Whether it’s a new apartment or a new feature in your house, the garbage disposal is a handy item to have available. However, if you don’t take care of it, it won’t function properly when you need it. Here’s a list of five items you should never put down your drain.
5 Things You Should Never Put Down Your Garbage Disposal
- Bones. When you’re cleaning up from dinner, it’s probably not a big deal if a fine chicken or fishbone ends up down the disposal, but larger bones are harder and can damage the blades, even wedging the disposal’s blades to where they can’t spin freely, causing motor burnout.
- Silverware. It’s pretty easy to do accidentally. You’re giving your silverware a good rinse when a knife or fork slides out of your hands and into the disposal. Don’t turn it on! Much like bones, these hard items are even less forgiving on your garbage disposal’s blades.
- Expandable foods. Rice, pasta, and oatmeal are among some of the biggest offenders in this category. If they don’t rinse out of your disposal entirely or get caught further downstream in the bend of a pipe, these items can then take on water and expand, blocking your drain pipes and causing a serious backup.
- Actual trash. Sure, it’s called a garbage disposal, but that only applies to organic matter, such as vegetables, fruit, and meat scraps. The rest of the trash needs to go in the garbage can. Though it can seem obvious, you’d be surprised how many plumbers have to fix problems like these every day.
- Fibrous vegetables. Banana peels, squash, corn husks, celery, rhubarb, and similar stringy vegetables should never go down your garbage disposal, because the long fibers can wrap around the spinning blades, making them less effective, as well as forming into clogs in your drain lines, backing up your drains.
Contact JWFreeman Plumbing LLC
By keeping these items out of your garbage disposal, you’ll be able to miss the majority of issues that can arise with your system. If your garbage disposal or other parts of your home’s plumbing system is not functioning properly, the experienced professionals at J.W. Freeman can help. Please contact us today to get started.
