A smell is coming from my sink...like rotten eggs? How do I get rid of it?

Question

My sink in the townhouse I rent is a bit discolored around the edges of the drain (the metal itself is slightly rusted it appears, but even the cream colored sink directly around it is now an orange-ish shade). There is also a smell of rotten eggs that comes from the sink on occasion.

What can I do to get rid of the smell?

And what is causing the rusting? It's a sink for goodness sake!

Answer 1

gas??

Answer 2

I rarely use store bought or toxic cleaners. Baking soda is my scrub and odor remover. I would pour quite a bit down the drain. Use some "elbow grease" and scrub the rust and stains, maybe with a gentle scrubbing pad. If you can get a brush down the drain, scrub baking soda  in the drain. If it is a disposal, run it and keep adding some of the baking soda.

Occasionally add the baking soda to keep things fresh.

Answer 3

Try using vinegar, & baking soda

Answer 4

Its either your garbage disposal or your dishwasher. I would suggest that you put orange peels down your garbage disposal. Also run a load of dished in the dishwasher. I find that when we don't use our dish washer for a while it will begin to smell. Its from the water with what ever food was on the dishes from the last time it was run. Hope this helps. Good luck  

Answer 5

Pour drain-o down the sink, cause it sounds like you have some rotten food stuck in the drain. It might take 2 or 3 times of drain-o, wait, hot water and repeat, but that should take care of the smell. As far as the rust, cheap metal. What do you get when metal gets wet alot....rust. They obviously bought a cheap sink with cheap parts. As far as the orangey color, that can be lime and calcium deposits. Get a good cleaner that's made for tile grout or showers, spray on it, let it set then scrub. Repeat. That should take care of that.

Answer 6

Do you have well water? Sometimes your water will smell like that due to the sulfur content of the water. If so, you may need a water softener and using rust remover pellets in the softener also helps. If you dont have well water then make sure you plunge your sink real well to start with as food may be stuck in there. Run your garbage disposal every day with plenty of COLD water (breaks up grease into chunks so it will flush away). I buy the product called Disposer Care (near dish deterg in store). It is a dry packet that is lemon scented and foams and it cleans your drain up into both sides of the sink so the foam expands into every nook and cranny. It even cleans the GD blades. Even my worst sink smells have gone away while doing these things. Make sure as part of your maintenance cleaning you wash the black splash guard protector that covers your GB on the top and bottome sides as food splatters up onto the bottom of this too. Try not to put stuff like chicken skins in there because the disposer has a hard time with this kind of texture. Also, make sure that the plug sor your sink is cleaned oftern (again top and bottom) Last, a narrow dryer type lint brush is nice to clean the non disposer side of your sink. It will let you get down there a little to clean the slime that sometimes collects. Sorry this is so long but I wanted to try to cover all bases for your source of odor. Please make sure to be safe and have it turned off before you do any work on it (nice disclaimer there Good luck to you and I hope this helps~  

Answer 7

Rotten egg smell is sulphur. It might be a rotten piece of meat down there. Pour some drain cleaner down there and let stand for 1/2 hour then pour boiling hot water into the drain to flush.  

Answer 8

I put lemon peels in my garbage disposal regularly.  A pumice stone will get rid of the rust.

Answer 9

Sometimes this can happen if the sewer system is dirty , buy a gallon of bleach and when you clean the sink at the end of the cleaning add some pure bleach in the sink , and if you have a basement open the  drainage lid  in the laundry room and pour a pail of hot water  inside it  then one of cold if you wish add a bit of detergent to it and some bleach , keep your windows open as much as you can .Do the same in the shower/tub and laundry tub .

Answer 10

Pour half a box of baking soda in the drain.

Then about a cup of vinegar.

This will fizz up allot..

Let it do this for 5-10 minutes.

Then turn hot water and disposal to clean this out.

Repeat if necessary with the other half of baking soda and another cup of vinegar.

You can also freshen up a kitchen sink drain by cutting up a couple lemons in pieces the size of quarters and turn disposal and a small amount of water on. Then drop 3-4 pieces of lemon in at a time till a chopped up.

Sorry I don't know whats causing the rusting in the sink....

Rotten egg smell usually comes from well water....

But if you don't have a well you may have food getting trapped in pipes or trap. Try to limit putting foods like meats or egg shells in the disposal and occasionally do the baking soda thing or lemon to keep the drain fresh. (If a sink sits unused for awhile may also cause smell)

Answer 11

  Bio Clean..