Garbage Disposal Use & Care

A garbage disposal - It’s basically magic! You’ve never had one before and you’re so excited to dispose of all those leftover food items you’d otherwise toss in the trash can. But before you do, it’s important to know what can be sent into ground oblivion — citrus rinds, ice, scraps of meat — and what shouldn’t.

Don’t put it down your garbage disposal:

Coffee grounds: Leftover morning fuel. They seem innocuous, but wet coffee grounds will turn into sludge in your pipes. Add them to your compost heap instead.

Celery: The stringy bits will wind their way around garbage disposal blades, leading to mechanical difficulty.

Peach pits: Take a knife to your leftover peach pit, and what happens? Nothing, that’s what. Your garbage disposal won’t fare much better.

Pasta: Pasta and other grains (Think rice and couscous, etc.) swell when exposed to water. Putting that leftover spaghetti down the drain, disposal or not, will cause a major clog.

Egg shells: Some say you can, some say you can’t. It’s probably better that you compost the egg shells instead. The mucous membrane that lines the egg has the potential to gum up or otherwise damage the spinning blades.

Bones: They’re not going anywhere. Certainly not down the drain pipe.

Grease: Hot grease takes a liquid form, but when cool: It congeals into a solid and can even turn into almost concrete in your pipes. What you’ll have in the long run is a greasy, smelly sink and pipes so clogged you’ll have to call a plumber or possibly a drain specialist.

Keep your garbage disposal (and with it, your pipes and your kitchen sink) in tip top working order, and clean too! Some plumbers recommend a combination of baking soda, vinegar and water for regular cleaning; lemon rind cut into chunks and ground in the disposal will neutralize odor in a pinch.

Courtesy of MyPlumber.com – Posted June 9, 2020