There is a bad smell coming from my shower drain, but only when I shower. What could it be?

Question

Please don't answer unless you know what is causing this or have a reasonable guess. In other words I don't wann hear, "duh I don't know" from anyone. The smell starts about 2 minutes after I turn it on and it is not there before I turn the water on. I have tried bumping baking soda in there and I have used dran-o foaming snake. It is driving me crazy, help.

Answer 1

I wouldn't take advice from someone who doesn't know how to spell 'plumber'.  

Answer 2

The trap for the shower is not deep enough. What is happening is when you use the shower the water is running out of the drain and into the trap and some back air is escaping around the water going down and out the trap. A shallow trap or home made trap sometimes is not deep enough to overcome this water rushing out which drains too much of the water in the trap out.

The only other problem could be someone ran another vent line into the back of your shower drain above the trap. Sometimes the siphon action of the water going down the drain will draw sewer gas in from this above the trap vent take off.

It is one or the other I would bet.

Answer 3

it is sewer smell your drain , or your vent is stoped up, check the pipe that comes out of your roof that looks like it dont belong in your roof, flushing water down that usually helps, watch for leaks  

Answer 4

are you sure it's the drain and not the water.  if you are on a well i'd check your purifier if it was a venting problem such as no water in the trap it wouldn't smell when you are running the shower. because the water from the shower would be filling the trap up.  if you don't have a trap it would smell all the time. a good test to see if it is the trap is alright have someone run a fixture somewhere else in the house and if you can hear water draining into the pipes there is a poblem with the trap if you don't hear anything then the trap is filled and that is not the problem.to much magnesium in your water can give a rotten egg smell. i would let t he shower run until you smell the odor and get a cup a of water from it and leave the room and see if the smell is coming from the water.

Answer 5

The purpose of a " Trap" on your basin, sink, toilet, and bathtub / shower stall is so fumes can not back-feed. In other words, you don't have fumes going back out the same drain that is draining water out. It sounds like you do so this is making me think one of two things going on here...

1. When the shower stall / Bath Tub was installed no trap pipe was used or other drains are attached to the tub piping between the trap and the drainage inlet ( for the water).

2. Your sewage system is not veting properly and the fumes are building to the point this pressure is backfeeding through the system at its weakest point ( sometimes shortest distance).

Other than that I'd have to say ... " Duh, I don't know..." LOL ( just kiddin')

Answer 6

It could be sewer gas.If not that then I would pour bleach in and let it stand a couple od minutes before I run hot water down it.I use to clean empty apartments and I would smell sewer gas because the water in the drain had dried up and let the gas escape.

Answer 7

It sounds like you have a vent problem or you do not have a good shower setup. When you look down the drain do you see water in the bottom of the trap?---------------------- Joseph has something here. I had this problem and finally tracked it down to the cathode rod in my electric hot water heater. Are you on a well? The smell can be stopped by removing the rod and inspecting it for replacement or cleaning with hydrogen peroxide and treating the water occasionally with clorox. In this case the smell results from a bacterium that lives on the rod that give off the smell. Hope this helps.