Maintenance Tips Maintenance Tips: Garbage Disposal There are no two ways about it — garbage disposals are amazing. No longer do you have to worry about catching bits of food and stopping them from going down the drain as you do dishes. You can purposefully put food down the drain and grind it up. There are so many reasons to love your garbage disposal. Food scraps won’t sit in your trash can and give off an unpleasant odor. Your trash bag doesn’t fill up as full because you can put a lot of things into the garbage disposal instead. What’s not to love? However, it’s important to remember that as wonderful a tool as a garbage disposal is, it’s not indestructible. It can and will break, or be less effective, if the wrong foods go down the drain. That’s why it pays to know what things are safe for the garbage disposal and which things are no-nos.
WHAT IS A GARBAGE DISPOSAL USED FOR? Your garbage disposal is intended to be used for mashing and grinding up small food waste. It takes these pieces of food and shreds them into tiny pieces that won’t clog your pipes or drains. While the best way to keep your garbage disposal healthy is to avoid putting any food down it that it can’t handle, there are a few other things you can do to keep it working smoothly: • • •
Run cold water when turning the disposal on, as this helps greases and oils solidify so they can be ground up. Run your disposal regularly. Letting it sit unused will cause it to act up. Don’t put down anything that isn’t biodegradable.
WHAT CAN’T YOU PUT DOWN A GARBAGE DISPOSAL? • • • • • • • • •
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Coffee Grounds: Although they may appear to be finely milled, they’re very densely packed and almost pastelike when you take them out of a filter. Pasta, Rice, and Bread: What do these three things have in common? They all absorb water and expand, which can easily lead to a clogged drain. Animal Bones: Although it can be hard to accept, the garbage disposal is not indestructible. It’s simply not built to grind up exceptionally hard items. Bones are one of the hardest naturally-occurring substances out there, and they can significantly shorten the lifespan of your disposal. Nuts and Shells: Similar to bones, nuts and shells (including seafood shells) can be very damaging to your garbage disposal. Pits and Seeds: If you can’t cut it with a knife, it’s safe to say putting it down the disposal is not a good idea. Pits and seeds are often round and small, making them even harder to grind up. Egg Shells: There’s a commonly held misconception that egg shells can help to sharpen the “blades” of your garbage disposal. But the truth is, garbage disposal don’t have blades. Rather, they have impellers that are more blunt than sharp. These impellers grind food waste down, rather than chopping it up like a blender. Fibrous or Stringy Fruits and Vegetables: Throw in the trash instead of the disposal for example, celery, asparagus, banana peels, corn husks, and rhubarb. Potato Peels: When tossing potato peels down the disposal, one of two things can happen: 1) the peels may be thin enough to slip past the disposal, causing them to potentially catch in the drain or 2) they are ground up, and turn into a starchy paste in your disposal. If this paste makes its way into the pipes, you can have major blockages down the road. The same goes for other starchy vegetables and beans. Grease, Oil, and Fat: The tricky thing about grease, oil, and fats is they may look like liquid now, but they don’t stay that way for long. These materials will congeal with time, which can cause a major blockage in your drain. It’s best to simply allow these substances to cool, and then dispose of them in trash. Lewis-McChord Communities
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