Smelly Drains?

Patricia Nicholas

March 4, 20091 found this helpful

Step 1
Use 1/2 cup of salt (I like a more coarse salt, but regular salt works fine), pour this down the drain.

Step 2
Next, pour 1/2 cup of baking soda down the drain.

Step 3
Now get ready to cap the drain quickly, pour 1 cup of white vinegar down the drain and cap it until the bubbles stop, about 1 minute. Kids love watching that part.

Step 4
Next, follow with a kettle full of boiling water. Use hot tap water to clean up any spilled salt or soda in the sink.

The salt acts as a corrosive to clean the drain walls, the baking soda is an odor absorber and acts with the vinegar to "shake-up" the salt when it bubbles and the vinegar is acidic for cleaning and an odor eliminator.

This was taught to me by the clean water council as an alternative to the dangerous and caustic chemical drain cleaners. It's thrifty and efficient and best of all won't burn your skin or lungs like commercial cleaners.

My parents had the same problem. We dumped 1/2 cup (for each drain) of vinegar down all the drains at the same time and let it sit without running water. We did that for a week, and about the 2nd day you could really tell the difference in the smell.

Heather

February 28, 20090 found this helpful

I've used bleach for this problem before, and it was quite effective- we have a double sink in the kitchen (no disposal), and occasionally, it gets that funky smell- I just pour about a quarter of a cup of bleach down each drain, let it set for about half an hour, and we're good to go. Good luck! :)

Pam M.

April 30, 20150 found this helpful

I tried the 1/2 cup each of salt & baking soda. I couldn't fit that much in my drain because of the bend for my double sink. It clogged everything up & I had to get out the plunger. I tried a 2nd time with 1/4 each of salt & vinegar.