Your garbage disposal is a huge benefit to your kitchen. You can let food scraps go down the drain without having to worry about them clogging up your pipes, right? While the garbage disposal does help with this, there are still items that you want to ensure don’t make it down your drain, even with a garbage disposal.
If you’re having problems with your garbage disposal in Plattsburgh, NY, you need to give our team a call. Addressing any issues early is a great way to stay ahead of a full garbage disposal replacement. Plus, our team can talk with you about the cause of your garbage disposal malfunction so that you can prevent it from happening again in the future. Keep reading to learn more about items you want to avoid putting into your garbage disposal.
Food Scraps
Some food scraps can go down the drain and into your garbage disposal, but not all food scraps are safe. Your garbage disposal is just as likely to face clogs as any other part of your plumbing system. You can use it wisely by avoiding putting some items down the drain.
When you prepare meat, do not throw the bones down your garbage disposal. They could cause a jam and even clog your pipes. While your garbage disposal blades are strong, they are not strong enough to break down animal bones.
Other items like eggshells, coffee, grounds, and fibrous fruits and vegetables are also a bad idea. They can easily stick to the sides of your garbage disposal and lead to clogs.
They also tend to attract bacteria, which can waft back up your drain and into your home. If you ever notice a bad odor coming from your garbage disposal, it’s definitely time to give it a good cleaning. Bad odors usually mean that there is a lot of bacteria growth and maybe even mold and mildew.
Grease
Avoid pouring any type of grease down your garbage disposal. You may think it’s harmless to dump a few ounces of grease down the drain, but it’s not. Many homeowners think that following grease or oil with hot water and some dish soap will ensure that it doesn’t stick to the sides of the pipes, but this is not true.
Grease may not get stuck in the pipes immediately under your kitchen, but it can still clog pipes deeper into your plumbing system. In fact, grease tends to stick to the sides of pipes and collect other food particles and debris to create really nasty clogs.
Paper Products
It seems like this should go without saying, but you cannot allow paper products to go down your drain and enter your garbage disposal. You may think it’s harmless for a paper towel or napkin to go down the drain once in a while. But paper products were not designed to enter your plumbing system.
Just like all of the other items listed above, paper towels and other paper products can contribute greatly to clogs and bacteria growth. Unfortunately, you won’t even realize you have a problem until weeks or months down the line when you begin to notice slow-draining sinks around your home.
It’s also important to note that you want to avoid chemical drain cleaners when it comes to breaking up any type of plumbing clog. Drain cleaners can destroy the mechanics of your garbage disposal and even cause corrosion inside the pipes. Using chemical drain cleaners can lead to replacing whole sections of your plumbing system, so give our team a call instead.
Red Rock Mechanical, LLC serves Northwest Vermont and Northeast New York. Schedule plumbing service with us today.
