Bathroom stinks!! How can I remove the trap? poured water in but no luck. Zoomed inside the grate to find this? What is it?
grate - https://files.catbox.moe/ipp8l0.jpg
Inside grate- https://files.catbox.moe/ilcueh.jpg
grate - https://files.catbox.moe/ipp8l0.jpg
Inside grate- https://files.catbox.moe/ilcueh.jpg
blue stuff is the glue that was used to connect the pipes. It doesn't stank after it's dried. The rest of it is looking like a nice clean pipe, maybe your trap dried out?
Sometimes the trap dries up and that allows smells through. In those cases pouring water down the drain refills the trap and thus blocks the smell.
Clean it out with baking soda and vinegar, then stay on top of occasionally dripping in vinegar.
Baking soda turns vinegar into salt water. Mixing them cancels their individual cleaning properties.
You want that in a drain though: the chemical reaction causes a great deal of foaming and agitation, which clears shit off the inside of the pipe.
The PH you end up with also retards fruit flies and other nasties.
Normally mixing bicarb and vinegar is an exercise in stupidity, sure - but not in the case of drains
I worry that bicarb+vinegar may have become a cultural phenomenon because it looks and sounds satisfying, not because of actual measured and compared effectiveness.
You want that in a drain though: the chemical reaction causes a great deal of foaming and agitation, which clears shit off the inside of the pipe.
Is it more effective than pouring hot water down the drain? I thought the foaming and agitation was quite gentle.
The PH you end up with also retards fruit flies and other nasties.
If you're not controlling the mix then everyone will end up with a different PH. Some neutral-ish,, some acidic (bad), some alkaline (and possibly only minorly so, the NaHCO3 might create a buffer, not sure).
Is it more effective than pouring hot water down the drain? I thought the foaming and agitation was quite gentle.
Here's the REAL trick: Jam the plug in immediately after the vinegar and hold it down. So all that foaming is directed downwards, including the pressure. It's not enough pressure to blow out a pipe, but it is enough to clear stank out (more importantly, it agitates what's in the trap and a sluice afterwards will also voom out anything caught in the curve)
fruit fly larvae are pretty sensitive to salinity and ph changes, so it doesn't matter how wild and free you go with the mix, btw.
The stronger the vinegar the better when it cones to drain clearing. The chemical used to stop black and white photo development is acetic acid, which is the acid component of vinegar, plus an ingredient that turns purple when the ph goes too basic for it to work as photo stop. If you have a totally clogged drain and you pack some baking soda on top, then follow it up with concentrated photo stop you get a pipe clearing monster that beaches white foam that gradually turns purple.
Commercial chemical pipe cleaning products don't foam that way. They are a strong base (opposite of acid) that creates bubbles as the clog material is chemically reduced.
You would also get bubbles by using vinegar and waiting. As the vinegar acid breaks down the clog, you get bubbles.
Putting baking soda in with the vinegar destroys it before it can work.
No one is using baking soda and vinegar to unclog drains, nor are we talking about this application. We are talking about using it to deodorise
Salt water does not deodorize. Baking soda alone can do it as can vinegar. Mixing them is the same as pouring water with a tiny bit of salt in the drain.
Clearly, you never did a 3rd grade science project.
https://www.mrrooter.com/about/blog/2018/september/how-to-clean-a-stinky-drain/
That blog is scientifically wrong. Mixing vinegar and baking soda gives water, sodium acetate (a salt) and carbon dioxide.
Vinegar alone is good. After it has sat for a while you could then add baking soda to neutralize the acid so you don't corrode your pipes.
Baking soda alone is good. It is a base and reduces odors. After a mixture of water and baking soda sits for a while you again could add vinegar to reduce the baking soda to slightly salty water.
