So I live in a modern apartment, less than a few years old, but sometimes when I get to the bathroom it is like a killing gas chamber out of nowhere. It’s not regular. I’ve been trying to figure out which pipe it might come out but I’m nowhere, mainly due to the fact that it may not happen for half a year then suddenly you might die entering the bathroom without precaution.
I’m clueless how it happens, why, when, and how to predict that or protect against it.
It might be part of the drain drying out. Are there any things that are rarely used? In the hot weather it can dry out and the water that blocks odors will not be there to do its job any more.
No, no drying out problem. I suspect there’s some back pressure in the pipes which goes through the water barrier
The phantom farter
I would run water in all the drains and flush a few times. “Drying out” can also happen on frequently used pipes under certain circumstances.
If you are not the owner then report it. It might be an indication of soythat needs seeing to.
I have a similar issue with my kitchen sink. My solution is to run some water followed sometimes by a cup-full of bleach. It is almost certainly a drying out problem.
Is this back pressure related to hot days or also in winter?
It’s definitely not new issue, happened also in colder season.
Simple drying out is easy to manage. Whenever I leave home on a trip, I pour in a little sunflower oil, just in case. The oil doesn’t evaporate that easily.
We live in a single family house and it happens in the upper bathroom sometimes, but mostly on the rainy days, not the hot ones. Smells like a swamp or pond.
yeah, but I don’t think it’ll work out unless the inspection is done at the time this is happening. Once I had sporadic issue with water dripping through the kitchen ventilation channel, every time the technician came he couldn’t find anything because the water already stopped…
Possibly more common in the colder season as the air is dryer and bathrooms are heated - so evaporation rate is increased.
If it’s in the bathroom, it’s normally the U-bend in one of the drains blocked - in the bathroom.
If, for example, you have a bath and separate shower, and never use the bath then it’s most likely the bath u-bend so you just need to let some water run down the bath drain hole.
Sometimes it gets complicated an an airlock occurs in the system as well - what works for us is to fill the bath about 1/4 full with cold water and then take the plug out (rather than just turn the drain knob) so the water goes down the drain at high pressure and volume.
The water in the bath may bubble as air is released in to the air.
Do you get any gurgling sounds?
In an apartment complex, I suppose the problem my actually be in someone else’s apartment and the water from your bathroom u-bend has been sucked, or siphoned out from a vacuum created elsewhere. (the water in the bath trick may sort this but you may find effluenct drawn up into your bath from elsewhere in the system.
(I had this in a hotel in Pakistan once and it wasn’t pleasant).
A blocked toilet or drain can cause this vacuum and again, this may be in someone elses apartment.
We’ve got a couple of baths and a shower which don’t get used frequently so every week or so, I run some water down the drain (a litre or so is plenty) to ensure the U-bends are full.