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Things To Keep Out Of Your Garbage Disposal

Who put what, where?

Many of our service calls involve fixing plumbing problems caused by incorrect garbage disposal usage. As much as we would love seeing our valued customers, we encourage you to leave the following items out of your garbage disposal and plumbing system to keep them working correctly.

close up shot of garbage disposal

Expandable Items

Some foods like oatmeal and pasta expand when they get wet. After these items leave your garbage disposal, they get washed into your pipes where they may get caught. When they do, they sit inside the pipe and continue absorbing more and more water until they get big enough to cause a blockage and back up your drains.

Fibrous Foods

Your garbage disposal works by cutting food into tiny pieces that can easily flow through your pipes. Fibrous and stringy foods like pumpkin, squash, celery and rhubarb tend to get tangled in the disposal’s blades. When the tangle gets too thick, the garbage disposal can’t turn its blades and food gets stuck in your pipes rather than chopped up and flushed away.

Foods With Membranes

While stringy foods can get wrapped up in the disposal’s blades, very thin foods can avoid the blades altogether. The thin layers of an onion peel, for example, are much more likely to fold away from the disposal’s blades than be cut by them. The same is true of the membranes inside eggshells. Avoid putting these items in your disposal as they may remain whole and then become stuck in your pipes.

Coffee and Nuts

Homeowners often tell us that they put coffee grounds in their disposal to cure a smelly appliance. Unfortunately, coffee grounds clump together when they’re wet. They’re much more likely to clog your pipes than to make your garbage disposal smell fresh. The same is true of nuts. When grinding nuts in your garbage disposal, you’re essentially making peanut butter. You need only think about how tenaciously peanut butter sticks to the roof of your mouth to see why it’s a bad thing to put in plumbing pipes.

Need Assistance?

If you’ve put something in your disposal that perhaps you shouldn’t have, give us a call today. We’re happy to help and can fix your plumbing woes quickly. Give Dean’s Professional Plumbing, Heating & Air a call today for all of your home appliance needs. Let our team of professionals show you how we have earned our reputation for providing honest, reliable service!

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