Why Don't Plug-In Air Fresheners Work in My Home Any More?

March 2, 2021 1:23 PM

I have a Glade plug-in air freshener and it doesn't smell of anything. The tip (where the strength adjustment can be set) is warm. I have tried it in 3 different rooms and no dice. I also tried an Air Wick plug-in - same deal. Previously though (like a few years) I had an Air Wick plug-in which did work. What could it be or what could have changed? I can smell other things just fine. My house is old (built 1891).
posted by my log does not judge to Home & Garden (9 answers total)

Best answer: Nose blindness?

“Nose blindness is a temporary, naturally occurring adaptation of your body that leads to an inability to detect or distinguish common scents in your surroundings. It’s sometimes also referred to as olfactory fatigue or olfactory adaptation.

Nose blindness is often associated with areas where we spend a lot of time. It’s why we often have a hard time detecting common household odors.”
posted by Sassyfras at 1:29 PM on March 2, 2021 [3 favorites]

Do/did you have covid?

To me, this has been the weirdest side-effect of this pandemic. Who could have thought it? It's unbelievable how much you can glean when you have mountains of data (spurious ice-cream co-relations notwithstanding).
posted by Arthur Dent at 1:30 PM on March 2, 2021 [11 favorites]

Dumb question - what's the level of the fragrance oil in the plug-in? Maybe you just got a bum refill.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:38 PM on March 2, 2021 [2 favorites]

Have you tried a radically different scent than your usual one(s)? It may be working just fine, but you've become nose-blind to it, or your environment already smells like the air freshener so you can't notice the plug-in working.
posted by erst at 1:50 PM on March 2, 2021 [2 favorites]

Switch fragrances?

My nose gets used to them in a few days and I have trouble smelling them until I switch to a different one.
posted by TheAdamist at 1:52 PM on March 2, 2021

I went in a client's office in the Before Times and literally had to FLEE because instant migraine. She was very offended and insisted that there was no smell from her plug-ins, they just "kept the air fresh."
posted by cyndigo at 2:23 PM on March 2, 2021 [10 favorites]

Your house has nothing to do with it. Either there is something wrong with your sense of smell or there is something wrong with both of these products. These are very strongly scented products; my mom uses them, and you can smell them right out of the packaging. You don't even need to plug them in.

It seems slightly less likely to me that you've bought two unrelated products that are defective, so I suspect that either you've become nose blind to them because of frequent use, or you have a condition (like Covid) affecting your sense of smell.

This is easy to test, though: Just order some other, strongly scented product in a scent you would not usually buy, and see if you can smell it.

If you can, it's probably defective product or nose blindness. Easily solved: Use something else for a while and use it less. If you can't smell it, be concerned.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 2:41 PM on March 2, 2021 [7 favorites]

I have experienced the nose blindness effect with this exact type of product - after living with them for a while I don’t smell them at all, but returning to the same house after being away for some weeks I find them overpowering. If you just purchased this that’s probably not your problem, of course, but if you’ve had it a bit and feel that it’s stopped working there’s a very good chance that it is your problem.
posted by atoxyl at 7:21 PM on March 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Nose blindness it is: just bought an Apple Pie refill (the previous Air Wick plug-in which worked was Apple Pie too) which I can smell just fine, so it's the linen scent ones I can't smell. Thanks, all!
posted by my log does not judge at 2:20 PM on March 13, 2021