What Causes a Kitchen Sink to Smell Like Rotten Eggs?

One day, you're scrubbing potatoes or washing dishes and you notice that your kitchen sink smells like rotten eggs. Before you panic and think that you dropped egg pieces down the drain, know that there are a few reasons this may happen, and it's fairly easy to get rid of the smell. Even if your kitchen sink smells like sewage, it's most likely a sulfur smell from sink pipes taking over your nostrils.

When your kitchen sink smells like rotten eggs, it's because hydrogen sulfide, which is the source of the smell, is a major compound that makes up the gas found in sewage. You must check if the smell is coming from the water or the drain. You'll know if the kitchen sink smells bad when water runs by doing an easy test.

Pour a glass of water from the sink and take it outside to see if it smells like sulfur. If it does, pour another glassful from a different sink, and if that glass also smells like sulfur, it's the water. If it doesn't, it's the drain.

There are many reasons a kitchen sink smells like rotten eggs, but the primary reasons are that your drain hasn't been used in a while, there isn't a drain trap, grease is stuck in the drain or you have a dirty garbage disposal.

All of the drain lines have a trap that prevents sewer gas from coming into your home. If you haven't used your sink in a while, the water that sits in the U-shaped pipe evaporates. As soon as the water evaporates, you'll notice the kitchen sink smells like sewage. To rectify this, all you have to do is run water to refill the trap.

Doing this will eliminate the sulfur smell and immediately put water back in the U-shaped pipe. Another cause of the sulfur and sewage smell could be that you don't have a drain trap or the drain trap wasn't correctly installed. You need to call a professional or licensed plumber to either install a drain trap or properly install the one that you currently have.

One of the most popular reasons your drain is emanating a sulfur smell could be that you have grease stuck in the drain or your garbage disposal is dirty. When you're cooking, grease or fat can accidentally be dumped into the drain, and instead of it getting rinsed down the drain, it can solidify on the sides. When it decomposes, the smell will emanate into your home.

You shouldn't pour grease down the drain, but if the grease or fat does congeal, you can use Arm & Hammer Pure Baking Soda to clear everything out. First, put a couple of teaspoons of baking soda down the drain and then pour in distilled white vinegar. Immediately pour boiling water afterward. The baking soda and vinegar combination will eat away at the grease or fat, and the boiling water will wash everything down and sanitize the drain.

If your garbage disposal has food stuck in the blades, that could also create a rotting smell. Run ice cubes through the disposal to knock food off the blades. Then, throw orange slices or lemon slices down the disposal.