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This place I just moved into has this totally nasty smell coming from the sink. I think it's the garbage disposal?
There's definitely something in there...
Someone told to throw a lime down there.
What would you do?
There's definitely something in there...
Someone told to throw a lime down there.
What would you do?
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Re: Rancid sink
Mon, May 4, 2009 - 8:29 PMTry copious boiling water to see if that shifts it.
Otherwise, caustic soda .
Is the U bend functioning?
(body of water in a u that stops smells coming back up?
Is this a town sewerage system, farm disposal, ???
If it is garbage dispsal(muncher), thenprobably needs a workout to clean out stuff left standing.
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Unsu...
Re: Rancid sink
Mon, May 4, 2009 - 9:00 PMthanks for the reply!
I don't know about the U bend..
it's a town sewer system.
I tried running baking soda/dr. bronners soap for a few minutes but my apt still reeks a couple days later.
caustic soda, that's lye, right? I'm pretty sure that stuff is outlawed in my state. -
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Re: Rancid sink
Mon, May 4, 2009 - 9:21 PMIf something's dead and rotting down in there, you need something stronger than baking powder & soap to dislodge it.
I can't think of anyplace in the world where drain cleaner is outlawed (caustic material)... nor is boiling water, ... a few gallons at least, outlawed anyplace on the planet. Getting rid of rotting stench takes strong measures.
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Re: Rancid sink
Tue, May 5, 2009 - 10:26 AMI'm gonna go in a different direction...
I think the sink is badly vented or not vented at all... causing sewer gas to bubble past the ubend and escape. -
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Unsu...
Re: Rancid sink
Tue, May 5, 2009 - 10:29 AMSometimes I have smelled septic shit and not just the rot that's in the sink.
I really appreciate this thread, because I've been asking around for days.
I'm not very skilled in this kind of department, but that's about to change Today!
So what would you do, Dano?
If a few days of intense cleaning and removal of the u-bend doesn't work,
I will go after the vent...even though I currently have no idea what or where that is.
thanks
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Re: Rancid sink
Tue, May 5, 2009 - 1:46 PMThis is tough as it may be due to just plain bad plumbing. By Code, All drains must be vented and trapped.... The trap (U bend ) creates a gas lock that that can be broken. if not vented ... You can check the U-bend, clean, replace even (they are cheap). I have never heard of a vent pipe clogging, so I would assume that its either vented off of another drainpipe or not at all... Try this... run water in sink... (Hell I don't even know if its kitchen or bath) then run water in a drain as close to this sink as possible... Do you hear bubbling From the sink as water is draining down the other drain? this can point to venting problems. If it keeps happening then you may be 1. forced to contact owner/landlord 2. get plumber advice. 3. plug nose.
As 3 is not an option 1 or 2 is next... be aware that if its not vented, there is no solution... well other than to redo the plumbing.
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Re: Rancid sink
Tue, May 5, 2009 - 2:18 PMIf it's sewer gas you'd know instantly. -
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Unsu...
Re: Rancid sink
Tue, May 5, 2009 - 2:26 PMI know, it happens sometimes. not lately thank...god...
the rest of the time it's just rotten smelling. thanks everyone..I'm going to tackle it
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Unsu...
Re: Rancid sink
Mon, May 4, 2009 - 10:06 PMi was going to recommend a day of vinegar, then a day of baking soda and then a day of lemon juice.
might not hurt to snake the drain 1st.
if its the garbage disposal, i know they make little gel caps you can throw in there, run hot water and then turn on the disposal.
i've used them before and they work pretty well.
good luck!
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Re: Rancid sink
Tue, May 5, 2009 - 6:32 AMEasiest most environmentally friendly solution... remove the trap <that is the U shaped bend>
Clean it out and reinstall it. Frequently grease builds up and rots.
I am not a fan of caustics. frequently they cause more problems especially in metal pipes.
If it is definitely the disposal then drop a lemon <or lime though I have found lemon more effective> in there and run it. The citric acid from the rind and the lemon oil can break up some grease and tends to work as a cleaner. It does work though if you have not done anything routine to clean and clear out the debris in the disposal you may need to do it a few times.
JSin
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Re: Rancid sink
Tue, May 5, 2009 - 6:57 AMThe disposal has a smell?
Plug the sink. Fill it with hot water. Pour a couple cups ( more if you like) of household bleach in the sink full of hot water.
Swish it about some. Open the drain and turn on the disposal.
That'll do it.
Then repeat the performance using vinegar to neutralize the bleach and follow with baking soda to bring the PH in the pipes to normal.
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Re: Rancid sink
Tue, May 5, 2009 - 7:12 AMAs an aside: 90% of the crazy crap that is passing for solutions for household problems is nonsense.
Take for example the myth about Ice for sharpening the blades in a disposal.
Ice does not "sharpen" a garbage disposal blades. The very idea is rooted in multiple misnomers. Garbage disposals don't need sharp anything they pulverize they do not slice. They have little centripetally activated hammers not blades.
What ice can do is clean gunk out of the small spaces because Ice will remain hard and edgy even as it's pulverized into smaller bits.
It can get in small spaces and wedge the built up organic matter out.
Ice does not "sharpen " anything.
Or rubbing a lemon on you cutting board.
Oh god that's just what you need more organic matter being forced into the fibers of a wood board~!!
The correct way to treat a wood board is to salt it. You rub salt into the board after you clean it. Ask any commercial butcher.
It seems that the current trend is to insist that lemons and oranges are anti bacterial and anti fungal and toi use them for everything. That's just fukin nuts.
Leave an orange or lemon out for awhile and you can watch it turn into a festering seething mass of black green stinky filth.
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Re: (Rancid sink)... salting a wood board?
Tue, May 5, 2009 - 7:52 AMSalting a wooden chopping block may well work for butcher applications because the grain will be infused with animal fat & gristle.. The salt will pull up some of the lipidic compounds.
However, a cutting board as used in a vegetarian houshold, would not profit from salt applications... which would serve to dry out the wood and crack it. For vegan/vegetarian cutting boards, following normal cleaning, the citrus works, plus rubbing in some grapeseed oil to prevent wood drying out. Wood by itself has natural anti-biotic properties. -
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Re: (Rancid sink)... salting a wood board?
Tue, May 5, 2009 - 9:12 AMI don't buy the claims of Antibiotic properties as they are splashed about these days. People take a little snippet of information and conflate it into something more than it is.
Yah this flower here or that mold there or the oil of that seed may have certain qualities but to regard them as the panacea that so many today want to make them out to be is I think poppycock.
Lemons rot just like anything else.
I put mineral oil on my wood boards and clean them with soap and water.
The old school butcher block was a few hundred pounds. Taking it to the sink was not an option.
And they were all end grain boards. Modern boards are long grain. The old school blocks were all end grain - it wasn't so rough on the blades. They held 'em together with steel bands and iron rods and as often as not used hammered tapered wedged dovetails for joinery so they didn't have to depend on glues.
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Re: (Rancid sink)... salting a wood board?
Tue, May 5, 2009 - 9:27 AMYeah none of the above work for boards. I am currently taking my Serv Safe and HAACP certification. Ya got a couple of option as far as home sanitation.
Bleach with 2 minute open contact time 12.5 to 25 ppm
Iodine at apx 50ppm for 3 minutes
If ya have access to Quaternary Ammonia or Quat it is 200 to 400 ppm anything else does not sanitize... you just get squeaky clean germs
Now to the lemon and salt... both will slow bacterial growth but not kill them. Many will go to a spore or cystic stage and wait till they have nice hospitable conditions.
In a household where meat and the like are not hot held for a long time or are passed through the food danger zone quickly <40 degrees to 140 degrees> this likely will not be a problem.
Personally I use Teflon and plastic blocks and never cut meat on wood
It can become a problem if ya take that nice egg salad to the local BBQ
Remember most food borne illness happens at home
The use of the lemons in a disposal is not for antibacterial action... it is to use the lemon oil and acid to degrease the blades and body of the disposal.
JSin -
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Re: (Rancid sink)... salting a wood board?
Tue, May 5, 2009 - 7:58 PMAAGGHHH My eyes!! Jsin I come to Tribe to get AWAY from work!!! :-) -
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Re: (Rancid sink)... salting a wood board?
Thu, May 7, 2009 - 5:33 AMYeah I am just mean like that Amazon
JSin
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Re: Rancid sink > probiotic solution
Tue, May 5, 2009 - 9:30 AMAdopting a pro-biotic lifestyle totally works as an answer to today's health issues. This means organic, biological inter-relations in a balanced, whole, wholesome, holistic way. YOU are part of the biology going on with all of the cultures, and funghi, and bacteria, both symbiotic and evil, going on within your own metabolism, and the foods you put inside yourself, and the cultures found around your food prep area.. YOU relate to your living environment in a living biololgical probiotic chain of micro/macro-biotic interaction.
I like the idea of going to organic solutions to solve the sink issue... that is ice and lemons and vinegar,... as opposed to harsh industrial grade compounds that serve to nuke out the bacteria down there. That bacteria is only doing its job to break down the food bits accumulating in the undersink trap. Some people have an aversion to mechanical plumbing tasks, so the biological response seems appropriate to this.
Cutting board maintenance> Vegetable oils will absorb more deeply into wooden surfaces than will stone oils that only will penetrate to a few molecules depth. -
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Re: Rancid sink > probiotic solution
Tue, May 5, 2009 - 10:43 AMVeggie oils decompose and feed other organic firms like bacteria and mold.
I'd like to see some material on oil penetration.
Call me Duke Nukem when it so comes to sanitizing things. I like my caustics.
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Re: Rancid sink > biology, love it or leave it
Tue, May 5, 2009 - 12:29 PMSo "Duke",... ease off on the Drano-'n-Jack.
Organic compounds harmonize well with other organic compounds.
Olive oil, for example, is used as a preservative in Mediterranean cultures.
Maybe Wesson Oil (very processed) goes bad, so don't use it.
Any healing tribe will let you in on how topical remedies are best carried through natural oils with superior penetration as opposed to cheaper less effective petrolatum vehicles.
The Old-Skool notion of clinically sterilizing your kitchen can be counter-productive...as is the OldSkool medical doctrine of prophylaxis. (despite what the local board of health believes). You will never kill off all the bad little evil invisible animals, and leave the necessary "good" microbiotic cultures alive. Howard Hughes tried, and went pretty batty doing so. It's better to develop some peristroika with living things around us. It takes many generations to develop a balanced working relationship with all of the life-forms we daily encounter. America is still a young society of transplanted peoples from the world round trying to find a way to exist together in a strange land with strange plants & trees & animals....not at all like back home in England or Poland or Africa. Should we continue to kill off all Nature to control what is strange and thus fearsome, and maybe inconvenient to our inherited cultural bias?
Let's come to terms with our environment.
It's called culture.
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Re: Rancid sink > biology, love it or leave it
Tue, May 5, 2009 - 2:35 PM*************The Old-Skool notion of clinically sterilizing your kitchen can be counter-productive...as is the OldSkool medical doctrine of prophylaxis. (despite what the local board of health believes). You will never kill off all the bad little evil invisible animals, and leave the necessary "good" microbiotic cultures alive.***************
Well I figure a good overnight soak in 12% Sodium hypochlorite will kill most any thing. Of course the chicken is just a mushy blob of goo in the morning but hey~!! it's sterile.
*********** Howard Hughes tried, and went pretty batty doing so.**************
He didn't have Cobalt 60~!!!
************** It's better to develop some peristroika with living things around us.**************
Yah I got some perestroika right here in the breach of my 12 gauge.
*********** It takes many generations to develop a balanced working relationship with all of the life-forms we daily encounter.**********
That's why I kill 'em early and often. Leaves me time for posting on the internet-S
************Should we continue to kill off all Nature to control what is strange and thus fearsome, and maybe inconvenient to our inherited cultural bias?***********
I say if it don't move build a fence around it and call it land. If it does, shoot it and have it for diner. Tell the kids it's chicken.
**********Let's come to terms with our environment. ***********
My terms are that the planet shall offer its unconditional surrender.
All kidding aside.
The world as I have experienced it is not a delicate balance of sweet soft fuzzy natural things all existing in harmony. It's a hostile place where if you are not doing the killing and eating then you are getting the killing and being eaten.
The universe I have experienced it always at odds with itself, always trying to destroy some aspect of itself.
The vines climb the trees and kill 'em. The trees poison the soil so other plants won't sprout. the insects eat everything. The animals stalk each other to kill and eat. The microbes are playing fast and loose with what ever they can infect. And my fellow humans are trying to do as much damage to other guy as they can before the other guy can do it first.
I don't mean to rain on any parade but, that's just the world as it has come to me.
If your experience has shown you different then, good for you.
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This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.
Re: Rancid sink > biology, love it or leave it
Tue, May 5, 2009 - 4:08 PMI use ammonia to keep my kitchen sinks clear. When my home was switched from septic tank to city sewer they left too many bends under the ground. The plumber who snaked it out last time said the problem is greasy build up, although the only grease going down would be the little bit left on the dishes.
He recommended a cup of straight ammonia once a week to keep the lines clear. So far so good. -
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Re: Rancid sink > biology, love it or leave it
Tue, May 5, 2009 - 7:14 PM****************He recommended a cup of straight ammonia once a week to keep the lines clear. So far so good. *************
The under used chemical.
Did ya know that the stuff burns with near explosive fury and is a component of Hydrazine a great rocket fuel? That it will suck the oxygen right out of yer lungs? It's flash point is near freezing. Did ya know that it loosens the chemical bonds between the lignun and the wood substructure allowing one to freely bend any wood?
The reason none of those things are of issue to you or I is that we never have access to pure anhydrous ammonia which is what ya need to do any of those things. Store bought ammonia is like maybe 80% water.
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Re: Rancid sink > biology, love it or leave it
Tue, May 5, 2009 - 8:38 PMHey Braggi you are aware of resistant strains. We already screwed the pooch on co existance. this is a huge factor on food borne. There are super bugs now that we have little or ne resistance to.
For me I use an old school chem... Bleach to sanitize cutting boards and prep surfaces in my home.
I also eat organic and or free range local product when possible <admittedly here in vegas I can't get the stuff I am accustomed to but I do the best I can>
Seriously if you think for a minute you can Sterilize shit in the kitchen learn some Biology. Sanitary is the best you are gonna get unless you autoclave the place.
JSin -
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This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.
Re: Rancid sink > biology, love it or leave it
Tue, May 5, 2009 - 11:11 PMYou have to constantly evolve the cultures within yourself and around you. It's a living game. If you fall to those super bugs, it's because you deserve to. You were weak and didn't have the strength to resist. That's natural law. Sometimes I think it's better to expose yourself , at least a little, to every new thing, and develop resistance... as opposed to trying to stay ahead of the game by attempting to killing it all off.(not a winning strategy). Even strict avoidance fails. As Eves Chouinard, the well known outdoorsman told his kids when they wanted to know why he doesn't wash his hands, "You have to learn how to handle germs".
Adding a dash of Clorox to your wash bucket outdoors may sanitize a bit. For me, it works better to wash my gear in live water. My own continuing health is the proof.
My point was that sterilizing is best left to brain surgeons... and my kitchen, though funky appearing, serves up some best numero uno grub you can imagine. -
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Re: Rancid sink > biology, love it or leave it
Wed, May 6, 2009 - 1:06 PMSee you are looking at it as a either or proposition. Given your position it makes me wonder do you eat your chicken raw. Do ya slaughter your own pigs and eat that raw? I mean after all it is best by your logic to make sure you get all the salmonella and trichinosis as possible.
Am I anal about making my kitchen sanitary? not at home. in the wor5kplace damn right. I do not need a food borne pathogenic disease there.
I am well aware of the benefits of exposing one self to certain pathogens. It is required to maintain a healthy immune system. This does not mean it is responsible or correct to simply consider reasonable reduction of bacterial populations on critical systems. Those would be things like knives and cutting boards.
Just to be clear. There is a huge difference between clean, sanitary, and sterile. You are never going to get a sterile environment in the home. For that matter even an operating environment is only sanitary not sterile. Autoclaved interments are clinically sterile.
As you get older Briggi your immune system is going to be reduced in effectiveness.. It is part of getting old. You can continue to try to keep it up but some exploitative bacteria will knock ya down at some point. Not really my concern.
JSin -
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Re: Rancid sink > biology?
Wed, May 6, 2009 - 5:21 PMI don't disagree with anything you've said there. What exactly is the issue?
Of course you run your kitchen as suits you. I'm not activating for any change in your personal lifestyle.
Me? As I grow older, I spend more time/energy on staying fit and keeping healthy. I'm vegetarian... sometimes vegan. Working on taking in more produce & less carbs at the moment.
There are probiotic strategies for coping with harmful microbes. I have some experience with these. However, this is not the forum for winning over hearts and minds,
...but I'll be glad to furnish more information if anyone wishes to private message me on this.
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Re: Rancid sink > biology, love it or leave it
Wed, May 6, 2009 - 4:17 PM*********************ometimes I think it's better to expose yourself , at least a little, to every new thing, and develop resistance... as opposed to trying to stay ahead of the game by attempting to killing it all off.(not a winning strategy).**************
I have grand children.
Nuff said. -
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Re: Rancid sink > biology
Wed, May 6, 2009 - 6:11 PMNo arguing with that logic.
Cliff, you are a nice man.
You are like a father to us on this tribe.
Also sometimes a baad muffukka.
Be aware of the bear.
The bear sometimes displays beastly manners.
You will need something heavier gauge than 12 to knock it down ...should it choose to misbehave.
God help us, we hope not.
Have a Cuba Libre on Briggi.
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Re: Rancid sink
Tue, May 5, 2009 - 7:53 AMICE Does NOT Sharpen the Blades, it CLEANS THEM.
my awesome plumber/friend told me this trick that works better than all of the other things listed: pack the disposal with ice, fill the sink with ice. grab a spoon with a long wooden handle (you are going to use the handle to "punch" the ice into the disposal if it doesn't go down easily). run the water (cold) and turn on the disposal while forcing the ice through. He says the ice breaks into shards which then scour the pipes on the way down. for 25 years I have used this with or without a lemon added first, and it works really well to clean out the whole disposal area.
BUT I'd do what JSin suggests, removing the bottom U trap and cleaning it out or replacing it, for a truly complete fix.
PS put your cutting boards out in the sun for a day to sterilize them as well!
