Tomorrow, I will open up access to the lines behind the drywall and see what they look like.
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Any unnecessary (dead legs) plumbing leading nowhere/capped off near those sinks, possibly building up with bacteria, causing the stinky water?
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aka. Water Hammer Arrestors.
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Not that I am aware of. There have not been any remodels.
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They are installed on the water heater lines, per local code.
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Those are for expansion of the heated water.
If that bathroom is near the end of the “run”, the flow of water causes ‘hammering’, thus the arrestors are often installed near that location.
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I don’t run into the hydrogen sulfide or rotten egg smell with city water. I am on a well. My mother-in-law apartment which is on the same well developed the smell on the hot water side. I flushed bleach through the system. That was years ago, and it has not returned.
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Cleaning hair/gunk out of the p trap may help
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So thinking this out…
Only two bathroom sink faucets produce water with an odor for about 30 seconds from the Hot and Cold supply.
The home has PEX pipe.
House is on city water.
It is not new and has been occurring since the home was bought 8 years ago.
Faucets have been changed about 5 years ago.
With the PEX do you have “home run” supply lines with a manifold?
With the odor lasting only 30 or so seconds that is telling me that the water is sitting somewhere and once it is flushed out of the line/area the odor is gone.
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Negative (10 characters)
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I did the same as Lon on a home (with copper lines) I owned 25 years ago and on a friend’s house (with pex lines & copper stub outs) more recently and the smell did not return.
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Recommend replacing faucets where smells coming from, if issues still not solved recommend whole house, water filtration. Sulfur smell usually comes from WELLS. Most city waters would not have sulfur smell if the properly treated.
Some city water will cause the rotten egg smell. It happens in DC with vacant houses somewhat regularly, always with the hot water, and usually houses plumbed at least partially with cpvc. Water that sits in the water heater and lines for a month starts to really stink.
Changing the anode material in the water heater, and occasionally a filter system, nearly always fixes it. You might try switching to an aluminum instead of magnesium rod and see if that helps. The location may just be related to the longest run where chemical reactions can take place.
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I may have found the cause. The faucet is Pfister brand and has the Push/Seal stopper. The stopper simply unscrews and lifts out to clean. I have ‘cleaned’ them a number of times over the years, but mostly just the bottom section to remove the hair. So today I pulled them out to do a cleaning again. Neither drain had any hair stuck in them so I just scrubbed a bit with an old toothbrush. When I was finishing rinsing one I turned it upside down and was flooding the underside of the stopper and WOW, the black gunk the starting coming out was scary and smelly! After a thorough cleaning with high pressure water stream I hope the odor goes away.
The slots that have chrome underneath were not even visible when I started.
The ‘tube’ turned out to be hollow. Before I started the hole from the bottom was not visible, solid black with yuk!
I will let you know tomorrow if this solved the problem. If not, you have given me other avenues to pursue.
Thanks to all for the advice!! Much appreciated!!
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Water does not have an odor. But chemicals added to the water by the municipal water system do. Copper sulphides may be the source of the odor.
Solved!!! Last night and this morning used both sinks as normal and no foul odor. One more thing to add to the cleaning routine.
Thanks again to all.
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Good to know, thx!
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