How to Get Rid of Smelly Drains in Kitchen: 6 Tips

Are you noticing musty, foul smells in your kitchen? You can usually trace unpleasant kitchen odours to the garbage disposal and drain since it’s where most kitchen waste goes. Cleaning up your smelly drain is just a matter of getting clogs, remnants and particles out of your drain, where they can sit and collect bacteria. 

If you're not sure how to get rid of smelly drains in the kitchen, try these six tried-and-true tips.

King’s Services proudly offers Winnipeg drain cleaning services by experienced plumbers. Call us at (204) 633-9010 today to get to the bottom of your smelly kitchen drain.

1. Hot Water and Dish Soap

Hot water on its own can work wonders to clear away foul-smelling drain buildup. This step comes first because it’s most likely you have everything you need right at hand: All it takes is hot water and dish soap.

Your best course in this case is filling up the sink with the hottest water you can get and adding a dollop of dish soap. Turn on the disposal and let the water flush your pipes, killing bacteria as it goes. This should solve many of the problems associated with the bad smells that can arise when food particles or grease get stuck in the pipes.

Dish soap is great at breaking down grease, and hot water is best at getting food particles and waste to move. To keep your drain clean, try pouring the remaining hot water from your kettle down the drain every time you boil water for tea just to keep things clean!

2. Ice Cubes and Lemon

If hot water alone doesn’t work, try throwing in some ice cubes, lemon quarters, and kosher or another coarse salt. The ice and salt scrub the garbage disposal's grinder and pipes, while the acidic lemon works to break down particles and grease. Even if you don’t have the salt, ice cubes and lemon alone can work wonders.

Run the disposal and toss your ice cubes in first, then follow with a handful of salt to scrub the sides while the ice is still being crushed. Try this a couple of times to make sure you’ve cleaned off the blades and killed all the bacteria you can.

Follow up by tossing half a lemon—quartered, or even just the peels—into the disposal for a fresh zing and extra cleansing power. Finish with hot water.

3. Baking Soda and White Vinegar

Baking soda and vinegar mix together in a bubbling cleanse thanks to a chemical reaction that can help break up stubborn drain messes.

Dump a handful of baking soda into the drain and let it sit for fifteen minutes. This will start the reaction, loosening particles and drying out the nooks and crannies before you pour in a half-cup of vinegar. Then, wait another 15 minutes while it fizzes and pops.

Keep the drain plugged while the baking soda and vinegar work so that the mixture stays inside the drain and doesn’t come bubbling up.

Finish up with a kettle of boiling water, and you should see improvement immediately. This is also a fantastic trick for other drains, like the bathtub, since it doesn’t require a working garbage disposal to generate the action.

4. Baking Soda and Lemon Juice

For those who don't like the smell of vinegar, baking soda and lemon juice interact in a similar bubbling, popping way.

Drop a handful of baking soda into the drain, let it sit for 15 minutes, then pour the juice from a lemon or two down the drain—enough to cause the bubbling, cleansing reaction. Once the lemon and baking soda have stopped bubbling, flush with hot water.

This tip also comes in handy when you don’t have a working garbage disposal since you don’t need to grind up the lemon to use its juice. If your disposal is working properly, toss the peels from the lemon juice into the grinder for a fresh scent.

5. Salt, Baking Soda, Vinegar, and Water

If you’re out of lemons and wondering how to get rid of smelly drains in the kitchen, have no fear. You can put the scrubbing power of bubbles and salt to work to clear up drain odours.

• ½ cup salt, the coarser or bigger the crystals the better
• ½ cup baking soda
• 1 cup vinegar
• 1 quart of boiling water

These four ingredients—first the baking soda and vinegar, then the coarse salt for an extra scrub, then a hot water flush—all work together to create the perfect cleanser. Baking soda and vinegar break up all the particles and grease, the salt scrubs the inside of the drain, and the hot water takes care of any remnants of the food waste and debris formerly stinking up your drain.

This is another tip that’s great for non-kitchen drains like your bathtub or bathroom sink, since all it requires is household ingredients and no special tools or harsh chemicals.

6. Vinegar-Lemon Ice Cubes

Take your quartered lemon wedges and freeze them overnight in muffin cups full of distilled white vinegar. You just throw the cubes in the disposal with the water running to combine the cleaning power of ice with the acidic buildup-fighting lemon and vinegar. The frozen lemon wedges do double duty on the grinder and pipes, since they’re both acidic and solid like an ice cube. Meanwhile, the vinegar scrubs and cleanses.

Follow up with, you guessed it, a kettle of hot water. This should wash away any hint of the vinegar smell, as well as clear out the pipes. Then you can run some dish soap through the disposal to clear the blades, and you’re all set.

Learn How to Get Rid of Smelly Drains in Kitchens

Once you learn how to clean your drain, it becomes easier to determine when you have a problem that goes deeper than just unpleasant drain smells. That’s when it’s time to call King’s Services of Winnipeg, MB. Call us today at (204) 633-9010 to schedule an inspection or drain cleaning with our experienced plumbers.