Sink plumbing.

[raccoon]

I've noticed that my bathroom sink really smells bad. Kind of like sewage. I've tried using those sink cleaners like Liquid Plumber. And it's certainly not because the sink is never clean.. I clean it almost everyday.

Is the plumbing too old?

 

[lilredex]

Just maybe.........Liq. Plumber is the problem. Did you check to see if the bottom of the "P" trap is leaking? If the trap is always full, there should be no odours, the trap isolates the drain from the sewer system and stops the stink.

 

[Jack Olsen]

Could be a vent issue. Drains have vents that run up to the roof.

 

[Frank The Plumber]

Your bathroom sink.

Your bathroom sink believe it or not will always be the most smelly Mc Nasty sink in the house.

You spit your tooth paste in there. Tooth paste has a fine sand base, this base coats and holds to the sides of the piping and breeds bacteria which smell bad. Mix this with your morning dose of morning mouth wash out and yuck city.

If you can. take out the stopper and clean it, you may have to disconnect the lever. You may have a nasty old bottle brush to put in there and flush the gunk out like I do, or you may want to buy one, they're cheap, cheaper than me.

BTW, drain cleaner always makes the drain smell worse.

If you have a good wet dry vac **** out the drain. Stinky, yes.

Put in some odorless bleach to kill all of the bugs. NOT IN A DRAIN WITH DRAIN CLEANER IN IT! thank you.
You may need to do this weekly.
Or, after you do a rinse with the mouth wash. dash a spot at the drain.
A good habit is to run the drain for 15 to 30 seconds after you are done brushing flossing and spittling into the sink, this flushes all of that microbial smell making bacteria down the drain.

Most people who do a spit and or brush and do not flush the junk down the drain see me a lot more than those who follow my advice. They think they are saving water. If 30 seconds of rinse out is too much water that's just silly. But if they want to save the world that's OK, it keeps us busy.

 

[theoldwizard1]

A plumber once told me this trick and it seems to work well !

Of course we are assuming the the drain pipe are all good condition.

Get you biggest pot (6-8 quarts/liters), fill it with as much water as you think you can safely carry. Put the pot on the stove and bring the water to a boil. Carry the water to the sink and pour it down. It probably will not clear a completely stopped up drain but it will make a slow drain move faster. The boiling water will also kill any bacteria which could be the source of your odor.

It might take 2 treatments the first time but if you repeat every 3-4 weeks your drains will run much better.

 

[kbs2244]

.
Do you wash you hair in that sink?
If so, you need to remove the plug a then pull off all the old smelly hair.

Or it could be a clogged vent through the roof.
Then, when you flush the toilet, the suction pulls the water out of the sink “p” trap.
An easy test it to put a smoking cigarette by the open sink drain and then flush the toilet.
If the smoke is pulled into the drain you have a clogged vent problem.

 

[Frank The Plumber]

A plumber once told me this trick and it seems to work well !

Of course we are assuming the the drain pipe are all good condition.

Get you biggest pot (6-8 quarts/liters), fill it with as much water as you think you can safely carry. Put the pot on the stove and bring the water to a boil. Carry the water to the sink and pour it down. It probably will not clear a completely stopped up drain but it will make a slow drain move faster. The boiling water will also kill any bacteria which could be the source of your odor.

It might take 2 treatments the first time but if you repeat every 3-4 weeks your drains will run much better.

You will crack the sink bowl doing this, thermal shock the porcelain, delaminate the laminated tops and crack the clear coat on a formed sink.

This plumber who told you to do this was maybe not being a friend.

An old gal that I know cans pickles in her sink, she blew the porcelain clean off that thing one day. Came off in a sheet still shaped like the bowl.

 

[Mmfh]

Hey if you girls in the house using that sink you might want to take out the trap and clean out the hair. My wife and my two daughters always plug up the bath sink with hair.

When I clean it out its slimy and smelly and could easily be your problem if the trap hasn't been cleaned out in a while.

Good Luck!

Mm

 

[mike13u]

Your bathroom sink.

Your bathroom sink believe it or not will always be the most smelly Mc Nasty sink in the house.

You spit your tooth paste in there. Tooth paste has a fine sand base, this base coats and holds to the sides of the piping and breeds bacteria which smell bad. Mix this with your morning dose of morning mouth wash out and yuck city.

If you can. take out the stopper and clean it, you may have to disconnect the lever. You may have a nasty old bottle brush to put in there and flush the gunk out like I do, or you may want to buy one, they're cheap, cheaper than me.

BTW, drain cleaner always makes the drain smell worse.

If you have a good wet dry vac **** out the drain. Stinky, yes.

Put in some odorless bleach to kill all of the bugs. NOT IN A DRAIN WITH DRAIN CLEANER IN IT! thank you.
You may need to do this weekly.
Or, after you do a rinse with the mouth wash. dash a spot at the drain.
A good habit is to run the drain for 15 to 30 seconds after you are done brushing flossing and spittling into the sink, this flushes all of that microbial smell making bacteria down the drain.

Most people who do a spit and or brush and do not flush the junk down the drain see me a lot more than those who follow my advice. They think they are saving water. If 30 seconds of rinse out is too much water that's just silly. But if they want to save the world that's OK, it keeps us busy.

GJ is great...Thanks for the scoop Frank. Pro advice straight from a pro. Cant beat it.

 

[Ron Lombardo]

" Get you biggest pot (6-8 quarts/liters), fill it with as much water as you think you can safely carry. Put the pot on the stove and bring the water to a boil."

Just dont pour boiling water down that drain AFTER you poured drain cleaner down it ...the drain cleaner will make a quick exit up in your face.

Hold your hand over the over flow...the little hole in the sink bowl and get a plunger and plunge the sink with 2" of water in it ... work almost everytime ... unless the house is about 60 years old and has galvanized pipe ..then the case is the pipe is closed up and needs to be repaced ... if the water bubbles then it could also be a vent issue as Jack said ...

Ron

 

[theoldwizard1]

You will crack the sink bowl doing this, thermal shock the porcelain, delaminate the laminated tops and crack the clear coat on a formed sink.

I have been doing it for a couple of years with no harm.

I do try to pour slowly and directly into the drain (strainer/stopper removed), but some usually does slop out. Bath and tub are 60+ years old. (Counter in bath is original Formica boomerang !)

Wife has strained spaghetti into kitchen sink for years (Kohler cast iron with porcelain)

 

[Frank The Plumber]

The problem is that the baskets have gaskets, the slip fittings have washers and some of the PVC fittings they put under the sinks today just will not hold up to the hot water at a temp over 150 f.

In restaurants and places where we use high temp water 140 to 185 we tend to do solid connections and no slip nuts or washers so the stuff lasts longer.

You also have to keep in mind that a lot of these good old sinks are not from this end of the pond, hot water over 150 will wreck them. Why risk it, dose a bit of something or use water only up to about 135 or so or worst case have it rodded and flushed. Should cost about $75 to 100 depending on your location. Don't want to tell you what a new sink might cost. Those laminated formed tops have a hard time not cracking just from daylight.

 

[raccoon]

I tried the hot water thing yesterday..i did think i was going to crack the porcelain but it didnt.. I won,t do it again. It didnt do anything.

I guess i,ll call someone...

 

[Frank The Plumber]

Is it going down slow? Or does it just smell?

 

[Kevin54]

Look underneath the sink and see if it has a gooseneck. It will be shaped like an "S" that the drain is hooked to. If it doesn't then you could possibly be getting sewer gasses back up through the drain. Water will lay in there and trap the gasses from backing up. That is what you want. Also is it the sink or could it possibly be the water? If it is a rotten eggs smell, it could possibly be some sulphur in the water. Do you have any type of a filtration system in the home?

 

[theoldwizard1]

Hold your hand over the over flow...the little hole in the sink bowl and get a plunger and plunge the sink with 2" of water in it ... work almost everytime

I have done this for slow/clogged bathroom sinks and it DOES work well with 2 minor caveats.

• I use a wet rag to plug the over flow hole. Sealing this is crucial.
• A "standard" size plunger is too big. Get a small one.

 

[Mmfh]

What about just pouring some bleach down the drain to kill anything that might be causing the smell.

I just thought of it and might try it here at my place.

Mm

 

[trodery]

A couple questions....

Do you have well water?

Is this sink the farthest piece of plumbing away from where the water enters the home?

 

[NUTTSGT]

I have to take our plumbing apart ocassional to clean the hair out of it too.