A kitchen sink’s garbage disposal is handy when it comes to cooking a meal and disposing of your food scraps. But you may not realize how helpful it is until it’s out of commission.
Because your disposal has toothy shredders that grind up foods instead of blades, there is no real way to sharpen your disposal back to its original condition. The key to keeping your disposal functioning is to keep it clean and avoid certain foods that cause jams.
Keeping your garbage disposal up and running won’t be a problem if you just avoid these different kinds of food waste:
1. Grease, fats and oils: These produce a film on the teeth of your disposal, rendering them basically useless over time. Not to mention, as grease accumulates in your drain, it smells and solidifies, which ends up clogging your drain altogether.
2. Fibrous foods: Anything stringy should be avoided here – lettuce, celery, asparagus, corn husks, potato peels, carrots – can get tangled up in the teeth of your garbage disposal and prevent proper rotation and operation.
3. Pasta, potatoes and beans: You would think that this would be no match for your disposal, but in reality anything that can swell up with water can accumulate over time and stop the flow in your drain.
4. Egg shells: This has virtually the same impact on your disposal as fibrous foods. The stringy membrane of the shell once again can get tangled up and keep your disposal from functioning smoothly.
5. And the obvious… Non-food items: This one is a no-brainer that some people still make the mistake of tossing into the disposal. Rubber bands, twist ties, fabric and pretty much anything that is not food waste will absolutely cause problems in your system and should just go in the trash can.
If you can avoid these food wastes when it comes to your garbage disposal your system should continue running smoothly for the foreseeable future, saving you money, time, and a major headache.
Whether you’ve properly operated your disposal in the past or not, if you run into issues Combat is here to fix your kitchen drain up in no time. Give us a call at 774-724-9272.
