The drain in my kitchen sink smells. What can I do to make it go away?
I recently moved into an apartment, and the drain in my kitchen sink smells. I remember hearing once that putting something down the drain and running the garbage disposal helps the smell go away, but I can’t think of what that something is. I’d be very thankful if anyone can help me clear out this smell before it gets worse.
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I would start with vinegar. then run baking soda behind it. then I would do several lemons to make it smell better! It should work. You may have to do this a few times but then the more you use it the smell will go away
you’ve had some good answers…my suggestion would be to try bleach..thats what I use when I don’t have any Degreaser, from Stanley Home Products…that stuff is awesome and works on so many different things…but dump some down the drain before you go to bed or are leaving for the day, so it has a chance to sit..I think this would be good advice no matter what you end up using..good luck with this…
Clorox . Bleach has a sanitizing property that will kill the germs and odors. If you fill the sink, put in 4 ounces of clorox and hot water, then drain the sink, it should do the trick. Always attack the problem at the source…. don’t try to hide it with other odors.
If the smell is really bad, I dump 1/2 box of baking soda into the garbage disposal drain and let it sit (take your pick 5-10 or more minutes). Then I rinse it down, w/out turning on the disposal. If that doesn’t work I throw in some limes, lemons or oranges and turn the disposal on. That usually does the trick. And, I also throw in about 20 ice cubes each month (or when I remember) to sharpen the blades and clean any gunk off of them.
1st you take about 4 cups of ice, get 1 cup baking soda,Don’t run any water or the disposal yet, put 1 cup of the ice down the drain then 1/4 c. of soda. keep layering these until you finish, now run the garbage disposal until it starts to get more quiet, about 2 min. then run the hot tap water. I do this once every two wks. to keep the drain smelling fresh.
You have some great suggestions - I would do one of them…
There is also a garbage disposal cleaner out there…..but if you have bleach/vinegar/baking soda…you should be fine.
por some baking soda in drain then add some vinegar and let it fizz and bubble to clean and deoderize. Or you can run a orange or lemon thru your garbage disposal
1 cup baking soda dry poured into the drain… add 1 cup white vinagar… It will foam up like crazy let it sit for 30-40 minutes and rinse down it will remove the smell…
You may have to do treatment a couple times for really rancid drains…
You can also use in garbage disposal just use 2 cups of each as the space in the garbage disposal is larger… Once a month quarter a lemon and place in disposal with just a trickle of water running let it grind away and it will add a fresh scent…
that something is lemons.
I used to be a dishwasher and that’s what we did when the disposal got bad.
Use an enzyme drain product. First pour about 2 to 4 ounces down twice a week for twom months. Then 2 ounces twice a month thereafter. The enzymes will eat all the protein based goop and crud causing the bad odors. you can pick this up at any local janitorial supply house in your area.
20+ years in Janitorial Supply Sales
The stuff you are looking for is called Disposer Care. I bought mine in Walmart…..lemon scented. You drop the packet in and run the disposal until the packet foams up and then drains.
It worked on mine. Got the crud out of the disposal and left it clean smelling. There were 4 treatment packets in each box. The box is dark blue with yellow lettering.
First, take a scrub brush with a long handle and some ajax, or other cleaner you have for scrubbing your sink, apply it to the brush and stick it down the disposal and scrub. Rince and Repeat until your brush quits coming up gunky. Then pour pine-sol in the drain and run the disposal.
I do it about once a week and never have a problem.
And after you rince that scrub brush really good, stick it in the diswaher with your next load.


Its a temporary solution, but try lemon or orange peels, that has always worked for me, and they smell really good going down the garbage disposal.