When i turn my bathroom faucet on i get a sewer smell for about 30 seconds then it goes away. its only in the bathroom at that faucet. what causes that? thank you
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A motor home will pull sewer gas from the holding tank if you cause a vacuum in the vehicle.This will happen to all units but will be more pronounced with a toilet with a bad seal on the flush valve.
Keep the door closed for the bathroom when driving and use the dash vents for outside air with all the windows closed as this will pressurize the RV with air and not allow sewer gases into the unit.
If the house has been sitting for a long time, the traps may have dried out and are not stopping the sewer gasses from being trapped back, flush all toilets and run some water in all the sinks and tubs, to refill the p-traps, also don't forget to pour some water down the washer drain pipe. HOPE THIS HELPS...
When you next get the smell, check the traps to see if there is enough water in there to fill the trap, if one is less then it looks like water is getting sucked out when toilet is flushed or that trap (usually bath or shower) hasn't had water going in (lack of use) and water has partially evaporated.
are there any floor drains in the room and an unused bathtub or shower? if so the water may have evaporated from the trap and allow the sewer gas smell. try pouring water into all the drains and see if it is still happening. more elaborate problem may be a broken vent stack in a wall.
Suppose you plugged the drain of the sink and filled the basin with water, then removed the plug. I must think that only after the basin empties you would get the sewer smell, and the smell would persist until you slowly ran some more water. If you try this, and this is the result, then the problem is that the sewer vent (that is supposed to prevent the water in the trap under the sink from being sucked down the drain) is not working right. If this is a new problem then you may be able to clear what is probably a blocked vent pipe. If this bathroom has always had this problem, then you have a poorly designed or executed vent pipe setup that you can only fix it with some surgery to your plumbing. However, to clean the vent you can try pouring a good bit of drain cleaner down the vent pipe on the roof, followed by water. But because there may be several vent pipes sharing the same vent stack out the roof, the drain cleaner may not get to your blockage and may simply go down a different path. Good luck.
Sounds like you have an intermittently blocked vent pipe (the one that goes out through your roof). If there is gas pressure in the downstream sewer line and it can't get up through the vent, it could bubble up through your toilet or sinks. I would get up on the roof with a few jugs of powerful drain cleaner and dump them into your vents. You might also run a few dozen gallons of water down those vents after the drain cleaner has had time to work. Good luck!
If you live in a hard water area, you probably have some buildup on the seals. You might be able to clear it by just running water through it, but most of the time, you might have to take the faucet off and soak in vinegar or replace the seals/cartridge.
Assuming the problem is right there at the faucet, and not further upstream (which you could verify by taking a little water from the tub faucet), perhaps you could try this--- turn off the water supply then remove the flexible water supply lines from the faucet underneath the sink. These are usually not too hard to remove from the faucet with a basin wrench (less than $10). If it's easy, remove the other end of the flexible water supply lines too. Maybe you should replace these. Otherwise, get the water out of those flexible line, then put some bleach into them. Reconnect to the faucet. Leave the faucet turned off, and turn the water supply back on. Then very slightly turn on the faucet to allow the air out, then turn it off. Leave the bleach to soak for a while (maybe 30 minutes) then flush plenty of water through it. If the smell comes back, there is probably something organic stuck in the faucet and you will have to disassemble or replace it.
Good luck.
Be sure to keep all water traps [in the bathrooms, sinks] thruout the house full of water, if not then you will get a sewer smell coming into the house in the form of an explosive gas...Methane
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Fowl smells related to plumbing can have several causes. Here's a few potential issues that you can check. If none of them solve the problem you may need to call a plumber.
1) Look at your pedestal sink drain connection. Is there an an elbow connecting to your drain or a P Trap? A p trap is a pipe shaped like the letter "p" (hence the name) and it prevents sewer gas from rising into the bathroom. **sometimes an apprentice plumber puts in a pedestal without a p trap because they are fairly difficult to install, and ALL fixtures need P traps. If there is no P trap, then you need to put one in. It will be a tight space, but you may be able to do it yourself.
2) Do you have a floor drain? If so, your sink will need a trap primer at the drain. Or you can pour water into the drain from time to time before it evaporates from the trap
3) If the smell is more of a sulfur type smell and it appears from running water in other places in the house, then it could also be due the type of tank you have if you are on well water
My offhand guess is that number 1 is your issue.
Without further info, those are some of my best solutions so far, but if none of these are potential solutions, then make the following tests
1) close the door to the bathroom and leave it for an hour or two. Return to the room. Do you smell sewer smell? Is it in the entire room or more concentrated in a certain area? If you don't have a floor drain and its everywhere, there could be a missing P trap from a fixture, a lose toilet flange, a cracked drain pipe 2) without running water, smell your drain. Does it have a sewer smell? Then the P trap either is not present or you need to clean the drain with a drain cleaner due to a list of reasons 3) run water. does the sewer smell increase or does one suddenly appear. Is the smell more a different odor than sewer. See if it is the water itself. If so, check other places. If they do not have the smell then you may have recently installed your sink and there is some smell related to the new valve. Then you would need to use it some more until it disappears.
Check the top list, though because I really think you're just missing a P trap
Sewer breaks below the slab, an open pipe somewhere, some issue with the water supply, are among some other issues but that depends on the test
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