Garbage Disposal

Items That Do Not Belong in a Garbage Disposal

The holidays are just around the corner.  Thanksgiving is coming up fast!  With holiday gatherings, comes family gathering  and big meals.  Now to make sure everything runs picture perfect, which includes a working sink and Garbage Disposal.  Here are some tips for Items That Do Not Belong in a Garbage Disposal.

1.  Grease/Fat-  You want to avoid putting that turkey fat dripping down the sink because the grease and fat can stick to your drain and collect other food scrapes and potentially cause a clogged drain.  If grease does end up traveling down the Garbage Disposal, make sure you use cold water.  The cold water will cause the grease to solidify and pass your pipes.  If you use hot water, the grease may end up sticking to the blades.

2.  Pasta/Rice-  These carbohydrates tend to expand with water.  Therefore, the expansion may cause eventually cause the drainage to clog.

3.  Any Fibrous, Stringy, or Starchy items- The starchy items can have the same effect as the pasta and rice.  While fibrous and stringy items can ball up and get caught in the garbage disposal motors.

4.  Egg Shells- Contrary to popular thinking, eggs shells do not belong in the garbage disposals.  It is not the shell itself, it is the eggy membrane within the shell that gums up the mechanism of the Garbage Disposal.

5.  Coffee Grinds-  Coffee grinds seems innocent enough, however the grinds can get caught up in the garbage disposal trap.

6.  Non-food items-  This should be self-explanatory.  The Garbage Disposal is not a garbage can.

7.  Hands/Appendages-  Why would you want to put your hands near metal bone crushing blades?  More than likely you wouldn’t.  So just don’t.

For further tips and ideas on the Garbage Disposal, please continue to watch for our blogs as we later discuss maintenance and cleaning methods.  And if you have any questions or concerns, or if you need one of our friendly neighborhood plumbers to take care of any and all of your plumbing needs, please call All Pro Plumbing at (503) 579-5555.  We would be more than happy to hear from you!

Garbage Disposal