It will come as no surprise that your bathroom is a perfect host for a plethora of unwanted, foul odors. The bathroom in your home will be exposed to bodily fluids, excessive water, humidity, and even the development of funguses that can form in the environment due to these perfect conditions harbored within this indoor area. When it comes to identifying the various sources of odors in your bathroom, it can be a challenge to pick the exact odor problem since it can originate from many items in this area such as the toilet, shower, bathtub, or even the sink drain.

The sink drain in your bathroom will be exposed to a number of items that are pushed down the drain that can include hair, dirt, grime, and even chemicals that can all gather within the drain that will lead to the emission of a putrid odor, in many cases. What can be done to expel the strong, smelly odor from your bathroom sink and how can you identify what is the cause behind your drain odor problem?

In this article we are going to learn more about why bathroom sink drain smells, the various items that go down your drain that can produce an odor, and the best deodorizer to use to get the drain smell out of your sink once and for all!

Why Does My Bathroom Smell

The bathroom that is housed inside your home can become exposed to many different odor sources, as it contains the highly used toilet, drains, and even excess of water that can sometimes take on a strong sulfur odor or even lead to the production of mildew and mold that will produce smells in the bathroom’s air. You may do everything in your power to clean and deodorize these known odor sources in your home, however, often times water and waste can escape into the environment of your bathroom or even sewer gas which will lead to a persisting odor that will last way past your cleaning attempts.

Toilets are an obvious source of odor problems in a bathroom as it is the item that houses bodily fluids such as urine and feces. Waste can sometimes become trapped out of sight under the toilet rim, or out of sight which can make it difficult to remove from the environment. Therefore, it is important to exam and scrub those hard-to-reach areas near your toilet to eradicate the odors coming from the bathroom toilet.

Water in a bathroom is another major source of odors in this area of a home, as the water can sometimes be contaminated by various odors such as sulfur or even sewer gas in some cases that will lead to a smell in the bathroom. Additionally, water can contain bacteria in the drains that can contaminate the water source and cause an odor, thus it is best to take a glass of water and do the sniff test to determine if your bathroom water is an odor problem in your bathroom.

Lastly, the drains in your bathroom, specifically your sink drain can be the host of a number of odor sources such as clogs of hair and other residues, dry traps that can release sewer gas into the air of the bathroom, and even blocked vents that will trap water in the drain that will lead to odors.

Bathroom Sink Drain Smells

When it comes to the root of your odor problems in your bathroom, you may not need to look any further than your bathrooms sink drain. Sink drains can start to produce a foul odor from a variety of problems that can take place in the drain such as a clogged drain, dried out water traps, and even blocked vents that can all turn a clean bathroom into a smelly odor problem in your home. A sink drain that becomes clogged from hair and other residues can create a stink and, in many cases, it can also lead your sink drain to stop working and water to buildup in the sink bowl. When this happens bacteria can start to feed on the waste and start to emit a foul stench into the air.

Whereas a drains dry trap is designed to prevent sewer gas from escaping into the bathroom, so water is contained in this trap to avoid this from occurring. However, when a bathroom sink drain isn’t used often it will allow for the water in the dry trap to start to dry out and this will allow for sewer gas to escape this drain trap and infiltrate the air in your bathroom creating an unwanted odor. Even a blocked vent in your drain can also produce an odor, since the vents are behind the water traps in a bathroom drain and help to allow air into the system to have that trap work properly. As these vents become blocked the traps can empty and allow for the sewer gas to come into the air of the home.

Sewer Smell from Sink

Have you ever experienced the unmistakable smell of sewer in your bathroom that has originated from your sink drain? If you have, then you know the smell can completely take over the air space and even infiltrate into the air far past your bathroom, and into the main areas of your home. As we discussed previously, the trap in the sink drain called the P-trap allows for a small amount of water to be collected in the sink drain, and this water will act as a barrier against sewage odors entering into the drain and conversely into the air of the area.

When a sulfur smell is freed from drainage pipes inside your home, you may be concerned with the immediate threats that the odor presents to your home’s air space. Is this sulfur smell potentially dangerous to your indoor air quality, and most importantly your health? The health risks of sulfur gas are present from this substance due to the origin of the gas from bacteria – and when this gas is inhaled within a small confined air space the risks can be even heightened to human health. The best solution is to have a drain trap properly placed into you sink drainage to minimize and/or eliminate the sewage smell from coming into the home through the sink.

Mold in Sink Drain

Why does it smell like mold in my sink drain and how on earth can I get it out? The problem with this smell is that it can come from out of nowhere to most homeowners and leave you questioning why does my sink drain smells like mold, and the answer to this can be a rage of things such as decomposing food, the water produced into your home, or even maybe mold spores that have become trapped in your home’s pipes. These problems could be the crux of your issues when it comes to a smelly sink drain that smells like mold.

When it comes to mold spores, they can be virtually everywhere and be readily available to grow in the environment, especially when it comes to your drains. These spores will cause the odors from within your sink or drain that smells like mold, in some cases. These spores will develop inside of sink drains and disposals because of its easy access to moisture within this appliance, and therefore it is necessary to keep a watchful eye (or nose!) out for any mold smells originating from your sinks drain and garbage disposal.

Can You Pour Bleach Down the Drain?

The moment you begin to smell a hint of an unpleasant smell in your sink drain an instant solution that many homeowners may turn to is dumping bleach down the drainpipe. Is using bleach in your drain the best solution to use for your sink drain or could it be potentially damaging to the house’s drain system? Bleach is a very strong, powerful substance that can clean a variety of surfaces and items; however, an improper use of bleach is to dispose of it down the drain of your sink to remove odors.

Bleach is a reactive chemical that can react with other substances in your pipes and will create potentially toxic fumes into the air of your bathroom and other areas of the home. Additionally, the bleach can lead to a clogging of the pipes and ultimately plug up the drain system. Therefore, when you are looking for a solution to deodorize the smell out of your sink drain, there may be a list of other alternative solutions to use that are safer and more effective than bleach.

Drain Deodorizer

Sinks and disposals are notorious for harboring foul odors, and removing these odors is not always an easy task. When your bathroom sink starts to emit a strong, putrid odor action will be needed quickly to remediate the smells in the drain. There are a variety of tricks and methods that are used to try to combat these tough drain odors including hot water and dish soap, lemon peels, and even vinegar that is placed into the sink drain to eliminate the smells. However, to properly and completely prevent these odors from developing inside your sinks drains you will need to use a proprietary product designed for odor elimination like OdorKlenz.

OdorKlenz Sink & Disposal Cleaner & Deodorizer consists of simple, safe, and naturally powerful ingredients that are designed to clean and deodorize foul smelling sinks and drains in your home. The patented odor eliminating technology used by OdorKlenz is able to work deep into the source to break down and/or eliminate the odors completely, with no odor a match for this technology. The easy application only requires 1/3 cup of the product placed down the sink or disposal to properly work to neutralize and remove the foul odors from the smelly sink.

Sink & Disposal Cleaner & Deodorizer

$12.99

✓ Made of Safe, Natural earth minerals that provide a complete odor elimination

✓ Fast acting, without the use of masking agents or fragrances

✓ Made from castile soap, vegetable glycerin, and metal oxides

✓ Helps clean while it deodorizes