I flush the toilet and when I use the sink it smells of urine. The tanks does not to be pumped. I thought it was the water but this smell is not in the kitchen sink. I have used b soda and vinegar. Help!
Plumbing – Urine smell in bathroom sink
plumbingsink
Related Solutions
Does it smell like sewer gas?
If so, the sink trap is probably incorrectly installed, or more likely, the drain on an adjacent sink or dishwasher isn't properly vented.
A "vent" is a portion of drain tube that lets air into the pipe to replace the water flowing downward. If there is no easy way to draw the air into the pipe (usually the vent just goes up to the roof and draws air from outside) then the water from other nearby traps can be suctioned down the drain as well. Without water in trap, sewer gas is free to come up the drain and make you want to move to a condo.
To check the problem, run the dishwasher or wait until the stink appears. Then get under the sink (with a bucket!) and take off the trap for the sink that smells. This can usually be done without tools since it's usually a threaded plastic pipe. Check that the trap is full.
If it's completely full than all this advice is moot: listen to some other commenter.
If it's not full, then the best thing to do is to fix the drain properly. If that's too difficult or too expensive, you can install a "cheater valve" right before the trap. They're officially called "air admittance valves" but nobody will know what you mean if you say that. :) They are one-way air valves that make it easier for an improperly vented drain to draw air through THEM rather than sucking out the water from the trap. They're often used in island sinks where it's impossible to get a proper vent.
(source: homerepairforum.com)
Just a few suggestions; I find it hard to imagine that it really is the water that smells, so also check the following:
Most obvious is that sewer gas is coming in somehow. Check the p-trap for leaks, make sure there is always water in it. If you don't use the sink often, the p-trap water can evaporate.
Check the ventilation of the sewer lines. Could there be some obstruction in it? Assuming the smell started when the work was done, did anything else change in the system. Is it possible the vent was closed off or obstructed by mistake?
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Best Answer
The drain pipe on your sink goes straight down, but then it should go through a U-shape and go back up again for a few inches, and then go on its merry way.
This U-shaped bit of pipe has a name, and Admiral Ackbar really wants to say it...
Anyway, the idea of this "trap" is that the U is supposed to stay full of water all the time, all the way up to the nape if the "U". That way, this water blocks the pipe, so sewer gases cannot come up the pipe. A couple things can go wrong with that.
First, the water ultimately drains to somewhere else. If that final exit is below the "nape" of the U, the U won't be full of water, and it won't seal the pipe.
If a sink is rarely used, that "U" will actually dry up from normal evaporation, and the sewer gases will get through. This is especially a problem with dual sinks where no one ever uses one of them, tubs nobody ever uses, basement slop sinks, or unused washing machine connections.
Lastly, sewage makes gas by decomposition. That gas has to go somewhere. The sewer-pipe system in your house is supposed to be ventilated, via a "stack" / exhaust pipe that goes to the top of your house. If that is plugged or malfunctioning, the sewer pipe will pressurize a bit and push the water up out of the trap enough for gases to get through.