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by eutectic 1662 days ago
Urea doesn't smell like anything much. Leave it long enough and it breaks down to make ammonia, which does.
2 comments

Most people can't taste it at all. And let's celebrate its 'invention' by the mammals so many million years ago as a brilliant solution to the problem of how to temporarily store and then excrete nitrogen in a harmless way as against the uric acid route used by birds and reptiles. People who have a test for the nasty H. pylori bug swallow a solution of urea and find it tasteless as far as I'm aware.
You mean like leave it under a hot mainframe?

Or expose it to warm temps in a lot of industrial processes?

It's a distinction without meaning, urea based products like DEF end up smelling like pee/ammonia. Laypeople usually specifically compare it to a cow urine smell