It doesn’t matter how clean your kitchen or bathroom looks. No matter how hard you scrub the sink or how shiny it seems, if your sink smells, all your effort feels wasted. It’s just gross. In this guide, you’ll learn why your sink stinks and how to deal with it properly so your kitchen and bathroom both stay fresh and pleasant.
There are a few main reasons behind a smelly sink, and once you understand them, you’ll know exactly how to keep yours clean and odor-free again.
Why My Sink Stinks?
There are three main reasons why you have a smelly sink.
Reason 1. Things Going Into the Sink
The first one has to do with what goes into the sink. Grease, food, old stuff, and soap scum all land in the sink, and if you don’t clean it regularly and rinse thoroughly, that’s going to build up.
The next part of that is the bacteria that develop by feeding off all of those remnants. That bacteria can start to be smelly. The same goes for sponges and other things that sit in the sink.
Reason 2. Partial or Full Clog
The second key cause is either a partial or a full clog. The visual indicator for this is that your sink drains more slowly. In the bathroom, it’s typically a collection of hair, toothpaste, and other things that land in the sink and fail to drain properly.
In the kitchen, it’s often food-related. Either way, water sits in the middle of your sink trap, your J-trap, or your P-trap, and it stagnates. That gets smelly, and you’ll notice a smell.
Reason 3. Blocked Sewer Vent
The third reason that is pretty serious is a blocked sewer vent. If a sewer vent is new to you, it’s a series of pipes built into your home to help ventilate the sewage systems. It vents out toilet air and sink air. If there’s a blockage, that gets pushed back down and right into your home. It does not smell pleasant.
How Do You Get Rid of Smells in the Sink?
The reasons are pretty clear as to why your bathroom or kitchen sink stinks a lot. Now let’s get down to business and get that smell gone for good.
1. Keep Your Sink Clean & Dry
The basic stuff you can do for your sink to smell fresh every day comes down to keeping the things in your sink clean and dry. When you’re done using your sponge, rinse it with soapy water, wring it out well, and set it on top of your counter to dry. Don’t throw it back in the sink. The same thing goes for any sponge cloths or dish rags that you use.
Even those little sink traps can get full of stuff, and it’s really important not only to empty them out every day but also to put them in the dishwasher once a week because of how grimy and disgusting they can get.
2. Use Dish Soap and Baking Soda
Now, think about the job your sink does. You pour all kinds of things down there. Things that you should and things that you shouldn’t. Your sink develops a film, a layer of residue. Oil gets in there, coffee gets in there, spaghetti sauce too. If you don’t clean your sink regularly, that film builds up. It makes your sink dull and dirty, and bacteria can feed off that film. That leads to odors, which is why kitchen sinks are often said to be among the dirtiest places in your home. That’s where the weird stuff starts to grow.
You need to clean your sink on a regular basis. To do this, you can use either a dish brush or a sponge. Throw some dish soap in there, add a little baking soda, and give it a good scrub. Rinse it and dry it afterward. If you don’t see any oil or feel any slickness in the sink, it’s not going to be smelly.
3. Chemically or Manually Clean the Drain
There’s much more to the drain than meets the eye. When people say the kitchen sink is the dirtiest place in the home, it’s actually the P-trap or J-trap that holds the worst buildup. That’s where all the gross stuff lives.
You can clean this in two ways. The first one is to use a chemical cleaner, or you can use a physical action to scrub it out.
Start with some chemical options, the first of which can be an easy DIY method. If you notice a real odor, put a cup of baking soda down each drain. If you have a double sink in your kitchen, do it for both sides. Let it sit for 30 minutes. The baking soda does its thing and helps to tamp down and deodorize anything that’s building up. After 30 minutes, boil some vinegar and pour it down.
Vinegar and baking soda together aren’t the best general cleaner, but in this case, they create that familiar volcanic reaction you may have seen before. It’s great at breaking down and pushing things through the drain.
There are also products that work well for this, and you can find them in your nearby store. You simply pour the product down the drain, add hot water, and the smell is gone.
You can also manually clean your drains. In the bathroom, if you remove the drain cap and look down, you might notice a black film building up on the inside. That’s just slimy residue, but it can trap bacteria and cause odors.
You can scrub that film with a cleaning toothbrush or pick up a long, skinny, bendy brush and give it a good scrubbing.
You can also clean the P-trap.
4. Deal with Sewer Vent Issues
If you’ve done all the steps mentioned earlier and you still notice a bad smell, especially one that smells like rotten eggs, it’s a sign that the problem is with your sewer vent. If you already called a plumber, they might have checked this for you, but if not, this is the time to bring one in for a sewer cleanout.
What’s happening is that sewer gas is trying to escape, but there’s a blockage, and it’s coming right back down into your home. That’s not good, so this is something you need to deal with as soon as possible.
Conclusion
Now you know everything about what to do if your sink stinks. You got the reasons and a few fixes if the regular one with the things available at home doesn’t work. Hopefully, this guide helped you, and the next time you notice a weird, funky smell coming from your sink, you’ll know exactly what to do.
If anything is too difficult, it’s fine to call a plumber, especially if things like with vinegar, baking soda, or other chemical products didn’t fix the smell. DIY methods can only take you so far, and sometimes, it’s better to get help from a professional.
Whenever you are in need of such service, if you can’t get rid of that stinky sink smell, do try California Coast Plumbers. We are at your beck and call 24/7.