How to Effectively Use Your Garbage Disposal Without Hurting Your Drains
Aside from your dishwasher, your garbage disposal is probably the most useful appliance in your kitchen. When you properly use your disposal, it helps you keep unpleasant waste out of your trash bins, but if you try to put inappropriate materials into the disposal, you risk a plumbing emergency. Keep your garbage disposal in good working order by following these guidelines:
Keep Non-Food Materials Out of the Disposal
Although it is called a “garbage” disposal, this appliance is designed only for certain kinds of food waste. Paper, plastic, and other kinds of waste should be recycled or put in the trash. Your pipes cannot handle much solid matter, and if you try to put non-food waste in the disposal, you will jam the motor or clog your plumbing.
Only Shred Certain Foods
Your garbage disposal cannot handle every type of food waste. Bones and hard pits from fruits such as peaches and cherries can dull the blades of your garbage disposal. Broccoli stems, corn husks, asparagus stalks, and other fibrous vegetable matter can become tangled in the blades or stuck in the drain pipe. Use your disposal for small scraps of lean meat, soft fruit waste such as apple peels, coffee grounds or loose tea leaves, and other small pieces of non-fibrous food waste.
Properly Dispose of Grease
Never allow chunks of fatty meat or liquid grease to enter your garbage disposal. Though such items may seem to go down easily, grease and fat will eventually solidify and build up inside your pipes and drains, clogging your plumbing. Pour leftover kitchen grease into a disposable container, wait for it to solidify, and then throw it out with the trash—or take it to a local drop-off site to be recycled into biodiesel.
For any drain backup or plumbing emergency, call Peter Levi Plumbing at (415) 814-6900. Our trained technicians can unclog your garbage disposal, drains, or toilet quickly and efficiently.
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