Hi there! I'm Jeff with Home Repair Tutor.
In this quick video, I've got a great tip for you on how to clean stinky sink drains
like this one here.
So, stay tuned, I think by the end, you're going to get rid of that nasty smell that
permeates up through your drain and before you know it, you're going to enjoy your bathroom
a lot better. So let's get to it.
The first thing you should do is check that your p-trap has water in it or that you have
a p-trap. The water will prevent sewer gas from coming up into your bathroom. Remove
the p-trap by loosening the two knots that hold it in place. Then, take a look and see
if there's water down in it. There should be. There's also biofilm in my p-trap and
that needs to be removed.
You'll have to unscrew the pivot rod. So, turn the nut counter clockwise to remove the
pivot rod from the drain . Yikes! That's in bad shape, too, so we'll have to clean
that. The pivot rod, by removing it, allows you to remove pop-up stopper which collects
a whole bunch of grime and muck because we wash our faces, brush our teeth, shave, etc.
So, what I like to do is clean the pop-up stopper off with a toothbrush and take a paper
towel, fold it and push it down the drain and use an appliance brush like this one here
that help push it down even further.
What you're going to do is scrape the sides of your drain and remove any additional biofilm
that is on it. As you can see here, there's plenty of biofilm on this drain. So, remove
the goose neck from the wall, you can see it's pretty nasty. And take a spoon and
scrape out any sediment that's in the wall drain. Then use the same paper towel method
that you used on the drain that cleaned out the p-trap and the goose neck and you could
see it's pretty effective by doing that. Already it looks a lot better.
Heat a pot of water on the stove. We're going to use this later. Then fill up either a kitchen
sink or a laundry tub full of water and place all of your parts into the water --- so the
p-trap, the goose neck, the pivot rod and the pop-up stopper.
Now, the next thing that we're going to do is add about ΒΌ cup of Clorox bleach to the
water and this is going to disinfect all of the parts. So, let that sit for about ten
minutes and then you can pull your parts out. Now, obviously, I cleaned them off with a
paper towel beforehand. But, they look pretty awesome at this point.
Another step that I did that you don't have to do is I sprayed down all the parts with
Wet and Forget Indoor mold and mildew remover. This is optional. I had the Wet and Forget
sitting around. I figured why don't I just give it a shot. So I sprayed it down on all
the parts and I even sprayed it into the 2-inch pipe that's in the bathroom.
Alrighty! It's time to put everything back together again. Place the goose neck into
the wall drain, tighten down the nut, secure the p-trap to the drain coming from the sink
and the goose neck. Ratchet down on these nuts and make sure all the fittings are flush.
Then, place the clevis arm on the pivot rod and tighten down the nut that holds the pivot
rod in the drain. You want to make sure that's tight, not super tight but, just tight enough
so water won't penetrate through. Run your water. We're going to do this to make sure
that all the fittings are bone-dry and they are in my case. But if they are not in yours,
just make sure that their nuts are tight. Pour the hot water down the drain in two-cup
increments. This is going to disinfect your drain even further and move any of the sediment
down the main waste stack. And, the last step is to place the clean pop-up stopper down
into drain and you're done!
There you have it. That's how you fix a stinky sink drain. And, you know, I think that, if
you follow the tips that I showed you here, you won't have that nasty smell anymore. And,
if you got a question, by all means, just let me know or, if you've got your own tips,
please add them to the comments section because I'm always looking to learn and I know that
everybody who views my videos would like to learn from you, too.
So remember, if you haven't already done so, you can click the subscribe button at YouTube
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Thank you so much again for joining me today. I really appreciate it.
Stinky sink drains, it's something that all of us home owners have to deal with, eventually.
And I hope that these tips help you out.
Take care. And I'll see you in the next video.