Weird smell!!!

I agree with paint. I friend repainted her room and it smelt of urine, awful it hung around for some time.

Other than that does it smell stronger before or after rain.

MerylStreep

Cornflowerblue
I hope the problem was the freezer.
If it isn’t, do you know what cannabis smells like?
Obviously I don’t know how close your neighbours are but it’s possible someone might be close by in their garden having a smoke.

Yes it could be MerylStreep.

Please get your electrics checked. It could be the freezer or it could be wiring. I have had this smell in two different properties. It turned out that one problem was with an electric socket wiring and the other was an overarching shower connection, both of which could cause a fire. A mouse could also chew through wires and cause an electrical fault. There was reference to paint causing the fishy smell at the time as there was a known problem with some paint products, but it was definitely caused by electrical wiring - we were luck we had a visiting technician who knew about this straight away.

CornflowerBlue, (just in case it helps) we had a mystery 'fishy' smell in a box room - for at least a year. We emptied the room completely, thinking, perhaps, it was an item of furniture - no change. Next, we took up the carpet and underlay (no difference) checked under the floor boards - and sealed carefully around the window - still the fishy smell.

Eventually, puzzled as ever, we wondered about the wallpaper paste - so stripped the paper to redecorate.

When I was up a ladder, removing the lampshade before painting the ceiling, my nose alerted me to the source of the awful smell.

It was the ceiling pendant lamp holder - smelling very strongly of fish - so, apparently, the plastic it was made of was degrading and/or overheating. We replaced it - the smell was gone!

Oh yes, that’s a horrible smell and worrying if it happens at work and no-one knows what/who it is !!

Juliet27, yes - a sickening smell. In another house, a horrid pong in the sunroom (in a heatwave). We kept the windows open and had the drains checked (expensive) - no difference. It turned out to be a tiny dead field mouse, squashed flat as a pancake, under the carpet.

Several people (including me, yesterday afternoon) have mentioned the smell of bakelite light fittings getting hot. I remember those as being really unpleasant, but the smell vanishing once the fitting cooled down and (by daylight) we were searching for the souce of the stink.

These are less common nowadays as most have been replaced by more modern ones, but they are still around. Next time you get the awful pong, fetch a stepladder and climb up to sniff the ceiling light fitting from close up.

CornflowerBlue

Well, just a bit of an update!! Think we came to the conclusion the problem must be the fridge freezer drip tray. Spoke to a fridge engineer who suggested we try to move the freezer ourselves before asking him to come out to sort it. So we duly emptied the entire thing, shelves, drawers, the lot. Then tried to slide a huge sheet of cardboard under it to help slide it out. Well, that was a laugh!!! It still weighed an absolute ton and wouldn't budge an inch!! However, whilst it was totally empty, we put a torch inside and inspected the entire thing and found a grill at the back of the freezer, which was 'hiding' a tiny hole to the drip pan (I hope!!) so we took a straw, stuck it through the grill into the hole and poured a bleach/water solution down the straw slowly. We would never have found it without removing all the shelves and drawers and using a bright light - we couldn't even see it when we emptied the contents, until we removed all the shelves too! Why do they make it so hard??We even rang Beko and they were no help at all!! Anyway, we did the same today. Still don't know if it'll work, but will give it a few days....... watch this space!! Thank you to everyone for all your advice and suggestions.

The drip tray really should be emptied, though. By pouring liquid into it you are risking the tray overflowing. I'm surprised you say the fridge was heavy when emptied - a completely empty fridge doesn't weigh much. Maybe it is still screwed or otherwise attached to the wall or an adjoining unit.

We recently removed our fridge from its units and cleared the tray (which, after 20 years, was pretty mouldy). I don't understand why the drip tray is not more easily accessible and more obviously visible.

Our last tumble dryer had the lint filter right at the back - why? You had to reach right in and fiddle about blind to get it out and replace it - which needs doing every time it is used. Our new dryer has the filter at the front and it just slots in - why would you do it any other way? If fridges were designed by women I'm sure they would be easier to clean and maintain. When you take the shelves out of mine, there are ridges which collect gunge and crumbs which are almost impossible to get out.

Agree that it could be an electrical fault. Recall something similar many years ago.

Well!......... Another update! What a palaver!!! I spoke to the fitter who put in our kitchen and did all the plumbing, and he was so helpful! He told me how to get the freezer out, which worked, and suggested we check the drip tray, electrics, and the wall as plaster, if it suffers from damp can smell like wee. So I have spent the entire afternoon squeezed into a tiny gap with a torch, cleaning out a disgusting drip tray (could they make it any harder to access?) It was below, not above the heater, so right down at floor level - difficult to see into, and to get my fingers, a cloth, cotton buds and all the other things I tried to use, in to clean it, so it took ages. AND ... there was a little mouse nest there with the mouse droppings, but luckily no mouse - he'd scarpered through a little hole he'd made in the wall, which I had to polyfilla in so he can't get back in! And the little sod had gnawed through the lead, so we need to get an electrician in to replace it. So actually, the smell could have been the mouse wee/poo, the dodgy electrical lead, or the drip tray, or a mix of all three!!! Anyway, hopefully, once the electrician has been in, everything will be fine, fingers crossed!!!

Well glad you have found the answer and got some way to solving the problem. Not easy! Thanks for the update.

Thanks for the update CornflowerBlue. It’s nice to hear how these things evolve. So often we never hear any outcomes.

Hope it all sorts out.

Agree with Calendargirl - good to have an update.
Fingers crossed that this will resolve the smell.

I do not think the cat is to blame here. OP said he was house-trained and a cat's urine whether he is male, female, entire or neutered does not smell the same as human urine,

I may be wrong, ,but I took OP to be referring to the smell of human urine.

I would suspect that some fruit or vegetable has slid down behind a counter or somewhere similar, but as the kitchen has been thoroughly cleaned this seems unlikely.

A smell the comes and goes suggests to my mind that it would be worthwhile taking a note of when it manifests itself and whether anyone has flushed a toilet connecting to the same fall pipe or drain as the kitchen sink.

Otherwise I am afraid emptying that fridge and pulling it out from the wall is the only option left.

Unless there is a crawl space under the kitchen that has not been inspected lately.

It definitely sounds frustrating, especially since you've already ruled out most of the obvious causes. I had a similar issue last year in my kitchen, a strange smell that would come and go unpredictably. After doing a deep clean and checking all the usual suspects (including the fridge and drains), it turned out to be a slow leak in one of the waste pipes under the sink. The leak wasn’t visible because it was small and tucked behind cabinetry, but it was enough to create dampness and odor when the weather was humid or the heating was on.

Since you've already tried drain busters and confirmed there are no signs of pests, it really could be something to do with the internal plumbing especially if there's an old P-trap or venting issue causing sewer gas to seep in occasionally. I understand not wanting to spend on multiple services without a clear lead, but sometimes a qualified plumber can help isolate the issue quickly without tearing everything apart.

You might want to check out Plumber services Singapore if you're considering professional help. They’ve got a good reputation for identifying tricky plumbing issues, and a consultation might be more affordable than going through multiple trades.

Hope you get to the bottom of it soon kitchen smells can really take a toll on your comfort at home!

Reported

Another old post, but I'm wondering if tey ever got rid of the smell!!

Try the light fitting! I had a room with a similar bad smell which traced to the ceiling pendant lamp holder. I can't explain why this thing would smell as it did but so it was.

What precisely is the objection to 'old posts' ?
Some discussion topics are of everlasting interest or relevance.

This thread is 3 years old!

could there be a leak from your washing machine, perhaps rotting the wooden floorboards..

Damp in the walls!

stale urine is not a very precise description, as human urine, fresh or stale, smells distinctly different to the smell of a cat's- an uneutered tom cat's urine smells completely different to that of a nuetered tom, or to a female cat's, and all and any animal's urine has the distinctive smell of the particular animal.

It is not likely to be anyone's urine, as that smell hardly comes and goes, unless some creature that wees in your kitchen only comes in in bad weather!

I don't think you would be likely to confuse the smell of a decomposing mouse, rat or anything else with the smell of stale urine. After all, we all know what meat going bad smells like, and that is after all what decomposing bodies are. And we know what urine smells like.

In my experience, a smell that comes and goes is usually coming in from outside, so check any air vents, drains, etc.

As you have cleaned the kitchen thoroughly more than once since you first noticed this smell, that too points to the smell coming from outside, unless you have just started a new rubbish sorting process?

My indoor bin for compost has to be emptied every second day and washed in warm soapy water. If I shirk this a distincty unpleasant smell makes itself known very quickly. But there again, rotting compost does not smell like stale urine.

I suggest you make a note of where the wind is coming from on the days you notice the smell, as that might indicate that the smell is coming from outside, and perhaps help you to track it to its source.

Are there any new businesses in the neighourhood that might be the cause of the smell?

Mice in my experience give off a distinctly musty smell - both the living creatures and their excrements. Again nothing like urine.

An old post from March 2022

Gingster

A couple of years ago, we had a strange smell in the kitchen and it got stronger and stronger. We bought over the counter remedies but nothing worked. Called the plumber in and he took off the taps, went under the sink and dismantled pipes, and still nothing. It smelt like a dead mouse or similar. We were all flummoxed. The plumber stood with his head in his hands, looked across above the sink on the windowsill and picked up a shell that the GC had collected at the beach. There’s your culprit he said. It had some creature inside that was rotting away.. ???

😳