low density.

These particles are collected by the air conditioner, which is usually home to several types of bacteria if not serviced regularly. The bacteria in the moist environment feed on your dead cells and create ammonium upon their decomposition.

Ammonia is a vital ingredient in urine and that is the reason your AC smells like pee.

2. Dead Insects

If you have been away from your home for a long time, it means the air conditioner system in your home doesn’t turn on for a long time. When you come back and turn on your air conditioner, you may encounter a urine-like smell with cooling air.

The reason for this bad smell might be the dead insects stuck inside the air conditioner. To resolve the problem, you must open your air conditioner and find if there are any dead insects.

3. Evaporator Coils

Another common reason for the urine smell coming out of your air conditioner is the development of mold and moisture due to the evaporator coils. These coils collect dust which is stuck into the vents over time.

The dust mixed with moisture creates a smell that is similar to the smell of urine. Thus, not maintaining the evaporator coils of your air conditioner produces a peeing odor. You can solve this issue or completely avoid it by regularly cleaning the evaporator coils.

4. Condenser

In the previous cause, we have seen that excess moisture can create an unbearable peeing smell in your air conditioner. Let’s discuss another reason that can lead to the buildup of moisture in your air conditioner.

The cooling system holds a required water level to remove the heat from the collected air and prevent the compressor from heating up. This drain pan needs to be serviced at least once a year.

Otherwise, it gets clogged up with the excess wet matter. This phenomenon will create moisture in your system which will then be the reason behind the disgusting smell coming out of your air conditioner.

5. Leakage Of Gas

Sometimes you feel the smell of gas leakage in your room, and you don’t know where that comes from. The air conditioner contains compressed gases in the system to produce cool air.

Due to any random event, the gas starts leaking in the air conditioner system, and AC starts throwing it into the room with cool air. A few of these gases are disgusting, like pee and it’s really hard to differentiate them from urine smell. This smell is dangerous for your health. You need to fix it as soon as possible.

6. Burning Wires

Another reason behind urine smells coming out of your air conditioner is the burning of cables due to an electrical short circuit. In this case, the smell is only going to increase until the AC ceases to operate.

To find out the exact problem, you should hire someone from a repair company to fix this problem. Don’t try repairing yourself as it can be dangerous.

See also: Why Would A Neutral Wire Be Hot?

7. Existing Smell In The Air

There is a common misconception regarding the collection of air by air conditioners. Many people perceive that when the air conditioner is running, its sucks air from the outer atmosphere. However, it sucks air from inside the home, cools it down, and delivers it into the outer atmosphere.

The air conditioner has a filter that purifies the air coming from inside the room because it contains dust particles. However, it does not remove any smell from the environment.

If there is already a urine smell in your room, it will only increase as the air conditioner will collect it and redistribute it along with moisture. If you don’t clean the filter layers of the air conditioner, the dust will gradually increase in the filter layer.

The solution to this problem is straightforward. Open the lid of the air conditioner and easily plug out the filter layers. Clean these layers and put them back in their original position in the air conditioner.

8. Dirty Air Filters

This is one of the most common reasons that make the room smell like pee. Most people neglect or forget the air filters and due to this, the air is jammed. Thus, reducing the inflow of air. You need to replace air filters every 45-90 days to operate at maximum efficiency as suggested by the Air Con experts.

However, this time limit significantly depends on your home environment. You should replace the air filters seasonally to prevent additional pollutants like pollen or pet shedding.

9. Mold

The evaporator coils of your AC are situated near the blower fan and their function is to absorb the heat. Also, it’s the part where the mold accumulates and you need to know about it.

The dust and dirt directly attack the evaporator and stick to it forever if not addressed. Over time, it can make the evaporator rust and jam from operating. Then you need to get it replaced. For this task, we recommend you contact an expert from your nearest company.

Getting Rid Of AC Pee Smell – DIY Guide

Always remember that air conditioners have complex pieces of equipment that generally can’t be repaired without extensive skills and experience. If you perform any operation on your AC unit, you may completely make it void.

Also, any warranty may be lost after a manual operation. But there are a few DIY steps that you can perform to solve the simple and commonly appearing issues of bad smell. These are listed below. You should follow them in a particular manner to avoid any issues:

Start by turning off the air conditioner. Afterward, make sure that the AC is not connected to any running electrical output.
Open and remove the front cover. You won’t require any complex tools to remove it. This is a straightforward process.
Now you’ll have to remove the air filters and wash them. Again, you don’t need special detergent for this process. You can wipe off the dust and use water afterward to clean them.
The next thing that you’ll have to do is clean the evaporator coils. We don’t recommend cleaning them with a regular brush and detergent. Here, you should use foam with a special cleaning agent. These coils’ cleaning will most likely solve the smell problem as they can easily dry up and create a smell.
The last thing you can perform on your AC is to clean the draining pipe through which the condensated water comes out.

Final Thoughts

From all of the above-mentioned causes of urine smell coming out of the air conditioner, you can identify the importance of its regular maintenance. Especially at the start of every summer season, it’s essential to verify the quality of each component.

Also, note that not all products offer the same value for money. You may encounter this problem with a new product if it doesn’t have the quality of a high-efficiency product.

As air conditioners are complex electrical pieces of equipment, we don’t recommend you perform the repair yourself. Rather, you hire a professional to do the job.