How to defunkify my old heater units?
April 19, 2022 3:06 PM Subscribe
How do I kill unpleasant odors wafting off of my apartment's disused heater units?
I live in a building from the 1960s that at the time had heater units in the living room/bedrooms that were decommissioned when they added central heat and air. It's taken a bit to work this out, but on days when the temperature and humidity are just so and I have my windows open, the units give off a weird funk. The living room is slightly perfume-like (not a pleasant perfume, though), and the bedroom scent is like that of a sweaty middle school boy's bedroom. I was worried the latter was because of me, and so I replaced all of my bedding, only to realize the culprit was these old Trane heating units. I'm a little freaked out at the idea of opening them up to see what disgusting cruft might be in them, so I'm hoping some of you out there know the right sorts of things to pour down the vents or whatever to make the wafting funk go away (hopefully without having to lift up the cover). Should I use vinegar or cheap vodka? Are there alternative approaches that work even better? I'm hoping for a one and done type of solution, particularly if I have to raise the covers. (I'm worried that would be nauseatingly gross.)
I can't help but think this is a known issue, but all my googling turned up suggestions on how to fix the heater units, or, bafflingly, a Joan Osborne video, where she covers "What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted".
PS: for anybody who might go trawling through all my old questions, the one about the odd scent wafting through my apartment on random mornings was a matter of my building connecting each column of apartments' bathrooms with a ventilation shaft, and some downstairs neighbor's soap/shaving cream/whatever wafting up on days I had my windows open, and it was sufficiently breezy. Other than the part where I love to keep my windows open, it's totally unrelated.
I live in a building from the 1960s that at the time had heater units in the living room/bedrooms that were decommissioned when they added central heat and air. It's taken a bit to work this out, but on days when the temperature and humidity are just so and I have my windows open, the units give off a weird funk. The living room is slightly perfume-like (not a pleasant perfume, though), and the bedroom scent is like that of a sweaty middle school boy's bedroom. I was worried the latter was because of me, and so I replaced all of my bedding, only to realize the culprit was these old Trane heating units. I'm a little freaked out at the idea of opening them up to see what disgusting cruft might be in them, so I'm hoping some of you out there know the right sorts of things to pour down the vents or whatever to make the wafting funk go away (hopefully without having to lift up the cover). Should I use vinegar or cheap vodka? Are there alternative approaches that work even better? I'm hoping for a one and done type of solution, particularly if I have to raise the covers. (I'm worried that would be nauseatingly gross.)
I can't help but think this is a known issue, but all my googling turned up suggestions on how to fix the heater units, or, bafflingly, a Joan Osborne video, where she covers "What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted".
PS: for anybody who might go trawling through all my old questions, the one about the odd scent wafting through my apartment on random mornings was a matter of my building connecting each column of apartments' bathrooms with a ventilation shaft, and some downstairs neighbor's soap/shaving cream/whatever wafting up on days I had my windows open, and it was sufficiently breezy. Other than the part where I love to keep my windows open, it's totally unrelated.
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