One of the most common issues of drain odor is due to blockages and clogs. Any type of blockages, whether they are partial or full, can prevent waste water from properly leaving your home. Over time, this stagnant water sitting in the pipes can build up bacteria and produce pungent odors throughout the night.
A smelly sink is usually caused by bacteria build up from grease, fat and food which have been flushed down the drain. These will then get stuck in the pipes causing the familiar rotten egg smell.
If you are smelling rotten eggs in your bathroom or kitchen sink, you might have a problem with hydrogen sulfide. Hydrogen sulfide gas is unwanted bacteria that produces a sulfur smell. Hydrogen sulfide is a colorless, flammable, and hazardous smell.
Hot Vinegar
Hot vinegar does a fantastic job of keeping your drains clean and smelling nice. To do this, you need to warm up some white vinegar and pour it down your drains. Adding a cup of baking soda can help you make it more effective. But, on its own, you can be confident it will do a great job.
A slow-draining sink clogged with ordinary hair and soap scum can build up bacteria in the P-trap until your bathroom sink smells like rotten eggs. This smell can also happen in sinks that haven't been used for a long time. Clear the clog by using a combination of baking soda, white vinegar and hot water.
Perhaps the smell is coming from something decaying in the P-trap or in the piping between the sink drain and the P-trap. Bacteria feeding on clumps of hair clogged with soap scum, for example, can create a nasty smell.
If your hot water smells like rotten eggs, it is likely because of your water heater. Contact a trained boiler inspector to see how this can be fixed. Sulfates in water, as well as iron and sulfur bacteria can interact with the anode rod in water heaters.
One of the most common issues of drain odor is due to blockages and clogs. Any type of blockages, whether they are partial or full, can prevent waste water from properly leaving your home. Over time, this stagnant water sitting in the pipes can build up bacteria and produce pungent odors throughout the night.
Pour Some Bleach in There: Bleach kills the majority of odor-causing bacteria. If you kill the odor-causing bacteria, you'll destroy their smell as well.
Just like cooking oil, bleach is one of those things you shouldn't pour into your sink. You should also never use bleach to unclog your drains. Doing so can even burst your drain pipes, and you'll be left with a nasty and expensive mess. Last but not least, it's harmful to the environment and sea life.
What you can do: Try this: put a couple teaspoons of baking soda in the drain and then pour in some vinegar. Then chase it with a pot of boiling water. The foaming of the baking soda/vinegar eats away at the junk in the drain and the boiling water helps wash it all away and sanitizes the drain.
A baking soda, vinegar, and boiling water combo can add extra power for breaking up the buildup in your drain's pipes. Periodically adding baking soda down your drain can keep the sink fresh and odor-free. Changing the filters eliminates the bad smells from a contaminated water softener.
The most likely cause of a sulfur smell or other bad smell coming from a drain is stuck food, and it's the easiest to fix. As food that gets clogged in a drain or disposal decomposes, it emits gasses that cause unpleasant odors.
Pour roughly 150g of bicarb down the plug (it's fine that some will stay on the surface). Then pour roughly 250ml of white vinegar over the solution, and this should make it bubble. Let the chemical reaction take place for around 25 minutes and then pour a kettle's worth of boiling water down the sink.
› Leaving neat bleach in the sink can cause damage to all sinks even stainless steel. If neat bleach should come into contact with this product, please rinse thoroughly with warm soapy water. › Chlorine bleach is a very aggressive chemical, it can and will corrode stainless steel.
Pouring boiling water is quite risky as it might lead to a steam burn or scalding. Another thing to keep in mind is what type of material you are pouring in into. If you have a porcelain sink, it is likely to crack due to the heat. All in all, pouring boiling water down your drain will only cause issues down the road.
Preventative Maintenance
Pouring bleach into the drain when the unit is not operating can leave residual bleach, which will damage the drain pan and line. Using vinegar for preventative maintenance throughout the year will keep your drain clean and clear and will not damage your line.
One of the most common causes of sewage smells is a clogged drain. When your home's wastewater has nowhere to go, the odors will come back up the drain they should be going down.
The Dangers of Hydrogen Sulfide, AKA “Sewer Gas”
A naturally occurring gas, hydrogen sulfide, or “H2S,” is toxic at high concentrations. Prolonged or acute exposure to the gas can cause eye irritation, headache, nausea fatigue, and – in extreme cases – death.
Some common causes of sewage smells in households are: A pipe leak: A leaky pipe or drain can cause a buildup of moisture or debris that eventually causes a rotten smell to emanate from the area.
Professional plumbers may use industrial water jetters, snake augers, and pipe camera equipment to find and fix the cause of your drain smell.
Sewer gas produces a very distinct rotten egg smell, caused when organic materials break down and decompose to form hydrogen sulfide. If you're unsure about the smell coming from your drains or sewers, call a licensed plumber who can perform an inspection or clear and clean blockages.
Vinegar is a great remedy for keeping your drains clean and fresh. It's especially effective if it's heated. The acetic acid of the vinegar helps to neutralize the source of the odor. The acid in the vinegar can easily penetrate the grease and has disinfecting properties as well.
There could be odor-causing bacteria feeding on debris in your pipes. This process will give off a foul-smelling hydrogen sulfide gas, which smells like sewage or rotten eggs. Also, mold grows where it's warm and wet — and mold growth on the debris causing a drain clog can also cause a bad smell.
Pieces of soap, shower gel, dead skin, hair, and other kinds of debris may cause clogging in your shower drains. If you notice a sewerage smell in your bathroom coupled with minor flooding when taking showers, you could be dealing with a clogged shower drain.