I’m not a slob…honest! I keep my room clean, I do my laundry, I wash dishes when they are dirty, and I scrub down the bathroom often. Yet for some reason there is often a foul, hell spawn odor eminating from one of the drains in my house. The stench is completely random appearing and disappearing without rhyme or reason. I can not assertain any logical reason for this horrific odor to exist, which makes combating it quite difficult…not that I have not tried my best!
With my heating problems of last week seemingly solved, this week found this foul fiend has decided to rear it’s ugly head once more. I have done everything in my power to stop this foul fiend, yet nothing seems to keep the beast at bay. At least once a week I pour the Korean equivalent to Draino (펑크린 in case anyone cares) down all my drains, which doesn’t really seem to help. I have positioned air freshners (냄새 먹는 하마 / “stench eating hippo” in case anyone cares), but the hippo is unable to consume all the foul odor rising from the drains. I am at my wits end.
I figure I have one option left: pouring some gas down the drains and dropping a lit match down there attempting to burn up whatever hellish demon dwells in my pipes. And if that doesn’t work, I may just have to call up a priest and attempt a exorcism to send the spawn of Satan dwelling in my plumbing back into the abyss from whence it came.
try using bleach or ammonia once or twice a day. let it sit for a half hour before running it clear with water. in japan there’s this ammonia based cleaner that they sell in powdered form for drains that are probably similar to those in korea…it foams up and coats the inside of the drain when you pour a little water on it. works pretty well. i use it every couple months.
Comment by daniel — December 22, 2005 @ 20:36 pm
I like the chemical assault suggested by Daniel above. Just don’t mix the bleach and ammonia! (Or maybe that’s what it would take to eject the demon.)
A group of my co-workers had a similar drain stench problem when staying in an apartment building in Giehung. One of them started shoving a damp towel into the offending drain as a sort of cottony cork. It may be low-tech and inelegant but she was the only one with a non-stinky apartment.
BTW, Wyatt when bending the lyrics of Wild Thing into today’s title were you thinking of the L.A. punk band X’s version or some other version?
Comment by John Paul Jose — December 22, 2005 @ 22:06 pm
Daniel,
I’ll have to seek such a thing out.
John Paul Jose,
In the late 80s or early 90s there was a Swamp Thing television show, that I vaguely recall using a modified version of “Wild Thing” in their commercials…or perhaps it was something that my elementary school friends made up on the playground.
Comment by Wyatt — December 22, 2005 @ 22:11 pm
Most drains, in the States, anyway, are designed with a P-trap in the line that, when kept full of water, serves as a barrier to sewer gas. A properly-installed drain, again, in the states, also has a vent which permits air to flow in to the system and sewer gas, etc., to flow out. The vent typically goes through the roof; one of the many pipes that sticks up from the roof of your average American-style house.
Instead of flushing your drain line(s) with chemicals, you might be better off occasionally pouring some water down the drain to fill the P-trap (assuming the Koreans actually install that sort of thing). Construction in Korea is typically so utterly half-assed when compared with American or Western European work, it could be that your drain goes straight to the main drain line for your floor, or whatever, without any kind of a trap.
Unless you can actually inspect your drain from inside or outside, your best approach would be to try putting a gallon or so of water down the drain and see if this keeps the smell away. If so, then repeat as needed. If not, and you can get by without the drain, seal it off with plastic tape. Otherwise, you either move or learn to love the smell.
Comment by Anonymous Coward — December 23, 2005 @ 13:42 pm
If all else fails, take a plastic bag (like the ones you’re supposed to pay 20 won for at the corner store), fill it half full with water, tie it up, and set it on top of the drain to seal the drain shut.
Comment by Ders — January 4, 2006 @ 23:43 pm