Pink mold in the sink?
September 29th, 2010
Help! we have the strangest pink mold growning in and around the drain in the bathroom sink. We continue to clean it and yet it still comes back. We do not know if its dangerous or not, or any way to make it go away. It just comes back and gets bigger and bigger if we don’t clean it right away. What should we do? are there products to kill this?
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The pink scum really is scum, it’s a bacterial mat. It happens most commonly if your water is hard. It is probably from not rinsing pink handsoap residue thoroughly down the drain and it "catches" around it. If you have copper pipes and hard water, the corrosion would be greenish blue in color.
Try Lysol disinfectant spray. It should clear it up. If it keeps coming back call a professional.
Actually the pink stuff is a form of yeast, and this type of yeast can be beneficial in breads, wines, beers and cheeses. Not so beneficial in your sink.
some types of yeast survive chlorine and hot water, so one thing you can try is an alcohol based cleaner. One important thing is that you can kill all the active yeast with a cleaner, but you’ll still need to scrub to get rid of the inactive yeast.
So, apply the cleaner, scrub vigorously with an alcohol based cleaner, and then rinse with hot water.
Use a disinfectant on all the surfaces in your kitchen, because the yeast is probably airborn from somewhere else, but its growing in your sink because its moist.
Im curious- do you do alot of baking, or brewing, or do you live near a bakery or a brewery? I used to run across this in ice machines in bakeries and coffee shops that feature alot of breads.
By the way, don’t worry about yeast infections- that’s a totally different kind of yeast.
try hydrogen peroxide, its a sure mold killer
It very well could be mold or algae. Since you can clean it…. but it returns, you haven’t gotten to the source. If it’s around the drain, the mold/algae is growing underneath the drain. You will have to remove the drain plate and clean under it with bleach….. scrubbing with an old toothbrush will get into all the corners and crevices. Get under the sink and dis-assemble the P-trap from the tailpiece of the drain, then unscrew the tailpiece from the sink. It’s a large hex nut that compresses a washer and rubber gasket to the bottom of the sink. Remove the drain and tailpiece and then clean the plumbers putty from the sink bowl. Plumbers putty is a flexible putty that seals the drain bezel to the sink bowl. Once everything is clean, reassemble the tailpiece and drain to the sink bowl using a fresh bead of plumbers putty under the drain bezel. Clean and reattach the P-trap to the tailpiece. Be sure to clean the rubber gaskets well, as they are a favorite target for algae and mold to grow on.
It’s a waterborne bacteria. Probably non hazardous. These bacteria are very common to moist situations. The best thing to do is to treat the pink stuff with bleach.
Usually the growths will only persist if the area in question is always wet. Check your faucets to see if they are leaking. If so, you might find that replacing the leaking faucet washers will cure the "pink mold" problem.
I use bleach. That usually take care of it for some time
In my experience, that’s typical of bathroom mold. Black and pink mold grow in my shower and sink all the time……you just need to clean it regularly. Chlorine bleach kills mold, so use a product that contains bleach. Aside from that, you just have to keep the bathroom clean. Using an exhaust fan while showering or bathing will help slow its growth, and opening a window while running the fan will help even more.