Is Your Sink Stinky?
Foul smelling drains are not enjoyable. Nobody wants to brush their teeth or wash their face over the smell of rotten eggs, let alone prepare a meal in it. Unfortunately, this is an occasional reality, and some may have even come to find it a normal part of living.
The truth is, odors in your sink are a sign of something wrong. And if you haven’t had a drain cleaning in ages, who knows what could be lurking in your pipes! Why does your sink stink? Keep reading to find what the answer might be.
Look Out for Contamination in Your Sink
Most drains have a dip in them called a trap. The dip faces downwards, collecting water, blocking sewer gases from coming up through the drain.
The water is held in place by gravity and typically gets renewed every time you run the water. Sometimes water can leak from the trap, allowing gas to come up from the pipe and into your home.
Other times, the water evaporates merely from lack of use. So make sure you run the water every so often in rarely used bathrooms. In much older homes, it is possible a trap was never installed. In this situation, have a plumber come to perform an inspection and possible drain cleaning to see if the smell goes away.
You May Have Sulfur On Your Pipes
If the rotten egg smell is prevalent in your home, it may be related to sulfur in your pipes. Sulfur emits a stink that can make you gag. If you’re noticing this stench, you will first want to check if it is coming from your water or your drain.
Plug your sink and run the water for about half a minute, first cold, then hot. If no odor is noticeable, then the problem is within your pipes, most likely a clog of inorganic matter.
If it is coming from the water, it may be you have high amounts of sulfate in your drinking water, which is reacting with your magnesium rod from your water heater.
Magnesium and sulfur form a gas called hydrogen sulfide, which emits an overpowering rotten egg smell. Switching your magnesium rod for an aluminum rod might do the trick.
What Should Be Done?
The answer is simple. Call in a professional plumber. We take our cars to a mechanic, our dogs to the vet, so why not have a plumber look at your pipes?
It is always better to go with a pro when it comes to something as essential as your plumbing. Plumbers are trained, licensed, and have a better understanding of your pipes than you ever will.
Go with the obvious solution and call in the big guns to get rid of those heavy odors. If you live in the San Antonio, TX area, pick up the phone and call a plumber now before things go from bad to worse.
We learn early on in life that if something is broken, we fix it. And if you have offensive odors coming from your sink, that is a sure fire sign of defective plumbing. Call a professional, get it fixed and forget about it!
