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Carrier Furnace / AC Electrical Issues (Burning Plastic Smell)

Asked Jun 8, 2007, 03:35 PM — 2 Answers
Hello All,

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I am a bit of a novice in this area. I have a Carrier 58GS100-GA Furnace & Carrier 28RC130010 AC unit on top. Just today I noticed a strong acidic burning smell coming from the basement and loud humming sound, and noticed some minor smoke collecting in the basement. I quickly switched the thermostat to off, and master pwr off and proceeded to investigate... Pulled the maintenance cover and looked for burnt electrical lines but could not find any. So I decided to turn the thermostat back on and then set a temp (AC), went back down to the furnace and flipped the master pwr back on then depressed the furnace blower door safety switch back on and noticed a blue electrical flash *POP* just behind the box for the that switch. I repeated this a second time, and saw another flash came out from behind the blower where the lines came out of the switch box and went to the back lead behind the blower. I did notice the blower turns fine, both manually and after startup (continued to work until powered down, after the electrical flashes). I turned all power off again, and searched all the lines and could still find no burnt wiring. Any ideas? Thanks a lot!

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hvac1000's Avatar
hvac1000 Posts: 14,539, Reputation: 2381
Heating & Air Conditioning Expert
  
#2

Jun 8, 2007, 08:05 PM


I believe the blower motor is shot or the wiring has rubbed through and shorted. If you do not know exactly what you are doing I would call for service. You might also have them check the door switch since you flashed it a few times during your testing and they are known to go bad when they flash. The smell is probably from the motor windings burning. The name of that smell is askrill.
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eagark's Avatar
eagark Posts: 14, Reputation: 10
New Member
  
#3

Feb 10, 2008, 12:28 AM
My vote goes to the blower motor giving its last as it usually goes out with a strong smell. Usually an amp test will reveal a weak motor, but often it just burns up and eventually quits
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