Smelly galley sink

[chouliha]

Originally Posted by dmksails

There's a nasty smell coming from my galley sink drains. I've flush a lot of hot water, plus water/soap - still smells. Right now I'm leaving the sinks with an inch of water in them to stop the smell.



Any suggestions?

We occasionally have the same problem.

Pour very hot water down the drain
Add a good squirt of dish washing liquid
Using a plunger - Continue plunging until there is nor more crud showing up in the water.

You may need to repeat with hot water and dish soap a second time

We find that our drain hoses collect normal crud from doing dishing and that starts the smell. We NEVER pour grease down the drain but there is always a slight amount of grease from doing the dishes and pans.

Good luck

Chuck
Jacaranda

[zboss]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

I just shut the valve, add some bleach to the sink, fill with water and let it soak awhile, open the valve after a while drain a little to flush and shut the valve again, and repeat as needed.

Exactly! We close off the sink at the seacock, add some enzyme green gobbler from home depot, pump a few times with a plunger. Let sit for a few hours.

Open drain, flush with fresh water.

If you make this part of your normal routine this takes care of most issues. We have noticed that for some reason if we flush coffee grains down the sink this causes a lot of stink.

[zeehag]

i find simple white vinegar is perfect. pour some down drain. go away. return to sweet smelling boat. easy peasy. dish soap doesnot address rotting water issues but vinegar does. try it some time. donot use drano if you respect your boat. i have seen what drano does to bronze and aluminum and stainless when i was in land dwellings. aint a good thing there, not good on boat unless you have no desire to go anywhere but down. have fun.

[hellosailor]

A sink drain is very much the same as a head. The only difference being how well digested the "food" dropped into it it. Galley drains often being vertical or vertical plus a bend, buoyant food waste will remain floating in it unless throughly washed out. Ditto for anything sticky including grease and thick sauces or the stray pasta.

And whatever stays in there, or comes to grow in there, like all water inlets, will stink. Even if the seacock is closed, stagnant sea water will stink, just as it does in heads.

So you'd want to make Real Damn Sure it is clean, and then probably put a screen in the drain to keep out larger food waste, and make sure to thoroughly flush it after each use. Fresh water being horded by most of us, that might mean putting a seawater faucet in the galley to make flushing plentiful. Adding in a "P" trap to keep out stinky gasses from the seawater, or a second ball valve above the waterline, might even be needed to do the rest, if you've got a sensitive nose or there's something about your cooking that the critters really love.

It shouldn't be impossible; the wen isn't full of threads about "My galley drain smells!".

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Adding in a "P" trap to keep out stinky gasses from the seawater, ...

Yes... although sometimes a P trap can also be part of the problem...

In our case, that pertains more to the head sink than the galley sink, but...

We've found it succumbs to light plunging, with fresh water running to flush. Once the water in the trap is clear, odor generally goes away.

Afterwards, we've sometimes dumped some baking soda down there, let it sit, rinse...

-Chris

[hellosailor]

For that matter, two Polident every night?(G)

[Lep999]

I think there is an issue with your sink drain and this can easily be solved. First, you need to inspect the drainand know the exact location where the smell is being evolved. After that you, you will need to find baking soda and vinegar. Pour a cup of baking soda down the drain and allow it some seconds.

Next, pour a cup of vinegar down the drain and allow the reaction between the two reactants to take up to 30 minutes. In the meantime, prepare some hot water and pour down the drain to rinse it. This will help to erase the bacteria build up down the drain. Be doing this on an occasional basis. In doing this, it will help to avoid the instances of clogged sink drain in the future. Thank you.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Lep.

[keepondancin]

I occasionally plug one side of the double sink drain, take my dinghy pump and use a rag around the hose, put it in the open drain and pump, forcing the water out of the drain line, quickly close the seacock on the through hull. I put a little bleach and fresh water in the line, and let it sit for awhile, then open the seacock, and run a little fresh water through it.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by Lep999

I think there is an issue with your sink drain and this can easily be solved. First, you need to inspect the drainand know the exact location where the smell is being evolved. After that you, you will need to find baking soda and vinegar. Pour a cup of baking soda down the drain and allow it some seconds.

Next, pour a cup of vinegar down the drain and allow the reaction between the two reactants to take up to 30 minutes. In the meantime, prepare some hot water and pour down the drain to rinse it. This will help to erase the bacteria build up down the drain. Be doing this on an occasional basis. In doing this, it will help to avoid the instances of clogged sink drain in the future. Thank you.

Baking soda and vinegar (base and acid) simply roughly neutralise each other, providing little cleaning action. The reaction looks mighty impressive, as carbon dioxide is released, but this is misleading.

Instead, close off the drainage seacock, fill the drain with hot water plus the cup of baking soda and add a tablespoon of detergent. Let that sit (overnight is ideal), then rinse with hot water, as you suggested.

If sink drains are in appalling condition, I don't know how effective this is, but it works brilliantly otherwise.

As several others have suggested, avoid putting grease down the drain and have a sink strainer. I find this definitely goes a long way to avoiding build up of muck and the resulting smell. Cleaning the drain is rarely needed then.

SWL

[goat]

I'm hoping the smell is gone now (nearly a year later) but as a stop gap between flushing, I'll put a few drops of essential oil in the sink drains. The oil floats on top of the seawater sealing it like the new fangled waterless urinals do. Jasmine oil smells better than seawater IMHO.

goat

[nmccubbin]

We had this issue on our old boat which had a longish discharge hose
Best solution was to flush it through with Chlorox OR Drano every few months.

[Ghebb]

Take the handle out of your plunger. Cut a hole through the rubber part to extend the threaded handle hole through to the plunger cavity. Insert your dinghy air pump fitting into this hole. Now use this pump-assisted plunger blow air through your sink plug hole, until you hear bubbles under your hull. Done. No chemicals.

[Woodland Hills]

Pour a gallon of cleaning vinegar into the sink and let it sit overnight. I assume you have a trap in the line? Put enough in to displace all the water with vinegar, BTW cleaning vinegar is 10% and regular vinegar is only 5%.

[mikedefieslife]

Originally Posted by Ghebb

Take the handle out of your plunger. Cut a hole through the rubber part to extend the threaded handle hole through to the plunger cavity. Insert your dinghy air pump fitting into this hole. Now use this pump-assisted plunger blow air through your sink plug hole, until you hear bubbles under your hull. Done. No chemicals.

Bubbles under the hull? Won't the sink drain above the waterline? I

If it's anything like my sink with a 38mm drain, the dinghy pump isn't going to produce enough air. Might work for a smaller 19mm drain.