One option for how to clean smelly drains is to use a combination of 1 litre of boiling water, 1 cup of white vinegar and 2 cups of baking soda. Pour the baking soda down the drain, followed by the boiling water to dissolve it. Add the vinegar and insert the drain plug.
Vinegar contains acid which neutralizes odor, cuts through grease and helps disinfect. By heating up (but not boiling) four cups of vinegar, pouring half down the drain, running the water for a minute and then pouring the remaining vinegar down the drain, you can help eliminate smells and smaller clogs.
Simply pour several tablespoons of baking soda down a blocked or smelly drain, then follow it up with several tablespoons of plain white vinegar. Then quickly block the drain tightly and wait a few seconds.
Baking soda is a base and vinegar is an acid; when the two are combined, you get a fizzy chemical reaction that has some properties that can eat away at a clog. However, when you use this combination to unclog a drain, it's just plain ineffective.
Step 1: Mix 1/2 cup baking soda with 1/4 cup table salt. Step 2: Pour the mixture down the drain. Step 3: Pour 1 cup heated vinegar down your drain; the concoction is going to foam and bubble. Step 4: Let the solution stand for 15 minutes (longer does not work any better).
To do so, pour a little dry baking soda into the affected drain. Then, slowly add vinegar until all the baking soda reacts. Keep running small amounts of vinegar into the drain until you don't hear any bubbling and your drains smell fresh and clean.
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.
How do you get rid of a sewer smell? Pouring hot water mixed with vinegar and baking soda down your smelly drains is an effective way to get rid of the sewer smell. Leave the mixture for about 10 to 15 minutes before running any water through the pipes.
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.
Professional plumbers may use industrial water jetters, snake augers, and pipe camera equipment to find and fix the cause of your drain smell. An experienced plumber can remove the clog at its source so you can enjoy a clear drain again.
Baking soda is an ever-popular cleaning method as it reacts with boiling water and kills most odours. Sprinkle a teaspoon of baking soda down the plughole of your troubled drain and follow it up with boiling water – remember to take care while you pour. This will allow the baking soda to do all the work.
Baking soda and vinegar
Start by pouring ¼ cup of baking soda down the drain, and then leave it for about 10 minutes. Then, follow it with one cup of vinegar. Let the mixture fizzle and work for a few minutes, and then finish by turning on the water and running the disposal to clear out any leftover food waste.
When that smell reeks of the sewer, it may not go away on its own but instead, point to a serious problem that might require professional plumbing repair. The wastewater plumbing systems in your home are fairly simple. They rely on unblocked pipes, gravity and fresh air venting to drain.
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.
The health risks linked to sewer gas exposure include: Hydrogen sulfide poisoning: Hydrogen sulfide smells like rotten eggs, even in low concentrations. Exposure to low levels of hydrogen sulfide can cause eye and respiratory irritation.
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.
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.
The black stuff has many names, such as black sludge, bio-slime, and biofilm. The slime is a living organism made up of hair products, skin cells, body oils, food, toothpaste, hair, phlegm, and anything else that can stick to the walls of your bathroom drain.
If you smell rotten eggs in the home, call the gas company to make sure you don't have a gas leak. If there is no gas leak in the home, you may have a problem with your electrical system. If you smell the rotten egg smell near an outlet, that's probably where it is coming from.
This can be dangerous- the rotten smell in your home may indicate more significant problems with your plumbing, or it can cause health issues for residents of your household. As Healthline mentions, fumes from sewage can cause adverse effects on your health.
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.
There's a blockage in the drain pipe.
If you are smelling foul odors when you flush, it can be caused by blockages that have built up over time within your drain pipe. You should clean and inspect your plumbing regularly to prevent said blockages from occurring.
If your drain smells like rotten eggs, you must disinfect the pipes to get rid of the odor. You can eliminate the bacteria by pouring a ½ cup of bleach down your drains. However, if you would like an alternative, pour down ½ a cup of baking soda and 1 cup of vinegar.
In that case, the cure is easy: Run water down the drain, so the bend refills and acts as a plug to keep sewer gases from seeping into your home. The smell, often described as rotten eggs or a dead animal, comes from bacteria that feed on organic matter in the wastewater.