With hot weather comes smelly drains, and right now, my sink is stinking up my entire kitchen. To combat this, I’m using an 80p heatwave hack to banish odours in their tracks and keep my drains free of sludge and debris. And these EcoZone Drain Cleaning Sticks from Amazon are a must-have.

Yes, as hot weather accelerates the decomposition of food or debris trapped in kitchen and bathroom pipes, smelly drains are a nuisance during any heatwave. But they don't just stink up the place; they also attract irritating flies that are equally difficult to shift. And while there are many ways to fix smelly drains, the last thing I want to do in this heat is spend my time cleaning.

That’s why I’m turning to enzymatic drain sticks to freshen up my drains, banish odours and keep water flowing freely during the heatwave. They’re the zero-effort solution to smelly drains you didn’t know you needed.

Although I clean my kitchen sink drain regularly, sinks dry out more quickly when the temperature rises. This evaporates any lingering water in the pipes and leaves foul-smelling debris in its wake. Before long, the smell of leftover organic matter, soap scum and nasty sludge permeates throughout the room.

These drain sticks work by using natural bacteria and enzymes to break down this organic matter, which should, in turn, remove the odours. But many of these drain sticks - like the EcoZone ones I’ve previously used in my own home - are also scented. This means that they’ll replace the bad odours with a cleaner, fresher one, too.

The beauty of these sticks is that you simply drop them into your drain and leave them, and they’ll do the hard work for you. They’ll also continue to break down debris and release a scent for around a month - so a whole £10 pack of 12 should last you an entire year.

I’ve tried a few of these sticks in my drains over the years, including Lakeland’s 12 Drain Maintain Fragranced Enzyme Cleaning Plughole Sticks (£7.99 at Lakeland). And while Lakeland’s drain sticks certainly got the job done, I didn’t find that they lasted as long as the EcoZone option.

It seems as though I’m not the only one who appreciates them, either. The EcoZone Drain Cleaning Sticks have over 10,000 reviews on Amazon, with 45% of customers rating them a perfect 5 stars out of 5. A further 21% gave them 4 stars.

However, as with all cleaning tools and hacks, the results aren’t the same across the board. How effective they are depends on the condition of your drains and pipes, and some customers have found that they didn’t completely banish the odour.

So, if you’d rather try something with a much higher success rate, you could also consider using bicarbonate of soda and hot water to neutralise the odours and break down the debris in the pipes. This is also a very low-effort hack, and you might already have the bicarb sitting in your cleaning cupboard.

Whatever option you use, odours coming from your drains are some of the smells you shouldn’t ignore in your house - especially during a heatwave. So, make sure you do something about it.

Don't let your smelly drains get you down!