How to eliminate an odd, musty-like odor from my bathroom?

April 28, 2022 9:29 AM

The ceiling exhaust fan saga has been fixed, it seems. Only issue left is, my bathroom still has this odd, lingering smell; I want that eliminated. How?

After my last question, I managed to talk with a maintenance supervisor, who said the other employees were wrong and that all bathrooms do have proper exhaust fans in our building. He had a contractor come by and vacuum/clean up the pipe from my bathroom fan to outside.

Since then, my ceiling exhaust fan now seems to work properly. It takes a bit longer than my previous apartment to defog after a shower (takes about ~10-20 minutes to defog), but in general, it's done a good job and also helps with smells. (The supervisor admitted that sometimes the fans don't work as well as he'd like them to, chalking it up to building and weather/humidity conditions.) I bought a dehumidifier, but no longer have a need for it so will return.

However, there's still this lingering odor in my bathroom. It's incredibly hard to explain—it just smells kind of "old" and "musty", but NOT mold-like (if that's even a smell?). It doesn't seem to feel damp in the bathroom. There's no window. If I keep the ceiling exhaust fan running, the smell goes away.

What could it be? I noticed it's more near the mirror/sink area. Could mold be growing on my mirror sides? See this photo with red circle to show what I mean. Could it be mold at all? I see no issues or discolorations at all, haven't experienced any symptoms of mold exposure so far.

Should I run the fan 24/7? Seems like a waste of electricity, not to mention I'm not in the bathroom often unless to do normal bathroom tasks, but the smell is a bit unpleasant and I'd like to get rid of it, if possible.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! If the photo does not work, please let me know as well.

posted by dubious_dude to Home & Garden (21 answers total)

Best answer: I’ve had success with “DampRid” desiccants to eliminate a musty smell in our slab on grade living area. Have not used it in a bathroom, but they do advertise some of their products for bathroom use.
posted by Kriesa at 9:35 AM on April 28, 2022 [6 favorites]

The photo looks to me like the “silver” reflective backing of the mirror has been damaged. It does not look like mold to me.
posted by Kriesa at 9:36 AM on April 28, 2022 [8 favorites]

I agree that's a failure of the silvering on the mirror, which happens to old mirrors, not something growing. But why not stick your nose up to it and see if it's what smells? The only way to localize a smell is by getting close and smelling things.
posted by fritley at 9:39 AM on April 28, 2022 [3 favorites]

We've used this odor-absorbing sponge thingie to get rid of low-level smells that otherwise don't go away.
posted by Mchelly at 9:51 AM on April 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

Have you checked all your linens - bath mat, towels, and so on? Those can harbor bacteria that are more active when it's warm and damp and produce unpleasant smells. If you have a sufficiently stinky fabric item, you may have to replace it rather than washing it.
posted by All Might Be Well at 10:10 AM on April 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I'll definitely check out those two items — none of my linens seem to smell bad at all, and I don't keep much linens in the bathroom, anyway.

I forgot to ask in my original question: is it also possible that mold might be growing behind my mirror, or in one of the drains? How is the best way to check?
posted by dubious_dude at 10:12 AM on April 28, 2022

Have you checked all your linens - bath mat, towels, and so on?

This would be my guess, just a damp towel drying or something stirred up by showers? You said when you run the fan the smell goes away but does it STAY away? Or does it come back once you turn the fan off. Honestly I'd just keep the fan on 24/7.

But yes places to check would be behind the mirror which is either hanging on the wall with a sort of clamp-type mechanism (you could shove the mirror up slightly to release this) or it's glued to the wall in which case it's staying there. The drains can be cleaned up with some vinegar baking soda, or some boiling water, they usually don't harbor mold since they're often in use. Other things to look at include if you have a hair trap in your drains it could get moldy and you could try using one of those plastic zikzik things to see if there is old hair in a drain that could be producing an odor.
posted by jessamyn at 10:17 AM on April 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

Sink drains can smell moldy/sewer-ish occasionally. Dump some hydrogen peroxide down there, and into your shower drain too. if it bubbles all crazy, it's doing something.
posted by The_Vegetables at 10:24 AM on April 28, 2022 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Also here to recommend DampRid. I got the quart size vented bucket thingy then just bought refills for the last ~3 years or so I lived in my apartment. Tucked away behind the sink so it wasn't in the way and it did a fantastic job to solve the same problem.
posted by phunniemee at 10:28 AM on April 28, 2022

Best answer: Another vote for DampRid. I was having that exact complaint in my last apartment; I smelled that kind of musty smell near the kitchen sink and mentioned it to the Worlds' Best Super. He suggested putting a DampRid thing under the sink just in case it was some kind of mildew growing under there, and sure enough, within two days the smell cleared up. I left it under there and just gave it a refill if I ever started smelling stuff again.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:55 AM on April 28, 2022

Seconding the sink drain. I just snaked mine out a weekend ago and it smelled like the mud at the bottom of a freshwater lake. Not moldy-musty but definitely a decomposition smell.
posted by fountainofdoubt at 11:25 AM on April 28, 2022 [4 favorites]

I third that it's your sink drain.
posted by purple_bird at 1:25 PM on April 28, 2022 [2 favorites]

Does your sink have an overflow? That would be the first item on my list of suspects. I'd try to use a funnel to direct lots of hot water (maybe with a little bleach in it), or vinegar and baking soda, as suggested above. Good luck... trying to track down an elusive smell can be really frustrating.
posted by kate4914 at 2:11 PM on April 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

We have well water ( so not chlorinated and high minerals) and our bathroom drains get rank over time. They need to be regularly de-slimed even though we use very few products and little hair goes down.
posted by rawralphadawg at 3:58 PM on April 28, 2022

Another vote for cleaning out the sink drain. My experience with it is the same as fountainofdoubt. It's definitely a rank scent of something I can't see that has been sitting around and decaying, and has now reached reached enough of a tipping point where it's wafting from its hiding place up to my nose.
posted by virago at 7:47 PM on April 28, 2022

Have you checked your drains? Fats and organic matter from soaps, bodywashes and our skin build up and start to stink. You can get enzyme sticks you can poke down your drain that can help with the problem and dissolve the build up.
posted by wwax at 7:47 PM on April 28, 2022

Nthing clean out the sink drain... and if the sink is the kind with a metal plug that goes up and down when you push and pull a lever on the tap, you'll want to clean that too (you can just lift it straight out of the plughole; prepare to be horrified).

You might find it interesting to put a hygrometer in the bathroom so that you can see what the humidity levels are like before, during and after running the extractor fan or (if you've not returned it yet) the dehumidifier. Don't put too much faith in the actual number it shows you, just look at how the reading changes over time and how it compares with, say, the bedroom. That way you can get a feel for how long it takes the extractor fan to bring the humidity right back down again, and whether it might be more energy-efficient to run the dehumidifier (the answer to that may be an obvious no, but I have no idea how electricity-hungry they are). I have a bunch of these little digital thermometer-hygrometer things scattered around the house; as I say, I don't particularly trust that they're giving me the exact right numbers, but they're pretty consistent with each other, so if a number goes up I do trust that it's getting warmer or more humid.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 3:09 AM on April 29, 2022

Just highlighting a previous answer. I also agree its drains but specifically suggest its the overflow drain. Plug your sink and fill it until it goes down the overflow drain. If it runs fine let it go for a few minutes and put some bleach or favorite cleaner in the bowl. If it doesn't run down the overflow snake it with one of those little plastic drain hair thingies or put a touch of cheap drain cleaner in there.

Also I'd suggest bath mats. It seems they just... Fail. Like eventually some materials will smell even if you JUST washed them.
posted by chasles at 3:59 AM on April 29, 2022

Response by poster: So, update. Apparently, it's coming from the overflow drain in the sink AND the sink drain itself. I can smell the rank smell very strongly when I get my nose close to it.

I tried baking soda and vinegar, but that didn't really fix it. I noticed that the drain stopper seems "stuck" (can't pull the whole thing out). I think I'm going to need to put in another maintenance request to have them hopefully fix it somehow. So disgusting!
posted by dubious_dude at 8:38 AM on April 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Another update just in case anybody reads this and has the same problem. I tried DampRid and it so far seems to have made an incredible difference. Thanks a million, @Kriesa!
posted by dubious_dude at 7:51 AM on May 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

Coming in late to mention that Dollar Tree sells their store version of DampRid, so it's a lot cheaper and works as well.
posted by mermaidcafe at 12:11 AM on June 2, 2022