We’ve provided tips before on how to keep your garbage disposal working in the best conditioning possible and to get the most years out of it. The time when you need to be the most cautious about how you use your garbage disposal is during the end of the year holiday season, because your kitchen will receive significantly more use as you entertain guests and family members. We’d like to use today’s post to go over common food items that you shouldn’t place down the disposal so you can avoid the all-too-common seasonal problem of a broken kitchen garbage disposal.
Food items that shouldn’t go down the disposal
- FOG (fats, oils, and grease): These are common byproducts of cooking during the holidays. Although they look harmless in liquid form, remember that they will solidify when they cool and can jam up the mechanical parts of a disposal.
- Onion skins and fibrous fruits and vegetables: Onion skins have a way of sticking to the side walls of garbage disposals and tangling around the grind ring. Fibrous fruits and vegetables like asparagus and celery are very stringy and can easily catch around the mechanical components of the disposal.
- Rice and pasta: These seem like they shouldn’t be a problem for a disposal. However, both rice and pasta absorb water and bloat, making them a common source of clogging.
- Meat bones: Whether they’re from a holiday turkey, a rack of ribs, or a chicken dinner, you should never put any bones down the disposal. Remember, if your teeth can’t handle it, neither can the disposal.
- Large quantities of any food: Garbage disposals are built for durability, but you should never treat one as if it were an indestructible maw that can take any amount of food stuffed down into. The quickest way to break a disposal is to try to cram large amounts of waste into at one time. Pace yourself for your disposal’s sake!
My Drain Company Inc. is here to help you in Los Angeles should you have any plumbing emergencies this holiday season!
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