A garbage disposal is one of the most convenient appliances in your Sarasota, FL, kitchen. Unfortunately, we tend to toss every kind of unwanted food scrap into our disposals. Take a look at five foods that should never get into your garbage disposal.
Animal Bones
You shouldn’t use a garbage disposal to grind animal bones. The bones will spin around inside the drum and wear down the impellers.
They can also get wedged inside and cause the machine to stop rotating. This will require the services of a skilled plumber to remedy.
Coffee Grounds
Coffee grounds seem harmless due to how fine they are. But it’s best to collect the grounds in a fine sieve when rinsing out your French press or fold drip basket. Running grounds through the garbage disposal invites a buildup of sediment that can clog the sink drain, potentially requiring professional plumbing services to clear it.
Cooking Grease
When you finish frying food, such as bacon, you may want to clean the greasy pan out in the sink. But that allows the liquid grease to flow into the disposal. It’s better to set the pan aside until the grease hardens and spoon it into the trash can. This will prevent a buildup of grease in the waste line.
Eggshells
One of the worst misconceptions about garbage disposals is that they have sharp blades that can chop up hard items like eggshells. Instead, garbage disposals use impellers that aren’t sharp enough to pulverize eggshells. The shells can cause drain blockages, while the membranes inside the shells may wrap around the impellers.
Starchy Items
Starchy foods, such as bread, oats, pasta and rice expand when they come in contact with water and eventually turn into a sticky paste that can gunk up and clog your disposal. We advise you not to place any grain-based foods into the disposal or down the sink drain.
Certain foods will harm your garbage disposal. If you find that you have accidentally jammed your disposal or clogged the drain, contact Climate Design to seek our expert plumbing repair services.
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