Bathroom smells like fish. Found the source.

After months of investigation and research, and some money spent; finally I found this forum and can close my case. Just wanted to share the results. So, the fish smell in my bathroom was an electrical outlet burnt out, provoked by an air wick burner. Replaced with an GFCI receptacle and smell gone.

Ah yes, that 'off fish' smell. What I always wdonered is: do they modify the plastic to make it smell like that, so you detect faults before they cause a fire?

RObert

I had the same problem and thought it was something in the loo, months later I found an electrical switch badly scorched, in mine it was a loose wire that caused it.

No. They are (or certainly were) moulded from Urea Formaldehyde, as it is an easily moulded, hard, durable, stable, heat resistant material. That just happens to be the characteristic smell of it when overheated.

SteveW

Its because electrical accessories are often made from a Urea-Formaldehyde thermosetting resin... Designed not to melt or soften when they get hot, also have a high dielectric strength so very resistant to electrical breakdown:

IIRC there are not so many thermoset plastics. And safety dictates that they are used.

The Awful Smell of hot phenolic resins that have been used extensively on electrical circuits are well known...

wot you doin' with a socket in the bathroom ??? .....

Common in many countries. The OP clearly isn?t in the UK judging by the sockets.

Tim

sorry I thought this was a UK group .....

but then again they should rename it an English group ......

Ah yes, those carbonised plastics do smell bad. I often wonder if it s deliberate. I'm surprised an air freshener did that though, without tripping something first. Kind of worries me about your set up. Brian

The clue is in the title of the group...

Going by the burn marks on that one it must have smelt like Nellie the Elephant's fanny.

Zone 3?

That's not existed for a long time.

I assumed those were electric sockets for shavers ..common in UK bathrooms

You can tell I've not done any wiring for a while. No non-isolated sockets at all then?

You can now have a 13A socket if it is more than 3m from zone 1. Shaver sockets can go in zone 2.

The bit that makes me smile is if you google for bathroom zones many sites have a zone 2 around the sink. No such zone exists or has ever existed.

Thanks!