Should my primary bucket have an odor

I'm noticing the buckets I use for primary fermentation keep a cidery smell even after washing them thoroughly and giving them an overnight soak with oxiclean and a good rinse. Even after a few weeks the smell is still there; not extremely strong but nonetheless an odor. No mold or other infections are evident. Is this usual? Should I be concerned?

If they have taps, I would recommend taking them apart on a regular basis and cleaning the parts. If you're not getting infections, I guess it's not a big worry, but I imagine a smell means something is there. How long have you had the buckets?

its usual. plastic buckets do have this smell of a past glory. Keeping them clean and vented for few days (lid off, warm place, cleaned and scrubbed) usually takes care of this bizz, not completely tho. but I have yet to see any bad consequences to new brews due that fact, no funky smells or infections, but I do scrub em clean with dish washer soap and then rinse the hell outta 'em

My primary buckets have a faint smell from previous batches even after thorough cleaning. I've never had an issue with off flavors permeating my future batches. Clean them well and sanitize and you will be fine.

I think they are like dutch ovens. They retain a little of that goodness each time you use them making them more and more "seasoned".

Thanks for the replies. Looks like things are normal. Both of my buckets do have the faint odor; one of them is a bucket-only and the other is a bottling bucket in which I primary ferment. I don't bottle as I'm a corny kegger.

Yes, I did have a funky batch recently and traced it down to a bit of grunge on the spigot. The faint odor isn't new to this batch as I've noticed since I began brewing back in May,2010.

I have the same issue. How is it that your next batches will not import any of these aromas? Seems unlikely since your beer is swimming with it for 2-3 weeks

I was going to post a similar question but you beat me to it! I made my better half an Ap-Peach-Ricot Blonde, and at bottling I put in apricot extract (4 oz bottle.) Now my bottling bucket smells like apricot still, even after a 2-day oxiclean soak. Would a bleach soak help, or is it time to get a new one?

As far as a primary bucket still smelling, as long as just "beer" was in there and not a strong fruit or anything, I would think it wouldn't harm a future brew.