More often than not, the shower drains in your home emit a musty and unpleasant odor. The odor is caused due to bacteria that regularly feed on the debris of your pipes at home. However, you do not need to live with these unpleasant smells from your shower drain. If you are looking for methods to clean the shower drain smells from your home, here are a few great remedies that you can use.
Why do shower drains smell bad?
The bacteria which live in your shower drains and pipes emit a hydrogen sulfide gas. The odors which come from your shower drains come from these odor-causing bacteria. It is also possible that mold and mildew grow in your shower drains due to soap scum and clogged up residue.
To remove the shower drain smell, you need to get rid of this bacteria with regular cleaning and deep cleaning every once in a while.
How to clean shower drain smell with baking soda and vinegar
In this step, you will learn how to remove the odor from your shower drain with the help of baking soda and vinegar. Here is how you can do it:
- Make sure that you do not use your shower drain for a while so that it is dry when you do the cleaning process.
- In a small bowl, take a ¼ cup of baking soda. Pour the entire baking soda down your shower drain.
- Now, take one cup of white vinegar and pour this down your shower drain as well.
- Close your bathroom door and allow the baking soda and vinegar to work on your shower drain for 2 hours undisturbed.
- Now, take a bucket of hot water (1 gallon of warm water) and slowly pour the entire thing down your shower drain. Be very careful when doing this step.
- Wait for 15 minutes, then pour cold water down the shower drain to completely drain out all the baking soda and vinegar from your pipe.
How to clean your shower drain smell with chlorine bleach
Here is another excellent method that you can use to remove the unpleasant shower drain smell from your home. Be very careful when you use chlorine bleach and make sure you are wearing protective gloves and an eye mask, and keep your bathroom well ventilated when doing this. Here is how you can do it:
- Take a ½ cup of chlorine bleach and pour it down your shower drain.
- Allow this to sit for 2 hours undisturbed.
- Take a bucket of 1 gallon of hot water and pour it carefully down your shower drain after 2 hours.
- After about 15 minutes, pour cold water down your shower drain to get rid of the bleach completely.
- Finally, pour just 4 ounces of any mineral oil down your shower drain to slow down the evaporation of the water. Your shower drain smell will disappear.
How to clean your shower drain smell using an old toothbrush
In this method, you can use a mixture of baking soda, white vinegar, and an old toothbrush to clean your shower drain smell. Here is how you can do it:
- Remove your shower drain filter so that you can deep clean it. Wear protective gloves when you are doing this step. To avoid any unpleasant smells, you can even wear a protective mask over your nose and mouth.
- In a small bowl, create a mixture of any disinfectant and water. Now, take the shower drain strainer in your hand and use a sponge or an old toothbrush to remove the soap scum and hair stuck to the underside of the filter. Pour the disinfectant solution on to the shower drain strainer and into your shower drain as well. Using the toothbrush, scrub the filter to remove all residue and debris.
- Rinse out your shower drain strainer under running water. If required, you can repeat the steps in case there is still some debris stuck on the underside of the filter.
- Take a bowl and create a soapy water solution using dishwashing soap and water. Mix it up well to create a foamy solution.
- Take a pipe cleaning brush and dip it into the soapy water solution.
- Now, take the brush and scrub the inside of your shower drain well. Make sure that you get all the sides of the inside of the shower drain to really clean it thoroughly.
- Rinse out your pipe cleaning brush and repeat the steps again, till there is no scum and residue on your pipe cleaner.
- Take one cup of baking soda and pour it down your shower drain slowly.
- Immediately after this step, take another cup of white vinegar and pour it down your shower drain.
- Cover the shower drain for a few minutes as the mixture fizzes and cleans your shower drain.
- Finally, take hot water and pour it down your shower drain.
- If required, you can repeat the steps again to remove all the musty altogether, and unpleasant odor from your shower drains.
How to clean shower drain smell using citrus
Another great alternative to removing musty and unpleasant smells from your shower drain is to use a straightforward and green method to clean your shower drains with citrus! Here is how you can do it:
- The first thing you need to do is to remove the shower drain filter from its place carefully.
- Using a sponge and a soapy water solution, clean the underside of the shower drain strainer very thoroughly to remove any residue, debris and soap scum stuck on it.
- In a small bowl, squeeze out the juice of some lemons or oranges and keep it aside.
- Pour a cup of vinegar down your shower drain and flush it out with hot water after an hour.
- Now, take your citrus juice and slowly pour it down your shower drain. At this point, you can even use a drain pipe cleaner to clean the inside of your drain pipe.
- Let it sit for a few minutes and flush out the shower drain with cold water.
