Does the house have natural gas or is it all electric? If it has gas run to it, you may have a very small gas leak. This may also cause a "rotten egg" smell from the mercaptan injected into the gas.

Do you use natural gas in your home? for cooking or heating? This could be the sign of a small leak in the gas pipe. Natural gas is non-toxic, colorless, tasteless and odorless. Gas companies add an odor to gas so you will know if natural gas is escaping.

If you do have natural gas call the gas company and they have a meter and will be able to tell you immediately. I had a similar problem in my cellar and although my husband could not smell the odor, every time I opened the cellar door there it was and sure enough we had a small leak at the meter. Hope this is helpful

Interesting... if your fridge has a drip pan, it could very well be the stagnant water in it. Why not check it out? That caused odors in my kitchen years ago. Good luck!

are you sure its plumbing smell . I had a rotten smell in kitchen and found it was the propane cook stove was leaking a little GAS one of the knobs leaked

The refrigerator condensate pan may be the real stinker.

If you have a water softener...that may be your problem..my father had one and i noticed the rotten egg smell at his house in Ohio. I have fresh wonderful well water...no softener needed. I had a sewer smell in my house when i moved in. It was solved by moving the vent pipe. It was too low to the eve intakes and sucked the smell right into the house. My mother often had a sewer smell in her house. The problem? A little used sink in the master bedroom. The trap would run dry and sewer smell rolled right up...took years to figure it out. Evenings were the worst due to baths and such. Good luck!

If you have a water softener...that may be your problem..my father had one and i noticed the rotten egg smell at his house in Ohio. I have fresh wonderful well water...no softener needed. I had a sewer smell in my house when i moved in. It was solved by moving the vent pipe. It was too low to the eve intakes and sucked the smell right into the house. My mother often had a sewer smell in her house. The problem? A little used sink in the master bedroom. The trap would run dry and sewer smell rolled right up...took years to figure it out. Evenings were the worst due to baths and such. Good luck!

If you have a water softener...that may be your problem..my father had one and i noticed the rotten egg smell at his house in Ohio. I have fresh wonderful well water...no softener needed. I had a sewer smell in my house when i moved in. It was solved by moving the vent pipe. It was too low to the eve intakes and sucked the smell right into the house. My mother often had a sewer smell in her house. The problem? A little used sink in the master bedroom. The trap would run dry and sewer smell rolled right up...took years to figure it out. Evenings were the worst due to baths and such. Good luck!

We had a similiar problem, which was traced to a very small leak in the flexible supply line to the gas range. Line was replaced...problem solved.

Try changing the tailpipe under your sink strainer to a brass tailpipe. That eliminates a lot of odor complaints for us here in N.J.! Carl G. A-AaaBetter Plumbing

What about gas? It is made to smell like rotten eggs since it is odorless.

Some areas have sulpher in the water and it causes a rotten egg smell.

yes Ran into hat problem several times The anode rod is bad. Might need to think about a whole house water treating system.

I live in Washington state, in a 1976 mobile home, my problem is that my electric bills always run anywhere from 70 - 100 dollars higher than my neighbors. (the house is total electric) Evne in the summer time, with no air conditioning my bill is higher by the same amount. My question is, the gentleman that previously owned my home, setup lights and plug ins in the shed, I guess he went into the electrical meter. Could this be a reason for my high bills? When I first moved in here, my Sept bill was $54.00 and I didn't even have a refrgerator for the first couple of weeks. I think that was extreme.
Please bless me with any idea's you might think of as to what the problem could be.

P.S. I had the furnace checked out it was okay, is there any way to check out the hot water heater? My son who is a pipefitter looked at it and thought it looked okay. Thank you, Barbara

Just my two cents: In some areas of Florida, the rotten egg smell comes from sulfur in the water. Some people learn to live with it, some use a type of aerator filter to allow the gas to escape from the water before using.

Since it doesn't occur in other fixtures, I doubt it is a water heater problem. If the house is not that old it probably had a plumbing inspection when built and a missing vent would have been easy to see. I assume no work has been done to the sink plumbing since you first noticed the smell (disassmbly of the piping or additional plumbing). If the piping was not changed out with the new sink, it could be something in the drain piping. Bleach and water flushed through the sink piping should take care of this though. I will be watching this question for additional answers. After not using the sink for a couple hours, but using other fixtures, take a flashlight and look down the drain to see if you see water in the trap. Sewer gas doesn't smell like rotten eggs but everyone has a different opinion on what smells like what. It really could be a vent problem.

We had this same issue in Boise, Id in a brand new townhouse. We were referred to the public water company and at least they were honest...
it was a sulfur bloom that happened every year at
certain times... (you would rarely notice in the winter unless you ran copious amounts of hot water). We would get a orange-pink residue in toilet tanks, dishwasher,etc. The water compamy even supplied a special cleaner free of charge. When they upgraded their system, the problem went away for the most part. Flushing your water heater does help. We are building a new home elsewhere, but seriously considering tankless water heater for this and many other reasons....

We had this problem in the past. It turned out to be the refrigerator drain pan. Once emptied and cleaned--no more odor.

Check the refrigerator drain pan. In FL, after power was out many people had a similiar problem.

Jane,
We experienced the same thing you are. We had several plumbers, the Culligan man, as well as a couple well experts come check out our house. The well man gave us a couple suggestions that finally ended our smelly problem. Two things you should check: One is the anode in your water heater. There is information here that mentions using a water softener and what it can do to the anode. http://www.waterheaterrescue.com/pages/WHRpages/English/Longevity/water-heater-anodes.html
We tried replacing the anode; it reduced the smell but did not eliminate it.
The second thing could the water holding tank, assuming you have a well. The blatter went bad on ours and when we replaced the tank, the smell went away. Our house was new when this happened, but sometimes you get defective products. I think that was the case for us. We have been "stink-free" for some time now. Hope this helps.
Sheila

I am glad I stumbled on to this question. We have an older house about 30 yrs old, and where we live I am not sure what codes had to be followed but I would bet not many. We have a 600 ft Artisian Well and for the past 6 or so years I hade the odor in my bathroom sink only cold water. A friend said to change the anoid rod we did however that was about 5 yrs ago, now we are experiencing the odor in the kitchen sink and ist very embarassing. The odor is a mix of sewer and rotten eggs. We have an arobic water system, where do we start, my husband thinks I am crazy, if you let the water run for about 3-5 minutes the smell goes away, where should we start.

Re: Ask Ed - Rotten Eggs for breakfast

If these people have a gas stove, it may be a gas leak. Gas has a rotten eggs smell.

you can find out if it is the vent. cover or block off your sink drains. if you no longer smell anything you need to investigate your vents further. i had a log house built several years ago and my wife wanted the sink on an outside wall (logs), in front of windows. i'm sure there is a code violation here, but this is what my plumber did. he installed another trap under the floor ( at that time called a mexican loop). it worked fine

do you have a well?? if so it's could be iron in the water, you'll need to get a water filter of some type to remove the iron from your water...

Another place to check in your refrigerator. When a frost free refrigerator defrosts, the water drains down to a pan under the condenser coils where the condenser fan evaporates it. If something spilled in the bottom of the refrigerator and drained into the pan, each time the refrigerator goes into the defrost cycle water goes to the pan and whatever is in the pan can cause a smell that the fan then blows into the kitchen. Give it a check and while you are at it, vaccum the coils and save some electricity.

I am a builder and had a client with a odor problem that would come and go. After trying several things we put a presure test on the vent system and found a joint in the vent pipe that had not been glued that would let sewer gas escape.

not sure if you have already found the cause of your problem. Just wanted to pass along that I had the same issue but it was actually sulfur in my water. A good water softner/filter system took care of it as long as I keep it filled with salt. If this is the issue, you should notice it however at all water faucets

Do you have the smell at all fixtures? Have you had your water checked for sulfur? (Iron does not cause a smell, just clogged pipes and hot water heaters)