ᐅ Blown-in insulation has a musty, plastic-like odor.

Hello everyone,

We moved into our newly built house just under a month ago. Our ventilation system is the Zehnder ComfoAir. The air coming from the ventilation outlets still smells like plastic. Does anyone else experience this? What could be the cause?

Best regards!

Is an enthalpy exchanger with heat recovery installed in your system?

I’m not exactly sure how your controlled residential ventilation system is set up, but if the usual blue ducts and similar components have been used, then more than half of it is made of plastic. Since you’ve only been living there for about a month, in my opinion these are just normal emissions from the system.

There is a thread in the green forum about a similar problem. The cause was apparently a defective batch of pipes.
You can also try searching for "controlled residential ventilation smells like plastic" → first result. The thread is called "controlled residential ventilation smells!"

It could be a product defect, but it doesn’t have to be.
In our case, if I remember correctly, it took about 2-3 months before the "plastic smell" was no longer noticeable.

Thank you very much for your advice!
The installer initially tried to make some changes to the system, but it didn’t help. We are now waiting for Zehnder to contact us. We ordered the enthalpy exchanger from our construction company for an additional 750 euros. We strongly suspect that this component is the cause of the problem. Do you think Zehnder will replace it with a standard heat exchanger because the enthalpy exchanger is faulty? Is it possible for us to get the 750 euros back from our construction company?