fart smell in tap water

Aug 17, 2007 4 Replies

The Wife and I have dual sinks in the master bathroom. Most evenings when I turn the water on in my sink to wash up and brush the teefus, I get a brief smell like someone farted, not quite like old eggs or a sulfurous smell. It reminds me of the smell of my grandparents' water when they had a bacterial infection in their well. I think it's the cold water that stinks like this, not the hot.



Now, the water coming out of the faucet in my wife's sink is fine - no smell, and it doesn't matter if I turn her faucet on first or after mine. Same for every other sink in the house, and the tubs. It's only my sink.



Could I have something growing specifically in my water lines?



One additional bit of weirdness, if this could be part of the cause: after running the cold water for ~1 min or so, the water gets really warm for about 15-20 seconds. Not just room temperature, not quite hot like the hot water line, but like the cold water's been heated some. This happens even when the socket lights in the kitchen downstairs haven't been turned on, so it's not from the cold water line running too close to a light fixture. Again, this doesn't happen in my wife's sink three feet away, just mine.



So, any thoughts on what I should be looking for, or what I can do short of tearing out the ceiling in the kitchen to see the water lines?



Are you sure its the water itself, or is it perhaps a blast of gas from your P trap when the water first comes on? IOW you could have bacterial colony in the P trap that is disturbed with initial flow. If you fill 2 glasses from your wifes sink and yours and leave the room to smell them can you tell the difference? I cant explain the temperature shift after running for 1 minute, but I have seen "warm columns" appear in cold pipes running close to hot pipes but they clear out after they pass.

Better yet, he could draw a glass of water from his wife's sink and pour it in his. And see if the smell is present.

Quit eating beans before going to bed and you wont fart in the morning!

replying to nazarfish, Jeffrey Zeidman wrote: That's funny I don't care who you are.lol

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