MAINTENANCE
report by Daniel Renteria
With our theme this month being “Cooking” we wanted to touch on what you shouldn’t put down your garbage disposal to keep it running efficiently. Here you will find a couple things that you would NEVER want to put down your drains. Coffee Grounds - Don’t do it! Let’s start by debunking a common folk remedy. While it’s true that dropping coffee grounds into your garbage disposal reduces odors in the short term, it can actually cause more serious problems down the drain. To understand why, think about what used coffee grounds look like when taken out of a filter: They reduce into a dense, thickly packed pasty wad. And that is exactly what you don’t want going in your drain lines! Pasta - Anyone who’s made spaghetti or mac ‘n’ cheese knows that pasta expands when soaked in water. Given that, you can see why you might not want to drop lots of pasta into your disposal and drain where it will, after all, soak in water and keep expanding.
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Bones - Garbage disposals are wonderful at grinding up and disposing of food waste. But just because they can grind doesn’t mean they’re angle grinders. They simply aren’t made to deal with extremely hard items, such as bones. Oatmeal - Much like pasta, oatmeal is another expansion threat. Uncooked oats in particular likely to slip through the disposal untouched, only to collect and expand down-line. Which can cause backup issued not just for yourself but everyone else on your stack. Nuts and shells - Similar to bones, nuts and shells (including seafood shells) can be very damaging to your garbage disposal. And softer nuts, such as peanuts, are still not a good idea for the disposal. You garbage disposal is not unlike a nut grinder, and know what you get when you grind and mash peanuts? Peanut butter. Well maybe not exactly the peanut butter you get in a jar, but a somewhat thick, peanut paste that can easily clog up your drain. Oil, Fat and Grease - While it may seem slick enough to just slide right through the pipes, oils, fats, and grease congeal as they cool, often creating a wall off hard-to-remove solid matter in your plumbing. Due to their consistency, it can be extremely difficult for even a professional to entirely remove trapped oil, fat, and grease. A smart thing to do is pour any excess oil, fat or grease into a foil-lined bowl, allow for it to cool, and then throw it away in your regular trash.
Here at Toscana it is highly recommended that you do not put anything down your drains as all of your drains feed into a "trunk line," and anything that you put down your drains can/will affect the units above or below you. We also recommended that you use a sink strainer. This is something that you are able to pick up at your local hardware store for a very affordable price. If you ever experience any back up issues please contact Moon Valley Plumbing at 602-253-2600. If you feel the backup will/can cause any damage to your unit or surrounding neighbors/common areas, please contact the office at 480-585-0808 during business hours or our Night Manager at 480-861-0875 after-hours.
