Despite how often we use our bathroom and kitchen sinks, it’s not often we think about what we send down the drain and how it affects the plumbing. Over time, sinks and garbage disposals become smelly or clogged. When you have a clogged drain or smelly pipes, learn how to get the sewer smell from the bathroom sink.
All drains in your home are susceptible to a sewage smell without regular cleaning. Even a new bathroom in your home may develop a foul odor because of the drain trap. The p-trap or drain trap is a U-shaped portion of drain pipe under your sink that holds water to create a seal. This seal usually prevents smelly drains by blocking sewer gas from coming up through the drain line.
Once the sewer gas smell takes over your bathroom, air fresheners aren’t enough to cover the smell. Addressing the sewage gas smell in your bathroom sink by cleaning is the best way to deal with unpleasant odors from your sink drain.
How to Stop the Sewer Odor in a Bathroom Sink
It’s never fun to discover unpleasant odors in the bathroom. Learn a few simple techniques to get sewage smell out of bathroom areas depending on where the smell is coming from.
Eliminating gases from the sewer line entering your bathroom requires knowing the cause of the smell and how to fix it. Continue reading for plumbing tips and home remedies to eliminate unpleasant drain smells in your home.
What Happens When the P-Trap Fails?
When the p-trap under your sink loses water, it allows gases from the sewer line to find their way into your bathroom. Although this trap constantly holds water, dry air conditions commonly cause this water to evaporate. Another reason your drain isn’t holding water could be something stuck inside the drain absorbing the water.
If you have an unused bathroom, a lack of water running down the drain could dry out your sink trap in about a month in dry conditions. To avoid this, spend a few minutes running the faucet in your bathroom weekly to stop the sewer odor in a bathroom sink.
Using Boiling Water to Clear Your Sink
Clogged drains are a common issue no matter where you are in the house. If your bathroom sink smells like sewage and water in the sink drains slowly, you likely have something stuck in the sink that’s stopping proper water flow. Bathroom sinks are easy to back up due to the combination of hair, skin, and soap residue washing down the drain during daily usage.
Boiling water is the most accessible resource for dealing with a clogged drain as the hot water helps break down build-up in the pipes. Despite its usefulness, if boiling water and a drain brush don’t resolve the clog and smell in your drain, you may have a more severe blockage.
How to Flush a Sink
If a clog backs up your sink or seems to contribute to the foul odor, using salt is an easy way to clean a drain. If gunk from skin and hair care is coating the inside of your pipes, adding salt with boiling water to the drain is an excellent way to scour the drain and flush out a blockage.
While boiling a pot of water, pour salt directly down the drain. Carefully run the boiling water through the drain, followed by hot water from your sink to flush out the drain.
How to Clean a Smelly Bathroom Sink Drain
If your bathroom sink drain smells bad or if your toilet smells bad, combining vinegar and baking soda is a simple way to clear clogs and refresh your pipes. Like salt, baking soda is granular, which helps cut through build-up inside the drain pipes.
Vinegar is naturally acidic and works well to dissolve blockages causing bad smells in your sink. Mix these two in your drain to clear any clogging that affects your p-trap’s ability to retain water for blocking sewer gases.
Pour baking soda down the bathroom sink before adding vinegar. The combination of baking soda and vinegar creates a chemical reaction that bubbles inside the drain.
When the bubbling stops, place a stopper in the sink and wait for at least 15 minutes. Take out the drain plug and run hot water through the sink to help clear clogs in the drain. Repeat this cleaning method as needed until the sink drains quickly and the smell improves.
Use caution if you need to clean a hammered copper sink. Soap and water are ideal, but making a paste with baking soda eliminates tough stains and odors. Skip the vinegar unless you dilute it with water.
Cleaning Bacteria in Drains at Home
Drains fill with organic matter or soap scum, allowing odor-causing bacteria to live and thrive in the pipes. If left uncleaned, this bacteria continues to grow, further contributing to the foul smell in your bathroom.
Learn how to clean a smelly bathroom sink drain the easy way and start making bathroom smell good again. Despite the effectiveness that commercial drain cleaners boast, some of them may do more harm to your drain than good.
Skipping the chemicals and using natural ingredients to create an enzymatic cleaner helps clean your drain without risking the condition of your pipes. Salt and baking soda are easy-to-find items that tear through build-up in the sink, while cream of tartar cleans metal pipes.
Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and boil water before pouring it down your bathroom sink. Pour the dry ingredients down the drain and leave it to sit for at least an hour. Once the mixture sits in the drain, flood the sink with hot water to wash it down. Eliminate gnats in your bathroom sink drain with this cleaner, too.
Dealing with a Sewer Smell From the Bathroom Sink
Checking your sink for clogs and ensuring water is in the p-trap are two common fixes for a foul odor in your bathroom. If clogs aren’t an issue, the vent pipe in your home may be why your bathroom sink smells like sewage.
A vent pipe is part of your home’s plumbing system; however, it does not move water. The purpose of vent pipes is to regulate airflow to carry waste and water through the pipes and out of your house.
A blockage in the vent pipe causes a backup of sewer gases through your bathroom’s sink and shower drain. Common jams include physical debris blocking the pipe or a flaw in the installation. Because vent pipes are on the house’s roof, it may be easier to call a specialist than to troubleshoot on your own.
Citrus Drain Cleanser
Citrus fruits are known for their bright taste and distinct smell. The strong scent of lemons and oranges is why many commercial bathroom cleaners include additives to leave behind a citrus scent after cleaning, whether you are looking for ways to get a mold smell out of the bathroom or have another unwelcome odor.
However, additives contain harmful chemicals that fill the bathroom and may prove hazardous. To leave your bathroom smelling fresh, use a natural cleaner made with citrus peels.
Use a container with a lid and fill it with citrus peels. Add enough vinegar to cover the peels before placing a lid on the container while leaving a small opening for natural gases to escape.
Leave the container for at least two weeks before using it in the bathroom. Pour baking soda into the drain before pouring the vinegar while holding the peels back. Allow the mixture to bubble for up to 30 minutes before pouring boiling water down the drain.
Use this same cleaner when you have to tackle washer drain smells that can build up over time.
Why Does the Sink Faucet Smell Bad?
If you detect a foul smell in your bathroom, but only when you run the hot water, the issue may not be with your drain. With time, the water heater in your home builds up sulfate bacteria inside the tank.
This happens after cold water heats but remains in the tank too long, allowing bacteria to grow in the water. The result is hot water that smells like rotten eggs in your bathroom and kitchen. The best options for water heater repair are to have a professional flush and clean the tank or replace it.
On top of sewer gas smelling unpleasant, regularly inhaling it may lead to health problems. If you constantly breathe in sewage gas, you could experience nausea and dizziness. Hydrogen sulfide is a component of sewer gas, and long-term exposure can lead to fatal poisoning. Follow our smart guide and learn how to stop the sewer odor in a bathroom sink.
We hope our ideas on dealing with a sewer smell from the bathroom sink helped and that you’ll share our advice on how to clean a smelly bathroom sink drain with your family on Facebook and Pinterest.