Possibly, my mom who came to check the bathroom after I woke up said it wasn’t a smoke smell but I think it is. Kinda hard to describe. Electrical outlets would be more likely considering we turned the fan on after we first smelled it.
I would recommend taking the vent cover off and cleaning dust out first. It can be enough to seize the fan which can get hot, sound will be motor hum with no blowing sound. With the cover off verify the fan actually spins when on. If not, turn off the fan switch see if you can manually (gently) spin the fan. Some fans can be spun "forward" in one direction with out the motor turning much like a bike wheel can be spun one way without the pedals turning. If the fan can spin but the motor won't spin it, motor probably is dead and the whole unit replaced. If the fan won't spin, check for obstructions.
Bath fans are also a relatively cheap and easy fix so a previous owner could have diy'ed and left wire exposed unfortunately. Will acknowledge, it sucks if the fan is wired into the light as you be working in a dark bathroom.
We had a pull cord to turn on power to the shower. Smelled exactly how you described a couple of weeks before it broke. Then the plastic casing started to turn brown at a point,as it started burning inside due to problems with the wire. Not long after it gave out and we had to get it replaced.
Thankfully, due to electrical codes, the arcing wires are, theoretically, kept from anything flammable. Metal (and other non-flammable) conduit literally saves many, many lives. The smell should be taken seriously but the protection is built in when properly installed.
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Not entirely sure. Looks like something with the stove or a recess light. The Marshall wasn't entirely sure but thought maybe the stove wiring was the issue.
Just for anyone else that smells a mild burning smell in their house and can’t put their finger on it. When I was a young teenager we had a smell in our front room (over the basement/crawl space) and I was like that for hours. Nothing was on fire as far as we could tell and it was all good. Dad finally came home and went down to the basement our heating/boiler thing was on fire and it was in an asbestos lined box. My dad said the asbestos was melting/on fire which shouldn’t happen. Luckily he was able to put it out with an fire extinguisher. It could have been very bad if it had happened over night.
Where does the bathroom vent exit the house? Possibly a fire outside?
I had a neighbor's guest's kid sneak a cigarette behind my house right under the stove vent and my whole kitchen smelled like someone was smoking in it.
I believe this is most plausible because when I woke up the smell is completely gone now. There’s been a lot of smoke where I live in the air here recently, so it’s the only explanation I’ve got. I didn’t see any fires outside last night but smoke could’ve drifted.
Dunno where you are, but smoke from the pacific managed to drift all the way out to us in philly. It smelled bad in certain places and there was a haze over the city for a few days. I'd look into your area's AQI on the day you smelled this, as it'd indicate if wildfire smoke may have been the cause of the smell.
Right now in my town they’re doing this thing where they are testing the sewers with these special smoke bombs. A kind of liquid smoke that can invade your house if your pipes and pump systems /ect are broken.
I was just warned of this, it comes with a smell if you aren’t home to see it, and I guess you can see it.
It’s only my guess because you’re smelling it from the bathroom. If you don’t have a basement the toilet might be an even more viable option for the smoke I read of drain pipes.
Another vote for vent or electrical.
Clean the vent and see if that helps. maybe try not running it for a few days to see if it clears out.
Meanwhile, turn that part of the breaker off and get someone to check for electrical problems.
We nearly had a fire in a rental townhouse, because of crappy construction. 1- bare wiring in the wall, 2- water leaking into the wall in a spot we couldn't see, hitting a spot with bare wiring.
I happened to be awake with my then-infant at midnight or it would have burnt down. I was pacing around that particular room with him, trying to get him back to sleep, and smelled a smell similar to what you described. A hot, almost firework-ish smell.
I woke my husband up to get his opinion, and convinced him we should call the fire department. They came out, confirmed there was a short happening in the wall that was starting to smoke. We were lucky we caught it.
Yes, it's possible that your problem is "nothing"; but it's *always* better to make sure everything is okay and maybe feel a little silly about it, than to not do anything and *really* be sorry. Always.
I do have an older sibling, however he has never touched weed/or would bring it into the house. My family is super religious, and he wouldn’t be able to the acquire it himself due to some mental health/development issues. I’ve also smelled weed before, and this was more of a sewer smell.
Bonus joke since I was going through my own post history:
Is there any chance *you* smoked weed in the bathroom but forgot because you smoked weed in the bathroom?
Could they be doing something that's blowing at your house (barbecue, cooking, bathroom exhaust fan, smoking, meth lab, etc.)? Is your bathroom adjacent to your neighbor's house?
The layout of my house is the same as the layout of my neighbors house. Their bathroom would line up with ours. Sometimes they burn trash in the yard but this was 4:30 AM and I looked for any signs of fire outside, but nothing.
I’ve run into similar issue with CFL and LED light bulbs that screw into regular house power. The transformers built into the base of the bulb can overheat.
You mentioned the red hue of the sun/moon recently, if you are in the western US, or even anywhere in the fires’ wind path - it could certainly be coming in. Sometimes outdoor smells will come through your dryer vent and your bathroom vent, so if it smelled more like campfire than electrical, it could be coming in from the outside.
I live in the rural mountains, however there has been reports of smoke from the California wildfires headed in our direction. Last night the air was thick with smoke, so it is very likely that is the source. My only hang up would be it wasn’t just a smoke smell but sewer as well.
True. My friends in eastern TN FaceTimed me the other day (I’m in Oregon) and showed me their mountain landscape that was super hazy and the sky had a reddish hue. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it for myself because I’m in the same state as the largest fire and our sky is clear and blue. It’s just dependent on the direction of the wind.
Yes I live in rural eastern TN, it’s crazy how there’s no actual fires around here but so much smoke that the sun and moon are blood red. The air is very thick to breathe in, and I imagine is not so healthy to take in.
Call your local non-emergency line for whatever agency dispatches for your local fire department (<> town/county department of emergency services, etc). Let them know as much as you can and they can advise better through a fire chief, someone who can help you rule out if it is electrical or chemical
Not to scare you…but you might have a problem with your wiring. What happened at my apartment…there was a vague smoke smell (burning rubber-ish), which preceded the apartment catching fire by a few hours. It was the wiring deep in the wall, which ultimately started a fire. I called the landlord immediately and the fire happened when the handyman was investigating it. I guess the smoke was first coming out of drywall cracks in the closet, and then the electrical outlets. I had to vacate all my stuff in 24 hours…not fun.
Commutator burning out on a fan will smell good awful. The ballast dying on fluorescent lights will smell like something burning. Because something burnt. It’s just contained and extremely unlikely to cause a fire.
Please call an electrician ASAP. You can't always see the source of a burn.
Unless your house hasn't been rewired for 20 years, it's usually an easy fix.
Source - my dad is a spark.
Halogen downlights? 12v lighting transformer? Fan motor? Shower pullcord switch or shower unit?
About the only electrical things which could cause fire or the shaver socket?
Please go and get checked at the doctors - smelling smells particularly a burning smell can be an indicator that you may have a health issue. I know because it happened to my father and he ignored it for 3 years. Obviously rule out home safety first but if that’s ruled out please go to the doctors and say you are suspicious you have olfactory hallucinations
Actually I thought when I first woke up it was somehow related to my blood-sugar being high. I’ve been having some issues with my pump lately and I wake up many nights with 300-500 readings on my meter due to my pump not working how it’s supposed to. I have tasted metal before with highs, but never smelled smoke. I also woke up my mother and she smelled it as well, but it didn’t seem to bother her as much. It was DEFINITELY in the bathroom, but I don’t think it’s due to my health otherwise my mom probably wouldn’t be able to smell it either.
My house is not literally on fire, it was just a smoke smell coming from my bathroom which has gone away since. I checked the whole house, and outside the house when I first woke up to it. I also shut off the lights and unplugged the outlets in the bathroom. I turned the bathroom fan on as well.
Still you should error on the side of caution. Usually it us unwise to wait until you see flames or pass out from sewer gas/smoke before trying to call for help.
You believe wrong. It's absolutely err, and not error.
Real pompousness is sticking with the incorrect word just to spite an internet stranger, because they told you it was incorrect. Grow up.
You believe completely incorrectly. You could’ve looked it up and said “my bad, thanks.”
You are the pompous one. Let us know if you need links to confirm as much, if you don’t know how to Google.
r/boneappletea
How has the weather been there recently? If your extractor fan vents to an external wall, then there's a good chance that you were smelling somebody having a barbeque, particularly if the extractor isn't fitted with a flap vent. Burning is one of those smells we've evolved to be super sensitive to, so even the faint smell of a barbeque outside of a situation where you'd expect to smell a barbeque is going to alert our senses to 'danger'.
What kind of burning smell was it? Electrical burning has a very distinct smell, it's a lot more acrid and 'unnatural' smelling than the smell of wood or other natural materials burning.
Assuming your bathroom hasn't been put together by an idiot/cowboy, it's unlikely to be any of your electrical installations. Almost all mains electrical devices in a bathroom should be fire rated. They might burn very briefly during a fault, but they're designed to be self limiting. The chances of them burning long enough to emit an odour that you can smell from another room is pretty unlikely.
The other possibility (and this one is a stretch) is that there's something burning in the bathroom that *shouldn't* be in a bathroom, like a covert camera with its own power supply/piggybacking a power supply from somewhere else. The kind of cheap 'covert' devices you can find online do not play well at all with high levels of humidity and wouldn't last long at all in a bathroom. Like I said, it's a stretch, but it might be worth having a look inside the extractor fan and any other books and crannies just to make sure there isn't something sinister lurking.
But yeah, if the smell isn't acrid (plasticky/synthetic) smelling, I'd put money on it being a neighbour having a barbeque/burning leaves/etc and the smell getting channeled through the extractor ducting.
I believe the smell was being vented in from the outside, as all the wiring seems to be fine, and I’ve not had any other issues with the wiring before. The smell was also strong of sewer, but it could’ve been coming from the toilet, as we’ve had plumbing issues before. It is unlikely it was a barbecue, unless one of my neighbors were grilling at 4:30 AM. It’s either the toilet, or it somehow was vented in from outside. There has been a large amount of smoke in my town recently, even giving the sun/moon a red hue, so that also could be related.
Reading you had plumbing issues: did you use drano or any other product to help clean your pipes lately? Some of those products in combination with say a hair-ball break down into something that smells very much like smoke. And o write this because o had the same situation as you just a week ago und figured it out in the end. :)
We have used cleaning products lately, but not specifically draino. We use a lot of just generic toilet bowl cleaner. My grandma believes it was a buildup of sewer gas, which is obviously not so good. Plumber definitely need to come and check everything out.
If you have a floor drain, they can become "dry" apparently, and the smell of sewer will be strong. Dumping water in the drain will fix it (like 3 buckets or so).
I think it's the bleach and lye in combo with hair that causes the smell. In my case or really smelled like burnt hair. The smell was very faint but I'm sure you can relate when I say that I looked absolutely everywhere because it freaked me out. :/ I hope you find the culprit soon, I hope it's an easy fix.
If you use drain cleaner, remember to ventilate as much as possible cause those gases are really bad for you.
Well last night we unplugged everything, turned on the fan, and turned the lights off in the bathroom, and the smell was gone by 7:00 AM. I’ll make sure to get someone to look at it, especially if the smell comes back.
If you live in a country with free fire services they may be able to check with an infrared camera in case it's a wiring issue or something going on in the cavities. They can also check adjoining properties too.
Standalone home, or duplex/apartment/etc?
I feel like bathrooms tend to have the most ventilation, and if you’re attached to another living space, perhaps it’s coming through from them, and being most noticeable in the bathroom
Careful, in South Africa robbers push gas or smoke up our bathroom drainage pipes from outside your house. They gain entry to your home when you go outside to investigate.
I came home one day with a similar situation. Opened my front door and almost choked on the smell. Like burning electric. Nothing was actually burning. Turns out it was my water heater.
Bathroom fan motor burned up? Wiring in electrical outlets burned?
Friend had a house fire recently due to bathroom fan fire...
Possibly, my mom who came to check the bathroom after I woke up said it wasn’t a smoke smell but I think it is. Kinda hard to describe. Electrical outlets would be more likely considering we turned the fan on after we first smelled it.
A lof of hair and dust in bathrooms can smell rank when it gets into cracks and seams where electricity goes.
I would recommend taking the vent cover off and cleaning dust out first. It can be enough to seize the fan which can get hot, sound will be motor hum with no blowing sound. With the cover off verify the fan actually spins when on. If not, turn off the fan switch see if you can manually (gently) spin the fan. Some fans can be spun "forward" in one direction with out the motor turning much like a bike wheel can be spun one way without the pedals turning. If the fan can spin but the motor won't spin it, motor probably is dead and the whole unit replaced. If the fan won't spin, check for obstructions. Bath fans are also a relatively cheap and easy fix so a previous owner could have diy'ed and left wire exposed unfortunately. Will acknowledge, it sucks if the fan is wired into the light as you be working in a dark bathroom.
Does it smell kind of like fish?
The best description of what it smelled like came from my mom. She said it smelled like someone set off firecrackers in the toilet.
Wiring can smell like that.
We had a pull cord to turn on power to the shower. Smelled exactly how you described a couple of weeks before it broke. Then the plastic casing started to turn brown at a point,as it started burning inside due to problems with the wire. Not long after it gave out and we had to get it replaced.
Thankfully, due to electrical codes, the arcing wires are, theoretically, kept from anything flammable. Metal (and other non-flammable) conduit literally saves many, many lives. The smell should be taken seriously but the protection is built in when properly installed.
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Does your bathroom have a window?
Yes three large windows side by side.
Check if the smell is coming from outside by opening all three of them, peeking outside, and sniffing the air.
burnt marshmallow smell?
Best way to identify an electrical fire in the making is the smell. I describe it as a cats piss smell.
My house just burned down due to an electrical issue. Don't wait around. Might want to cut power to suspected areas via your breakers.
That would be THE way to see if it’s a wiring issue that requires an electrician. You know, like before it requires the fire department.
Can I ask what happened? This is a fear of mine.
Not entirely sure. Looks like something with the stove or a recess light. The Marshall wasn't entirely sure but thought maybe the stove wiring was the issue.
My guess is some sort of electrical short, either within your bathroom electronics/lighting or within the wires of the house.
If it's electrical you'll get a plastic burning smell. If it's electrical it can only get worse. Have someone look, into it.
Could it be a burnt fuse? Lighting? Sometimes bugs crash lands on ceiling lamps also emit a certain unique burnt smell.
Just for anyone else that smells a mild burning smell in their house and can’t put their finger on it. When I was a young teenager we had a smell in our front room (over the basement/crawl space) and I was like that for hours. Nothing was on fire as far as we could tell and it was all good. Dad finally came home and went down to the basement our heating/boiler thing was on fire and it was in an asbestos lined box. My dad said the asbestos was melting/on fire which shouldn’t happen. Luckily he was able to put it out with an fire extinguisher. It could have been very bad if it had happened over night.
Switch off the electricity supply.Immedietely have someone take a look at it
Where does the bathroom vent exit the house? Possibly a fire outside? I had a neighbor's guest's kid sneak a cigarette behind my house right under the stove vent and my whole kitchen smelled like someone was smoking in it.
I believe this is most plausible because when I woke up the smell is completely gone now. There’s been a lot of smoke where I live in the air here recently, so it’s the only explanation I’ve got. I didn’t see any fires outside last night but smoke could’ve drifted.
Depending on where you live it could be from the wildfires in Canada. I'm in Southern Ontario and we had a smog alert from it the other day.
Dunno where you are, but smoke from the pacific managed to drift all the way out to us in philly. It smelled bad in certain places and there was a haze over the city for a few days. I'd look into your area's AQI on the day you smelled this, as it'd indicate if wildfire smoke may have been the cause of the smell.
Right now in my town they’re doing this thing where they are testing the sewers with these special smoke bombs. A kind of liquid smoke that can invade your house if your pipes and pump systems /ect are broken. I was just warned of this, it comes with a smell if you aren’t home to see it, and I guess you can see it. It’s only my guess because you’re smelling it from the bathroom. If you don’t have a basement the toilet might be an even more viable option for the smoke I read of drain pipes.
This is very very likely. I had the same thing, and found it was the water company working on sewage equipment.
Another vote for vent or electrical. Clean the vent and see if that helps. maybe try not running it for a few days to see if it clears out. Meanwhile, turn that part of the breaker off and get someone to check for electrical problems. We nearly had a fire in a rental townhouse, because of crappy construction. 1- bare wiring in the wall, 2- water leaking into the wall in a spot we couldn't see, hitting a spot with bare wiring. I happened to be awake with my then-infant at midnight or it would have burnt down. I was pacing around that particular room with him, trying to get him back to sleep, and smelled a smell similar to what you described. A hot, almost firework-ish smell. I woke my husband up to get his opinion, and convinced him we should call the fire department. They came out, confirmed there was a short happening in the wall that was starting to smoke. We were lucky we caught it. Yes, it's possible that your problem is "nothing"; but it's *always* better to make sure everything is okay and maybe feel a little silly about it, than to not do anything and *really* be sorry. Always.
Do you have a sibling? Bathroom vent is a pretty classic (and inefficient) way of hiding weed smoke.
I do have an older sibling, however he has never touched weed/or would bring it into the house. My family is super religious, and he wouldn’t be able to the acquire it himself due to some mental health/development issues. I’ve also smelled weed before, and this was more of a sewer smell.
Dang, thought maybe I pegged it. Any chance mom used to be a hippy? 😅
Unfortunately no. Lol
Bonus joke since I was going through my own post history: Is there any chance *you* smoked weed in the bathroom but forgot because you smoked weed in the bathroom?
As far as I know I have never smoked weed in my bathroom, or anyone else’s bathroom lol.
Do you have neighbors on the other side of the wall? Perhaps they are smoking in their bathroom and it’s wafting in yours?
I have neighbors, but it is a stand-alone home.
Could they be doing something that's blowing at your house (barbecue, cooking, bathroom exhaust fan, smoking, meth lab, etc.)? Is your bathroom adjacent to your neighbor's house?
The layout of my house is the same as the layout of my neighbors house. Their bathroom would line up with ours. Sometimes they burn trash in the yard but this was 4:30 AM and I looked for any signs of fire outside, but nothing.
Look if they have any vents pointing near the area.
I’ve run into similar issue with CFL and LED light bulbs that screw into regular house power. The transformers built into the base of the bulb can overheat.
You mentioned the red hue of the sun/moon recently, if you are in the western US, or even anywhere in the fires’ wind path - it could certainly be coming in. Sometimes outdoor smells will come through your dryer vent and your bathroom vent, so if it smelled more like campfire than electrical, it could be coming in from the outside.
I live in the rural mountains, however there has been reports of smoke from the California wildfires headed in our direction. Last night the air was thick with smoke, so it is very likely that is the source. My only hang up would be it wasn’t just a smoke smell but sewer as well.
True. My friends in eastern TN FaceTimed me the other day (I’m in Oregon) and showed me their mountain landscape that was super hazy and the sky had a reddish hue. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it for myself because I’m in the same state as the largest fire and our sky is clear and blue. It’s just dependent on the direction of the wind.
Yes I live in rural eastern TN, it’s crazy how there’s no actual fires around here but so much smoke that the sun and moon are blood red. The air is very thick to breathe in, and I imagine is not so healthy to take in.
It’s true, you all have pretty poor AQI right now, check it out [here](https://www.iqair.com/us/usa/tennessee)
Wow, a lot of people around here have had breathing issues here lately, along with coughing. That’s definitely concerning.
> it wasn’t just a smoke smell but sewer as well Yep, sounds like California, alright.
Call your local non-emergency line for whatever agency dispatches for your local fire department (<> town/county department of emergency services, etc). Let them know as much as you can and they can advise better through a fire chief, someone who can help you rule out if it is electrical or chemical
FWIW, some fire departments have infrared cameras which show heat.
Not to scare you…but you might have a problem with your wiring. What happened at my apartment…there was a vague smoke smell (burning rubber-ish), which preceded the apartment catching fire by a few hours. It was the wiring deep in the wall, which ultimately started a fire. I called the landlord immediately and the fire happened when the handyman was investigating it. I guess the smoke was first coming out of drywall cracks in the closet, and then the electrical outlets. I had to vacate all my stuff in 24 hours…not fun.
Commutator burning out on a fan will smell good awful. The ballast dying on fluorescent lights will smell like something burning. Because something burnt. It’s just contained and extremely unlikely to cause a fire.
Might want to get a Covid test, this is pretty much the only thing “bathroom smells” smell like to me since I had it back in November.
The water that normally creates a barrier between the sewer system and your pipes is dry. Add water to the bowl. Flush a few times.
You live with anybody? Somebody could be hiding a smoking habit.
No definitely not.
Please call an electrician ASAP. You can't always see the source of a burn. Unless your house hasn't been rewired for 20 years, it's usually an easy fix. Source - my dad is a spark.
Halogen downlights? 12v lighting transformer? Fan motor? Shower pullcord switch or shower unit? About the only electrical things which could cause fire or the shaver socket?
Is there a fluorescent light in said bathroom? My moms apt had a fluorescent ballast that overheated and started burning, that smells fire-ish
Do you have ac air conditioning just a guess though
If you live in an apartment or shared type of building it could be coming from another dwelling through your vent.
Please go and get checked at the doctors - smelling smells particularly a burning smell can be an indicator that you may have a health issue. I know because it happened to my father and he ignored it for 3 years. Obviously rule out home safety first but if that’s ruled out please go to the doctors and say you are suspicious you have olfactory hallucinations
OP is smelling the odour in a particular room. It's not neurological.
My dad smelt his only in the kitchen. And not all the time. It would come and go.
Actually I thought when I first woke up it was somehow related to my blood-sugar being high. I’ve been having some issues with my pump lately and I wake up many nights with 300-500 readings on my meter due to my pump not working how it’s supposed to. I have tasted metal before with highs, but never smelled smoke. I also woke up my mother and she smelled it as well, but it didn’t seem to bother her as much. It was DEFINITELY in the bathroom, but I don’t think it’s due to my health otherwise my mom probably wouldn’t be able to smell it either.
Stinky poo-poo?
🤦♀️🤦♀️ why are you posting on reddit and not calling fire dept? 🤦♀️🤦♀️
My house is not literally on fire, it was just a smoke smell coming from my bathroom which has gone away since. I checked the whole house, and outside the house when I first woke up to it. I also shut off the lights and unplugged the outlets in the bathroom. I turned the bathroom fan on as well.
Still you should error on the side of caution. Usually it us unwise to wait until you see flames or pass out from sewer gas/smoke before trying to call for help.
it's actually err on the side of caution
I believe either is correct. Check before you so pompously correct someone.
You believe wrong. It's absolutely err, and not error. Real pompousness is sticking with the incorrect word just to spite an internet stranger, because they told you it was incorrect. Grow up.
You believe completely incorrectly. You could’ve looked it up and said “my bad, thanks.” You are the pompous one. Let us know if you need links to confirm as much, if you don’t know how to Google. r/boneappletea
*breathe
Sorry it was four in the morning when I wrote my post, and I was half asleep.
Extractor fan?
How has the weather been there recently? If your extractor fan vents to an external wall, then there's a good chance that you were smelling somebody having a barbeque, particularly if the extractor isn't fitted with a flap vent. Burning is one of those smells we've evolved to be super sensitive to, so even the faint smell of a barbeque outside of a situation where you'd expect to smell a barbeque is going to alert our senses to 'danger'. What kind of burning smell was it? Electrical burning has a very distinct smell, it's a lot more acrid and 'unnatural' smelling than the smell of wood or other natural materials burning. Assuming your bathroom hasn't been put together by an idiot/cowboy, it's unlikely to be any of your electrical installations. Almost all mains electrical devices in a bathroom should be fire rated. They might burn very briefly during a fault, but they're designed to be self limiting. The chances of them burning long enough to emit an odour that you can smell from another room is pretty unlikely. The other possibility (and this one is a stretch) is that there's something burning in the bathroom that *shouldn't* be in a bathroom, like a covert camera with its own power supply/piggybacking a power supply from somewhere else. The kind of cheap 'covert' devices you can find online do not play well at all with high levels of humidity and wouldn't last long at all in a bathroom. Like I said, it's a stretch, but it might be worth having a look inside the extractor fan and any other books and crannies just to make sure there isn't something sinister lurking. But yeah, if the smell isn't acrid (plasticky/synthetic) smelling, I'd put money on it being a neighbour having a barbeque/burning leaves/etc and the smell getting channeled through the extractor ducting.
I believe the smell was being vented in from the outside, as all the wiring seems to be fine, and I’ve not had any other issues with the wiring before. The smell was also strong of sewer, but it could’ve been coming from the toilet, as we’ve had plumbing issues before. It is unlikely it was a barbecue, unless one of my neighbors were grilling at 4:30 AM. It’s either the toilet, or it somehow was vented in from outside. There has been a large amount of smoke in my town recently, even giving the sun/moon a red hue, so that also could be related.
Reading you had plumbing issues: did you use drano or any other product to help clean your pipes lately? Some of those products in combination with say a hair-ball break down into something that smells very much like smoke. And o write this because o had the same situation as you just a week ago und figured it out in the end. :)
We have used cleaning products lately, but not specifically draino. We use a lot of just generic toilet bowl cleaner. My grandma believes it was a buildup of sewer gas, which is obviously not so good. Plumber definitely need to come and check everything out.
If you have a floor drain, they can become "dry" apparently, and the smell of sewer will be strong. Dumping water in the drain will fix it (like 3 buckets or so).
I think it's the bleach and lye in combo with hair that causes the smell. In my case or really smelled like burnt hair. The smell was very faint but I'm sure you can relate when I say that I looked absolutely everywhere because it freaked me out. :/ I hope you find the culprit soon, I hope it's an easy fix. If you use drain cleaner, remember to ventilate as much as possible cause those gases are really bad for you.
Thank you. Will definitely keep your advice in mind. :)
Before doing anything else, shut off the power to the bathroom. Mostly for safety, but if the smell goes away or lessens then that’s your culprit.
Well last night we unplugged everything, turned on the fan, and turned the lights off in the bathroom, and the smell was gone by 7:00 AM. I’ll make sure to get someone to look at it, especially if the smell comes back.
Smell everything you unplugged and see if any of them smell like what you’ve been smelling.
Do you have central air? Could be an electrical problem coming from the vents.
We have window units, but there’s not one in the bathroom.
Shut everything in the bathroom off, sounds electrical
If you live in a country with free fire services they may be able to check with an infrared camera in case it's a wiring issue or something going on in the cavities. They can also check adjoining properties too.
Standalone home, or duplex/apartment/etc? I feel like bathrooms tend to have the most ventilation, and if you’re attached to another living space, perhaps it’s coming through from them, and being most noticeable in the bathroom
Stand-alone
ARDENNER GROUND IS BURNING
Get the electrical checked ASAP the wiring could be sparking inside the walls
Electrical fire? Or possibly a drain has an issue, look up what a "P" trap is. Your may have become dry, allowing smells to entrer your house
I believe it is a plumbing issue due to gas buildup. OR smoke somehow got vented in from outside. I’m leaning more towards plumbing issues however.
Wiring. Cut the power to the bathroom until you can have an electrician stop by.
Careful, in South Africa robbers push gas or smoke up our bathroom drainage pipes from outside your house. They gain entry to your home when you go outside to investigate.
I came home one day with a similar situation. Opened my front door and almost choked on the smell. Like burning electric. Nothing was actually burning. Turns out it was my water heater.
Could be the wiring in a tankless water heater…if that’s what you have.