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My father and I finally installed my wall mount bathroom sink and re-attached the existing faucet using the existing hardware. Now the water tastes horrible. It smells noticeably fume-y, and tastes like the water has been sitting in an old plastic bottle in the sun all day.

I'm on the fifth floor of a six story pre-war apartment building. My downstairs neighbors report no foul tasting water in her bathroom which is on the same riser. I taste it in both the hot and cold water, but not in the shower which is two feet away from the sink. I'm tempted to disconnect the hoses and run those each into a glass to figure out whether the problem is before or after the hose.

What might we have done in the course of installing the new sink that would introduce such a horrible smell? My father did a lot of the work on his own and is adamant that nothing he did could make the water taste bad, but he also says he can't taste the water. At least three other people have spit the water out and said "eww, that tastes like plastic or something."

Everything about the sink smelled like fumes immediately after it was installed -- very acrid plastic-y fumes. The overall smell has more or less dissipated, but the water stinks, and has for days now.

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Amanda
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  • If I understand correctly, the sink doesn't have a built in faucet or anything like that. Old faucet with old pipes were used. I don't see how anything could affect water. I wonder if you are just smelling residual odor of the sink(like while the glass is filled, the sink odor surrounds it) – Vitaliy Oct 02 '13 at 18:47
  • Well, but I filled the glass and took it to the other room and held it out to my mother. And then we passed it around the kitchen table and discussed it. – Amanda Oct 02 '13 at 19:57
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    Did your father use some sort of pipe dope, glue, or solvent to re-attach the faucet fittings. – bib Oct 02 '13 at 21:08
  • How about some details on the "existing hardware". In all likelihood, it was reinstalled using inappropriate materials (such as pipe dope on compression fittings). – kreemoweet Oct 02 '13 at 22:33
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    Have you tried letting the water run for a bit, to see if flushing the lines helps? – Tester101 Oct 03 '13 at 10:00
  • I agree with the comments suggesting the pipe joint compound was probably used (likely in excess) during the re-assembly of the old faucet parts. – Michael Karas Oct 03 '13 at 12:41
  • I don't see any evidence that he's flat out lying and my dad says he didn't use any pro-dope or tape on the fittings. He did say those are new hoses, however. – Amanda Oct 04 '13 at 21:42

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Update: I don't know how long it actually took but we stopped using the sink for drinking and tooth brushing for a bit and eventually the smell dissipated ans we forgot about it.

Amanda
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  • Did you add any new water lines when installing the sink? PEX? If yes, is is definitely stamped **PW** (potable water?). One possibility is that you used heat PEX which isn't meant for drinking water and it leached out a bunch of nasty chemicals... – J... Jul 12 '21 at 19:05