Floor cleaner odour in tap water in Tampines

Dear Mr Ko

Thank you for providing access to my subscription request .

I live in Tampines in a HDB apartment. Past 3-4 weeks the water in the kitchen was smelling like soap/perfume and taste is also soapy/chemical.

I complained to the town council and they sent a maintenance person to flush  the inlet pipe to the apartment but that hasn’t helped . The water in the bathrooms are fine - no odour or weird taste.

The partition under the kitchen sink had a strong odour which smells similar to the one in the water; in my assessment it seems to come from the floor cleaner AJAX that we are storing under the sink. That is a new 3 litre can bought recently and this water taste changed after that only . We haven’t yet started to use it . After I suspected this may be the source, i removed it and all other items stored under the sink compartment. The odour in the compartment gone now after leaving the compartment open for 10 days .  But the water still seems to smell and taste weird .

Logically also I am unable to comprehend how the odour or contents can get into the water pipe if the source is from the Ajax plastic can.

So how do I test the water quality if it is safe to consume ?

Please do help if there are any DIY water quality testing kits and it’s reliability. If not what can I do to get this tested ?

Thank you for your help .

Regards

B

Dear B,

Since PUB is providing the water to your house, I suggest that you call them up. They have the resources to test your water for its safety. However, do not expect them to share the results with you. More likely, they will simply tell you whether the water is safe or not but I suppose that is what you want to know.

Regardless of whether you contact PUB, you should trying airing your under-sink partition now and leave it open. In the event that the water is safe and the taste/odour issues persist, your option probably falls either on replacing the piping under the sink or getting a water filter with a good activated carbon element to remove the taste/odour.

Good luck

A ubiquitous floor cleaner