Plumbing

Occasional ‘boiled veg’ smell in and under kitchen sink and hob cupboards

Anonymous user 09/03/2024 - 3.21 PM

Hi - Looking for a bit of plumbing advice please! We moved into our 1960’s built detached house in December. A few weeks ago, we noticed an increasingly strong 'earthy/ boiled veg' smell from under the kitchen sink - it wasn't coming from the plug hole, just seemed to be strong in the cupboard underneath. As it got stronger, it also smelt like it was coming from under the dishwasher and the unit under the hob. Despite sniffing everywhere, we couldn't locate the exact source though. The set up with have is to the left of the sink is the washing machine and to the right a dishwasher. I checked the outside drain (no smell), checked the washing machine waste and standing pipe (no smell) (but the waste pipe wasn’t raised so I did that), cleaned the washing machine filter at the bottom (was dirty) and cleaned the inside of the dishwasher. We also cleaned out the u bend trap pipe under the sink and put chemical drain cleaners down the plugs, and through washing machine and dishwasher too. It seemed to work and the smell disappeared. On Sunday (3 weeks later), the smell came back strongly and stuck around all day (but got less as we cleaned the drains, etc). It was strongest in the under sink cupboard again and, strong under the unit were the hob is. I took off the plinths under the cupboards to see if i could find the source and could see some old copper pipes capped off in under the job cupboard but, i still wasn't sure where exactly the smell was coming from. I'm really lost as to what it could be. A leak somewhere - but why does it not smell all the time and stopped for weeks? There isn’t any damp (I checked with a detector) where the water pipes come out of the concrete floor. I’ve noticed the inside of the washing machine smells quite moody all of a sudden. But like I said, the waste doesn’t seem to smell so, could it be the machine? The dishwasher is new last year and the previous owners have said that they never had the smell (we brought our own 2017 washing machine and condensing tumble dryer from our previous home. Any ideas gladly received!