Garbage Disposal Dos and Don’ts

A well-maintained garbage disposal is essential for keeping your kitchen clean and odor-free. However, many homeowners may not be fully aware of the best practices for using and maintaining their garbage disposal. To help you keep your unit running smoothly, we’ve compiled a list of dos and don’ts that you should follow.

Do: Run Cold Water While It’s Grinding

Run cold water the whole time the disposal is going, and keep it running for a few seconds after you shut it off. Cold water keeps any fat that does make it in solid, so the disposal grinds it up and pushes it out instead of letting it melt and coat the inside of your pipe. Hot water while you are grinding does the opposite: it melts the grease, and the grease cools and sets somewhere further down the line where you cannot see it.

Once the disposal is off and you are finishing dishes, hot tap water is fine and helps move things along. But the honest answer is that grease does not belong in the drain at all. Scrape it into the trash. A kitchen line packed with years of grease is one of the most common calls we run, and no amount of water temperature undoes it. Once it is that far along, snaking punches a hole through the grease and it seals right back up, which is why we hydro-jet a kitchen line instead of poking it.

Don’t: Put Certain Foods Down the Disposal

While garbage disposals are handy, they aren’t meant to handle everything. Avoid putting fibrous foods like celery, corn husks, or potato peels down the disposal, as they can wrap around the impellers and jam the unit. A disposal does not have blades. It has blunt impellers on a spinning plate that fling food waste against a stationary grind ring, and that is what actually breaks it down. Hard items like bones, pits, and shells can damage the impellers, the grind ring, and the motor, leading to costly repairs.

Do: Clean Your Disposal Regularly

Keeping your garbage disposal clean helps prevent bad odors and ensures it operates efficiently. You can clean your disposal by grinding up ice cubes and citrus peels. There are no blades in there to sharpen, but the ice knocks buildup off the impellers and the grind ring, and the citrus freshens up your kitchen. Another simple method is to sprinkle baking soda down the disposal, followed by vinegar, to eliminate any lingering smells.

Don’t: Use Harsh Chemicals

It might be tempting to use drain cleaners or other harsh chemicals to clear a clog or clean your disposal, but this can do more harm than good. These chemicals are an acid or a base, and either way the stuff sits on the pipe, heats up, and eats it from the inside. Maybe it is somewhat safe on plastic. You probably have metal under the sink. Stick to natural cleaning methods, and if the same drain keeps clogging, that is a pipe problem rather than a clog problem, so call for drain cleaning and get a camera on it.

Do: Feed Items Gradually

When using your garbage disposal, it’s important to feed items gradually rather than all at once. Overloading the garbage disposal can cause it to jam, reducing its effectiveness and potentially damaging the motor. Take your time to ensure everything is properly ground up before adding more food waste.

The Plumbing Company You Can Count On

We repair and replace disposals, clear the kitchen lines behind them, and work out of three shops in Sandy, Bountiful, and Orem covering Salt Lake, Davis, Utah, Weber, Summit, Tooele, and Wasatch counties. The office is open Monday through Friday 8am to 5pm, we run emergency service 24/7, and every appointment comes with a 2-hour arrival window.

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