I have an unused washing machine drain in part of my house and it's started to smell because (I assume) the water in the u-pipe has dried up. My objective is to stop the smell and I guess the only way to do this is to seal this. I want the seal to be temporary in case I want to use this again in the future. I've tried putting scotch tape over the hole but it won't stick and I'm afraid that tape in general will come loose at some point in the future.
Before I go off and buy some heavy duty duct tape or the like does anyone have some obvious answer I've missed?
Best Answer
Pour some RV antifreeze into the trap. It won't evaporate quite as fast as water, and will stop the sewer gas until the rest of this is sorted out.
A sink stopper won't do what's needed here. A test plug
goes in the pipe, which is probably no more than 1-1/2 to 2 inches. The seal is formed by winding up the screw so that the rubber seal is expanded against the walls of the pipe. I have no idea where you think you can stick a 3-1/2" stopper in the washing machine box you've pictured. You'll need to cut the hole for the drain properly if, as it appears, it's not really matching the hole in the pipe.