Sink smell

[shock]

The drain of our sink has a terrible odor. I pour bleach down once in awhile and it will go away temporarily. There appears to be sufficient water in the trap!

Any ideas?

[Mr T]

Which sink?
If kitchen, is there a disposal?
Is the smell from any other sinks or fixtures?

Have you pulled the trap off yet to see if something is in it?

[shock]

bathroom sink and there appears to be nothing in there!

[Mr T]

Remove the trap, dont just look down it. drain it, flush it.

WHen you remove the trap and drain it, note how much water you find in it. If it seems like its not muchm you may have a clog somewhere that is causing a vacuum that is sucking water out of the trap allowing air/gasses to come up. You can compare by taking that trap to another sink, or the tub, holding it level and pouring water in it until it comes out the other end. the amount you get when you dump it now, is a normal amount.

ALso make sure to hit the overflow. Stuff a rag down your drain to plug the overflow drain, fill it with some strong cleaner (becarefull mixing chemicals, if you have a clog, it could trap chemical A, and later when you use chemical B, it could react with dangerous results), let sit a while, remove the rag and flush that out too. Who knows what could be lurking in there..

[shock]

At this point I think the problem was the overflow. Currently, no smell! Thanks!

[Mr T]

All kind of fun stuff lives/grows/crawls/slithers up there...

Run some water down your overflow every once in a while to keep it flushed out and this shouldnt happen again. Also make sure your drain trap is free and clear so theres no backup into the overflow.