Garbage disposals work best when you feed them one small batch at a time with cold water running. Anything more is a risk to both the unit and your plumbing drain lines. With help with blocked drains in Geelong, it is a good idea to go online and look for reputable plumbing companies to assist.
The experts we spoke with agreed that certain foods should never be poured down any garbage disposal drain, or into any plumbing system for that matter. Here’s the list:
Fats and Oils
Garbage disposals are a convenient kitchen appliance, but that convenience can quickly turn into an expensive nightmare of drain clogs and costly repairs. If you have a recurring problem with your garbage disposal jamming or clogging, it could be due to the type of food that you are placing in it.
Oil and fats will liquefy in your garbage disposal and accumulate, creating a solid layer of greasy material that eventually leads to slow drains or even full pipe blockages. Avoid feeding these foods into your disposal by dumping grease and oils into a separate container for trash collection, or simply wash them down the drain with hot water as you prepare to scrape dishes.
Fibrous foods like celery stalks, corn husks or onion skins are also bad news for your garbage disposal as their long strands can wrap around the impeller blades and jam the motor. Sticky foods such as mashed potatoes, pasta or rice can also cause problems in the disposal and pipes by sticking together and expanding.
Fibrous Foods
When you push food into your disposal and flip the switch, it gets chopped up and spun into a finely ground state. But this doesn’t mean your garbage disposal can handle anything you throw at it, and certain types of food scraps can actually damage your plumbing.
Consider the following foods:
Fibrous foods, like celery and potato peels, can build up in pipes and cause clogs. Peanuts, which turn into a thick, gooey paste when ground, can stick to the insides of your disposal and pipes. Pits and seeds, which are often too hard for the disposal to grind, can also cause clogs. To avoid these problems, a good rule of thumb is to rinse your disposal after using it with cold water. This can help prevent clogs and make sure that any grease or oils are washed away. In addition, it’s a good idea to run ice cubes through your disposal periodically to clean the blades and keep them sharp.
Bones and Shellfish
In a good disposal, a rotating disc with blunt metal “teeth” (actually, impellers)
blasts food waste against the grinder chamber wall. This pulverizes the scraps and mixes them with cold water, which rinses them down the drainpipe.
A garbage disposal can also clog drains if you put the wrong kinds of foods into it. It’s important to feed your disposal small amounts of food at a time while the sink is running and to keep it clean.
Whenever possible, save table scraps for the compost pile instead of the disposal, where they’ll decay and produce foul odors. Don’t pour grease down the drain ever, whether you have a disposal or not. Grease congeals and will clog your pipes in short order. Fibrous food scraps like potato peels, corn husks, and artichoke leaves are also no-nos for your disposal, which can jam its grinding plate.
Pet Food
As individuals, we have embraced sustainability and green practices in our daily lives. Unfortunately, many industries are yet to adopt this philosophy. The pet food industry, for instance, uses slaughterhouse waste products such as intestines, udders and esophagi in their foods. This has an impact on the environment since these products can cause algal blooms in natural bodies of water.
In addition, dumping wet pet food into the disposal can harm the appliance since it does not break down like dry food particles do. It can also congeal into a solid mass that can cause clogs in the disposal or plumbing drain lines. As a result, it is a good
idea to clean your disposal regularly by grinding up ice cubes made of vinegar or lemon. This will sharpen the blades, eliminate odor and keep the disposal working as it should.
