My kitchen disposal is giving off this bad musty odor. And it's murder
on my sinuses. Every time I go near that thing, my nose stuffs up. I
know the odor is coming out of there, because if I cover the disposal,
the odor goes away--but the moment I uncover it, the smell is there.

I cleaned the disposal but the smell remained. Even using full strength
Clorox only kills the odor for a couple of days, after which the odor
returns. There's some black gunk under the rim of the disposal. I
scrub it off and bleach that area, but the gunk returns in 48 hours.

So now I'm wondering if there's decaying material either under the
rotating plate of the disposal, or perhaps even deeper into the drain
pipe, from which bugs keep growing. I tried Liquid-Plumr to dislodge
any gunk in the drain, and the drain flows freely. But that didn't help
the odor either. Or maybe there's bad stuff in the dishwasher drain
hose that feeds into the disposal???

Any ideas?

Before I replace the disposal, I want to be sure the problem is there
and not in the drain itself.


--
Steven L.

On Thu, 23 Jan 2014 19:44:53 -0500, "Steven L." wrote:

My kitchen disposal is giving off this bad musty odor. And it's murder
on my sinuses. Every time I go near that thing, my nose stuffs up. I
know the odor is coming out of there, because if I cover the disposal,
the odor goes away--but the moment I uncover it, the smell is there.

I cleaned the disposal but the smell remained. Even using full strength
Clorox only kills the odor for a couple of days, after which the odor
returns. There's some black gunk under the rim of the disposal. I
scrub it off and bleach that area, but the gunk returns in 48 hours.

So now I'm wondering if there's decaying material either under the
rotating plate of the disposal, or perhaps even deeper into the drain
pipe, from which bugs keep growing. I tried Liquid-Plumr to dislodge
any gunk in the drain, and the drain flows freely. But that didn't help
the odor either. Or maybe there's bad stuff in the dishwasher drain
hose that feeds into the disposal???

Any ideas?

Before I replace the disposal, I want to be sure the problem is there
and not in the drain itself.

Unfortunately, the only thing you can do is disassemble the drain pipes under
the sink, especially the trap and clean everything out. I recently had
something like this happen only to discover several of the pipes under my sink
were 50% clogged. I used a hole saw on a long arbor to clean them out after
taking them apart.

Could you have debris stuck in your disposal, yes, it can happen, but you have
to take it apart to fix it.

On 01/23/2014 07:44 PM, Steven L. wrote:
My kitchen disposal is giving off this bad musty odor. And it's murder on my sinuses.


This is the John Candy method of disposer cleaning, not only is it easy but it's fun too:


Turn the faucet on full blast.
Turn the disposer on.
With the water and the disposer running, squirt approx 1/4 cup Dawn liquid dish soap into the disposer.
You'll notice it foams up...a lot!

Repeat as needed until the smell is gone.

On 01/23/2014 06:58 PM, Lab Lover wrote:
OX

Before I replace the disposal, I want to be sure the problem is there
and not in the drain itself.

Unfortunately, the only thing you can do is disassemble the drain pipes under
the sink, especially the trap and clean everything out. I recently had
something like this happen only to discover several of the pipes under my sink
were 50% clogged. I used a hole saw on a long arbor to clean them out after
taking them apart.

Could you have debris stuck in your disposal, yes, it can happen, but you have
to take it apart to fix it.




Caution: If you take any plumbing apart...wear rubber gloves.

There is a guy her in town who cut his hand while disassembling plumbing
and got an infection so severe he suffered brain damage.

He's recovered now but had a rough journey.

On 1/23/2014 8:01 PM, Uncle Buck wrote:

This is the John Candy method of disposer cleaning, not only is it easy
but it's fun too:


Turn the faucet on full blast.
Turn the disposer on.
With the water and the disposer running, squirt approx 1/4 cup Dawn
liquid dish soap into the disposer.
You'll notice it foams up...a lot!

Repeat as needed until the smell is gone.

I don't have a disposer, but that sounds like fun.
Hottest water you can get off the faucet?

That Uncle Buck movie, I thought was a lot of fun.
The people all were on different levels, and John
Candy "stepped up" and did what was needed. Whether
it was combing hair, keeping a boyfriend in control,
dealing with the school principal, or punching a
drunken clown.

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

"Steven L." wrote in news:Xrednc-
:

My kitchen disposal is giving off this bad musty odor. And it's murder
on my sinuses. Every time I go near that thing, my nose stuffs up. I
know the odor is coming out of there, because if I cover the disposal,
the odor goes away--but the moment I uncover it, the smell is there.

If you don't drink coffee, you surely know somebody who does. Run a cup or two of used
coffee grounds through the disposal, and see if that helps. Other classic disposal cleaning
methods are eggshells and ice, but IME nothing beats coffee grounds.

All disposals have bad smells occasionally -- but that problem has almost disappeared in
my kitchen since we switched about two years ago to a reusable coffee filter. Now, every
day, after dumping the grounds in the wastebasket, I rinse what's left in the filter basket
down the disposal. So every day, my disposal is grinding up 2 or 3 tablespoons of used
coffee grounds. And it *never* smells bad any more unless I forget to run it after putting
something down it.

I vote for a couple of gallons of boiling water, not just hot water, poured down the drain followed by a whole gallon of clorox. Do all this while the disposal is running.

On Thursday, January 23, 2014 10:51:51 PM UTC-5, wrote:
I vote for a couple of gallons of boiling water, not just hot water, poured down the drain followed by a whole gallon of clorox. Do all this while the disposal is running.

first run a lot of ice cubes thru the disposal, then very hot water and finally bleach

the ice tends to clean the blades of the unit

On Thursday, January 23, 2014 10:51:51 PM UTC-5, wrote:
I vote for a couple of gallons of boiling water, not just hot water, poured down the drain followed by a whole gallon of clorox. Do all this while the disposal is running.

Yes, this.

My last house was built in the late 40's and the cast iron pipes would start running slow every now and then. A pot full of BOILING water thrown down the sink, tub, and laundry sink would sort it. Just greasy buildup from everyday stuffs. We didn't have a disposer but we did have a dishwasher.

nate

On 1/24/2014 8:38 AM, bob haller wrote:
On Thursday, January 23, 2014 10:51:51 PM UTC-5, wrote:
I vote for a couple of gallons of boiling water, not just hot water, poured down the drain followed by a whole gallon of clorox. Do all this while the disposal is running.

first run a lot of ice cubes thru the disposal, then very hot water and finally bleach

the ice tends to clean the blades of the unit


Disposals don't puree, they just chop, so there are likely sizeable
chunks left to rot. Reach a hand down to pick out the chunks, then run
some citrus peel through the disposal without water, then with hot water.

On 1/24/2014 8:38 AM, bob haller wrote:

first run a lot of ice cubes thru the disposal, then very hot water and finally bleach

the ice tends to clean the blades of the unit

When I was a kid, I worked at McDonalds. we used to
clean the coffee decanters with ice cubes and a bit
of table salt. Slosh the ice cubes around, and that
scrubbed the inside with the salt crystals. I don't
know if this would apply here.

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On Thu, 23 Jan 2014 17:44:53 -0700, Steven L.
wrote:
...snip...
Any ideas?

Before I replace the disposal, I want to be sure the problem is there
and not in the drain itself.




We found any meat type stuff goes down there, in no time smells like a
rendering plant, so....

Run hot water thru, then stop with the water and pour straight bleach in,
turn off/let rest 10 minutes, then continue flushing with hot water. Makes
the sink odor go away!

And, be fast on that rinse cycle, else you'll rust the "expletive deleted"
out of your chopper blades.

On Fri, 24 Jan 2014 07:03:45 -0700, Stormin Mormon
wrote:

On 1/24/2014 8:38 AM, bob haller wrote:

first run a lot of ice cubes thru the disposal, then very hot water and
finally bleach

the ice tends to clean the blades of the unit

When I was a kid, I worked at McDonalds. we used to
clean the coffee decanters with ice cubes and a bit
of table salt. Slosh the ice cubes around, and that
scrubbed the inside with the salt crystals. I don't
know if this would apply here.



I clean coffee cup and the Brewmaster with bleach. Just put a bit of
bleach into a cup and all the stains just disappear, don't even need to
rub the surfaces.

Learned supposed to work using healthy mix of soda dissolved in water, but
since bleach worked so well haven't tried that.

On Thursday, January 23, 2014 7:44:53 PM UTC-5, Steven L. wrote:
My kitchen disposal is giving off this bad musty odor. And it's murder

on my sinuses. Every time I go near that thing, my nose stuffs up. I

know the odor is coming out of there, because if I cover the disposal,

the odor goes away--but the moment I uncover it, the smell is there.



I cleaned the disposal but the smell remained. Even using full strength

Clorox only kills the odor for a couple of days, after which the odor

returns. There's some black gunk under the rim of the disposal. I

scrub it off and bleach that area, but the gunk returns in 48 hours.



So now I'm wondering if there's decaying material either under the

rotating plate of the disposal, or perhaps even deeper into the drain

pipe, from which bugs keep growing. I tried Liquid-Plumr to dislodge

any gunk in the drain, and the drain flows freely. But that didn't help

the odor either. Or maybe there's bad stuff in the dishwasher drain

hose that feeds into the disposal???



Any ideas?



Before I replace the disposal, I want to be sure the problem is there

and not in the drain itself.





--

Steven L.

Ours did that. I discovered that the pipes below it had a horizontal clean out stub that sloped slightly the wrong way. Over the years bits of waste had accumulated in that short section of pipe until it was full of a brown smelly sludge. Seems those bacteria would quickly infest the trap water and start smelling bad. Even if I ran a bunch of hot soapy water down it, only a few hours later the stink would be back. Apparently the workers had a hard time getting the cabinet in and had pushed the drain pipe some coming up from the floor to make it all fit. That caused the clean out slope to be wrong. I cut the drain pipe out, cleaned it all, and reinstalled with the proper slopes and the problem went away.

There is some troubleshooting advise from Insinkerator on this page.

http://www.insinkerator.com/en-us/Se...s/Default.aspx

For the record, we're in the habit of giving the disposal a little shot
of straight dishwashing detergent at the end of every 'grind cycle'
while still running and water flowing. Foam will weal up a little, then
quickly disperse.

We also let the water run a good 30 seconds at the end of every cycle.

Also see the 'operating instructions', and 'user-maintenance'
instructions on pages 9 and 10 of this Insinkerator instruction manual.

http://www.insinkerator.com/en-us/Do...Use-Manual.pdf

Good luck!

Erik

On Fri, 24 Jan 2014 05:38:16 -0800 (PST), bob haller
wrote:


first run a lot of ice cubes thru the disposal, then very hot water and finally bleach

the ice tends to clean the blades of the unit

+1 on the ice cubes

On Thu, 23 Jan 2014 19:44:53 -0500, "Steven L."
wrote:

Or maybe there's bad stuff in the dishwasher drain
hose that feeds into the disposal???

Any ideas?

Could be related to the air gap vent cap mounted on top of the sink
(if you have one). The cap pulls off easily. Some cooties can build
up under the cap, which also needs a bleach cleaning.

On 1/23/2014 10:51 PM, wrote:
I vote for a couple of gallons of boiling water, not just hot water, poured down the drain followed by a whole gallon of clorox. Do all this while the disposal is running.


I don't see how to do that without the running disposal splashing the
Clorox out all over my kitchen. That can be dangerous as well as
damaging to anything the Clorox comes in contact with.



--
Steven L.

On 1/24/2014 9:41 AM, RobertMacy wrote:
On Thu, 23 Jan 2014 17:44:53 -0700, Steven L.
wrote:
...snip...
Any ideas?

Before I replace the disposal, I want to be sure the problem is there
and not in the drain itself.




We found any meat type stuff goes down there, in no time smells like a
rendering plant, so....

Run hot water thru, then stop with the water and pour straight bleach
in, turn off/let rest 10 minutes, then continue flushing with hot water.
Makes the sink odor go away!

I've tried that already.

The odor returns in just 48 hours.


--
Steven L.

On Mon, 27 Jan 2014 05:45:51 -0500, "Steven L." wrote:

On 1/24/2014 9:41 AM, RobertMacy wrote:
On Thu, 23 Jan 2014 17:44:53 -0700, Steven L.
wrote:
...snip...
Any ideas?

Before I replace the disposal, I want to be sure the problem is there
and not in the drain itself.




We found any meat type stuff goes down there, in no time smells like a
rendering plant, so....

Run hot water thru, then stop with the water and pour straight bleach
in, turn off/let rest 10 minutes, then continue flushing with hot water.
Makes the sink odor go away!

I've tried that already.

The odor returns in just 48 hours.

Just take the thing apart and localize the problem, it might not even be the
disposal.

Short cuts usually only serve to prolong the agony and increase your costs.

On Mon, 27 Jan 2014 05:44:58 -0500, "Steven L."
wrote:

On 1/23/2014 10:51 PM, wrote:
I vote for a couple of gallons of boiling water, not just hot water, poured down the drain followed by a whole gallon of clorox. Do all this while the disposal is running.


I don't see how to do that without the running disposal splashing the
Clorox out all over my kitchen. That can be dangerous as well as
damaging to anything the Clorox comes in contact with.

You have stuff kicking out of your disposal when you run it? Wow!

philo* posted for all of us...

And I know how to SNIP





Caution: If you take any plumbing apart...wear rubber gloves.

There is a guy her in town who cut his hand while disassembling plumbing
and got an infection so severe he suffered brain damage.

He's recovered now but had a rough journey.

That is just plain SICK!

--
Tekkie

On 01/28/2014 08:31 PM, Tekkie® wrote:
uy her in town who cut his hand while disassembling plumbing
and got an infection so severe he suffered brain damage.

He's recovered now but had a rough journey.

That is just plain SICK!




Yes, he was VERY sick and I would not want to see others go through that.

I don't see how to do that without the running disposal splashing the
Clorox out all over my kitchen. That can be dangerous as well as
damaging to anything the Clorox comes in contact with.


I have used a number of regular kitchen sink garbage disposals. None of them ever splashed anything back up at me, so there is something seriously wrong if your disposal splashes back.