Five quick and easy ways to fix a smelly sink and stop bad odours coming back
By Rachael Gavin|
Your kitchen could look spotless and yet it will still feel dirty if a foul odour is wafting up from the sink drain.
That's thanks to all the grease, grime and food scraps that go down the drain and cause a build-up inside the pipes.
While cleaning the actual drain pipe takes either a bit of elbow grease or getting under the sink and pulling it apart, depending on how do it, a simple weekly refresh takes minutes and couldn't be easier.
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Keep in mind, these are maintenance tasks rather than a thorough clean out – if these hacks don't freshen up the smell of your kitchen sink drain, then you'll need to give it a deep clean or potentially call a plumber.
Dishwashing liquid and hot water
This is so simple it could be the easiest hack ever. It will quickly get your kitchen sink drain smelling fresh and will cost you almost nothing to do.
First, fill a kettle with water and turn it on.
Meanwhile, drizzle dishwashing liquid (dish soap/detergent, whatever you like to call it) over and into the drain – you don't need much for this to be effective.
Once the water has boiled pour it into drain and around the sink plug hole. A slight circular, swishing motion (done gently and carefully) helps to ensure good coverage.
You can also get decent results with hot water from your tap and letting that that down the sink for a few minutes – I have done this to my bathroom basin with great success against odours.
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Baking soda
Also called bi-carb soda, baking soda is brilliant at neutralising stinkyness.
Pour half a cup down your sink drain – I like to use a sprinkling motion so the baking soda isn't just sitting in one spot down the drain pipe.
Then finish with either boiling water as described above or hot water from the tap.
Some people recommend a combination of baking soda and vinegar to unclog drains, but using the two together causes a chemical reaction that makes salty water so it's generally not as effective as we think.
Vinegar
Vinegar on its own works as a sink refresher thanks to the acetic acid in which neutralises odours.
Measure out a cup of vinegar and pour it down the drain, wait half an hour for it to work its magic and then rinse it off with hot water.
Soda crystals
Washing soda is different to baking soda, but also works well on zapping bad smells and combatting grease.
To find it look for the words "sodium carbonate" or pick up some Lectric washing soda from the supermarket.
Refresh a smelly drain with soda crystals by pouring a cup of washing soda down the sink, followed by hot water.
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Oxygen bleach
Rather than using the strong smelling chlorine bleach that instantly reminds us of swimming pools, sodium percarbonate (oxygen bleach) is a gentler alternative.
There are two approaches to using oxygen bleach to refresh a sink.
One is to dilute two tablespoons with hot water in a small bucket or jug and then pour that down the drain in a circular motion.
The other option is to put the plug in and add two tablespoons of oxygen bleach to the sink before filling partially with water. Leave this for 15 to 30 minutes before taking the plug out (wear gloves for this part).
Take care with bleach and make sure to use on its own. Do not mix it with other cleaning products, especially vinegar as this can create a toxic gas.
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