A garbage disposal provides a quick and easy way to get rid of common kitchen waste items in your Payette home. While there’s a lot that you can put down your garbage disposal, there are also several items that can cause issues with your disposal or drains if you try to dispose of them in this manner. At McCrea Plumbing Heating and Air, we want to make sure that you’re properly maintaining your home’s mechanical and plumbing systems, which is why we want you to have this handy reference guide of items that are better disposed of in the trash can.
Egg Products
Egg products of all types can wreak havoc on your garbage disposal. Eggshells are an issue because they have rubbery membranes that are very strong. If you dispose of your eggshells via the garbage disposal, the membranes can slow down your garbage disposal and later clog your sink’s drain. Egg whites are similarly problematic. Egg whites are full of natural proteins that make the egg whites very sticky. These proteins adhere well to just about anything that’s around them. This is one reason why eggs are used as a binder in so many different foods. While binding is great in a cake, it’s terrible in a garbage disposal or a drain. You can quickly muck up your garbage disposal’s blades to the point that you have to open your disposal for cleaning. Egg whites can also cause clogs in your sink’s drain because they will adhere to the drain walls and trap other food particles as the particles pass by.
Coffee Grounds
In their dry form, coffee grounds are smooth and easy to handle. Once they get wet, though, coffee grounds do nothing but stick together. The other problem is that it takes a long time for coffee grounds to dry out because they adhere together so tightly. It’s easy to see, then, why coffee grounds are so problematic for your garbage disposal. Once you put a wad of used coffee grounds down the drain, they will stick together, even as they pass through the disposal. This could put excess strain on the disposal and cause the motor to overheat. Even if the blades in the disposal do okay with the coffee grounds, this waste product can still clog the openings in your disposal or elsewhere in your drain.
Paint
It’s unlikely that you’ll pour a bucket of paint down your garbage disposal. However, even the excess paint that you wash out of paintbrushes and paint trays can cause issues with your garbage disposal. If there are clumps in the paint when you pour it down the drain, these can easily get stuck between the blades, trapping other waste products in the process. If any paint gets stuck to the sides of the disposal and the disposal then has a chance to dry out, the paint could dry on the walls of the disposal, narrowing the disposal’s openings. When you’re washing paintbrushes, paint trays, or any other paint-related tools, make sure to use a sink with a drain that’s not attached to a garbage disposal.
Bones
It can be tempting to dispose of bones left over from your meals or from cooking in your garbage disposal. Getting rid of them in this way means that they won’t sit around in your trash can potentially leading to unwanted smells. Furthermore, you won’t have to worry about animals getting into the garbage after you put the trash outside. However, bones of any size or shape are a no-go for garbage disposals. Bones are tough and the blades in your garbage disposal may be no match for the remnants of your world-famous fried chicken. Making a habit of getting rid of bones in this way will result in a shortened life for your disposal.
Thankfully, McCrea Plumbing Heating and Air is only a call away should you accidentally cause damage to the blades of your disposal.
Pasta
When cooked pasta cools, it becomes very sticky due to the gluten in pasta noodles. They have a tendency to stick to anything and everything they touch after they’ve been boiled. This includes the inside of your garbage disposal. If you’ve added butter or another type of fat to your pasta, you’ll be in for even more trouble because the fat on the pasta can congeal and lead to further clogs down the road. Even if the pasta pieces do make it through the disposal, they’re almost certain to get stuck in the drain line. If you have to dispose of pasta in your garbage disposal for some reason and it ends up causing a clog, our team at McCrea Plumbing Heating and Air will be happy to help you clear things out.
Fats and Oils
Fats and oils of any kind are one of the number one enemies of garbage disposals and drains. These waste products won’t cause problems immediately, but they can potentially cause big headaches later down the line. Every time you pour any type of fat down a cold garbage disposal, a small layer of that fat can stick to the inner surfaces of the disposal. Over time, this can block openings, dull blades, and cause many other problems with your disposal. Since fat is hydrophobic, it’s pretty much impossible to remove it from your disposal once it begins to collect unless you have the help of trained professionals like McCrea Plumbing Heating and Air. Any type of fat should always go straight into the trash can.
Ice
If you’re in a hurry to clear your sink of leftover ice after a party, it can be tempting to employ your garbage disposal to help make the process faster. Unfortunately, grinding large quantities of ice with your disposal will only leave you with an ineffective disposal. Similar to bones, ice cubes are surprisingly sturdy and can potentially cause damage to the components of your garbage disposal if you attempt to use it to dispose of ice cubes. We would recommend that you just let the ice melt, put it outside in your yard or use hot water to melt it down rather than attempting to use your disposal to get rid of the ice.
Your Plumbing Experts
At McCrea Plumbing Heating and Air, we’ve solved countless problems for countless customers since our founding over 75 years ago. That’s why we’re able to effectively clean drains, install plumbing lines, install water heaters, maintain air conditioners, repair furnaces, seal ducts, and perform commercial HVAC services. Every day, we work hard to put our customers first in everything we do. That’s a big reason why we consistently receive five-star customer reviews.
To learn more about taking care of your garbage disposal, contact us at McCrea Plumbing Heating and Air today.