Do I need to call a plumber?

 Is there anything I can do about the following problem? If anyone has
the answer, I would appreciate it, as it would save me an expensive
service call to the plumber.

My kitchen sink STINKS. It has bad breath, and as a result, the whole
kitchen smells, and eventually, the whole house. Someone told me it had
to do with the venting up above, but didn't know what to about it. I
don't have a garbage disposal. I have tried the following, but nothing
has helped.

Poured several gallons of boiling water.

Poured a whole bottle of Drano.

Poured a gallon of bleach.

If anything was caught in the trap, you would think all these measures
would take care of it, but it still smells.

Any ideas? Thank you.

Jack

  In article <jritch53-
44FE79.13435615062009@newsfarm.iad.highwinds-media.com>,
jritch53@hotmail.com says...

Take a wire coat-hanger, untwist it, and bend a hook in one end -
about an inch or so.  Use that fish around in the drain.

I did that in my bathtub once, after a chemical flush didn't
work.

Then, go to a hardware store, and buy a strainer thingy that sits
on the drain, to prevent larger particles going down.  Costs a
couple bucks.

I put a kettle of boiling water down all drains, once per week,
even when they are functioning OK.


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 Jack Ricci wrote:


The trap below the sink is supposed to stop the odour in the
pipe getting into the room. If the odour still gets into the room,
then either you dont have a trap/S bend under the sink or it is
leaking so it doesnt maintain water in it to stop the smell getting
from the pipe into the room or the sewer vent is blocked, see below.


Not clear what thats supposed to mean.

Maybe they mean that there should be a vent from the
sewer pipes, usually up to above the roofline that allows
the air in the pipe to escape. If thats blocked you can
get air coming past the trap under the kitchen sink
and so end up with smell in the kitchen and house.

Do you get air audibly coming up thru the kitchen sink trap when
something else like the washing machine is putting water into the
drain etc ?  If so, the vent is blocked, that shouldnt happen.


Depending on how its blocked, it may not be that easy for you to unblock it.

You might be able to unblock it by putting a garden hose down the vent
pipe from the roof and attempting to wash out the blockage that way.

It might need a plumber with a proper drain cleaner tho.

You can hire those, but its not clear if you know how to use one etc.


helped.


Those wont help blockages upstream between the sink and the vent.


Yeah, it wont be smelly stuff in the trap itself.