intermittent 'bad smell' from airing cupboard area

Our airing cupboard, (containing hot water tank, CH pump & shower pump), occasionally develops a 'bad smell'.

I've always put the smell down to it being over-stuffed with towels & bed linen & of something damp being added and allowed to fester.

In an attempt to prevent the problem by increasing air throughput I fitted a ventilation vent in the bottom of the door and drilled some large holes near the top. However it's recently done it again. :(

I've removed all the towels & stuff to another room but none of them particularly smell so I no longer think it's that. The other thing I've noticed this time is that the smell is evident near the ceiling of the hall below.

I started to wonder if it was a dead animal as we can get mice between floorboards occasionally but our (very active) cats have shown no interest in the area. I also took a few photos through a gap with my phone & could see nothing.

There is no sign of current dampness though the joists show tidemark evidence of a previous episode of a leak.

I'm finally wondering whether a solution would be to increase the ventilation in the space beneath the floorboards and wondering whether to simply fit a simple low-powered fan such as the Xpelair DX100 Axial

12W Bathroom Fan (Screwfix Product Code: 32270) to run ?continuously.

Any other ideas?

Reply to
usenet2012
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Is this as mine is, right against the wall between your house and the one next door. I get all sorts of smells through from next door in my airing cupboard some nice some not so nice.

Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

is this a "funky" fishy smell? perhaps coinciding with heating /shower use?

if so check the wiring - I was called to a mate's place where a right bodge had been done wiring a shower - the white plastic iso switch in the airing cupboard had charred so much (that's the source of tghe fishy funky smell) the terminals fell out of it when I undid it....eeek

Cheers Jim K

Reply to
Jim K

Some of those electrical insulation materials smell terrible when they get hot as you say, maybe its a design feature like the smell of gass. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Ours did the same. It turned out to be (after a *huge* amount of investigation) a failing joint where the spade connector was welded onto the wire tail of the immersion heater, which was high resistance, overheating and burning the plastic around it. I finally only found out because the spade connector fell off when I pulled the wire off it one day.

Take the cover off your immersion heater and have a rummage round inside...

Reply to
Huge

In message , Brian Gaff writes

No. It's in the middle of the house.

(We used to get overpowering tobacco smoke smells through the cupboard under the stairs until I emptied a can of expanding foam into the gaps.)

Reply to
usenet2012

The wiring to our ancient immersion heater is indeed old & decayed and I've put a sign on the cover shouting a warning to anyone unwary but we it's permanently disconnected from the power supply.

Or could the heat from the tank be causing the emission of the smells from the decaying plastic?

I will nose around with more precision.

Reply to
usenet2012

I would. The smell in our case was *exactly* like aged urine. It was *vile*.

Reply to
Huge

Check out any electric switches and immersion heater, remove covers look for signs of overheating /burning/loose connections.. Hot insulation smells pretty bad. Could start a fire (especially in airing cupboard) so important to check out.

Reply to
harryagain

"> but our (very active) cats" could they be leaving an intermittent `present`

Reply to
ss

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