How many of you light a match after doing your business and making a bathroom stink? I do when I have matches available and am always amazed at how well it seems to work, but I don’t know if it’s just for me or if other people in the house benefit as well.
How does this work? I can’t imaging it burns up all the stinky gas. Does it just burn my nostrils so I can’t smell the stink, and can other people still smell it? Does it eliminate the stink or just cover it up?
Do you have a better solution? I don’t like perfume that just covers up (overpowers) the smell and replaces it with (in my opinion) a worse smell. Is there anything else out there that really neutralizes the little stink molecules floating around?
I appreciate any and all input!
For whatever reason, the sulfur compounds in the match head are more noticeable than the mercaptans in your poop and by the time the scent of the match has dissipated, so have the poo gases.
Poo-pourri and Trap-a-Crap are products that claim to trap smells beneath the waterline in the toilet. I’ve never tried them and make no claims as to their efficacy.
Wow. Never heard about this stuff. It certainly has a LOT of believers (reviews), and if nothing else, the number one review is a crack up to read! I’ll have to look into it. But I’m also skeptical, as I think the stink comes both from the solid and the gas that comes out. The solid goes into the water and I think the water would hold the smell. It’s the solid on it’s way to the water and the gas that I think would be the issue. Is this just a scented covering for the water, and what about the odor molecules that never go into the water.
I can see I’ll have to investigate!
I googled “mercaptans” and its now my new word of the day. Just have to remember that its spelled [mercaptans] and not [mercraptans]… Thanks for the education!
The product has a lot of floral scents. You spray it on the water in the bowl. I know this isn’t how the manufacturers claim it works, but a shorthand I use is: when the poop hits the water, it releases additional floral scent, either masking or eliminating the gas produced odors. So yes, it really works. All of the males in my family swear by it.
If you don’t mind a slighty off-topic question: is there even a theoretical risk of causing an explosion in your bathroom by igniting a match? We all know that flatus is combustible. So if air in bathroom would be thoroughly saturated with these gases, could it explode?
Burning probably does burn off some of the complex organic molecules, but probably not fast enough to change things in a matter of minutes. I agree, it’s more likely the sulphur dulls your sense of smell. Light a candle instead, maybe. I have heard of using candles to help dispel the “fresh paint” smell of the off-gasses from a recently painted house.
An explosion happens when the concentration of flammable gasses to oxygen reaches a “flash point”. Unless Herr Hindenburg is using your bathroom, this is physically impossible.
Absolutely brilliant! Killing two birds with one stone!
Now that I’m done laughing, back to the real question. I thought more about this poo-puri last night. Does it really create a “barrier” on top the water that keeps the stink molecules from getting through? If the stink can travel through water, why can’t it travel through the thin poo-puri layer. I’m thinking more and more it is just MASKING the smell with a different (but pleasant) smell. Do people agree, or does anyone think it is really creating an impenetrable barrier???
Also, so what would actually neutralize or destroy the stink molecules, or do they just fade away over time anyway?
Pretty sure the Mythbusters tested that and, IIRC, didn’t get an explosion even when they filled the room up with fart gases. I remember Adam solemnly explaining at the beginning of the episode that the network wouldn’t let them use “the most common word” for intestinal gas, and insisted they use the word “flatus” throughout the episode.
My extensive experience and hands on research tells me that when anyone does their business there is a physical gap between their “producing the goods area” and the surface of the water in the bowl.
Therefore, when their product drops there is a discharge of the smellies into the air, before the load even hits the bowl.
In addition, as they dump their load, a considerable amount of gas is discharged into the air before, during and after dumpage. This volume of gas never gets close to the water in the bowl.
That being the case, how does this Poo Poo stuff “neutralise” these airborne gases?
I suspect that this Poo Poo stuff is really some kind of narcotic that has a direct action on the brain cells thereby inducing the illusion of desmellifying. Probably invented by George Bush.
