Libertydmv can help you maintain any type of garbage disposal system, whether it came with the house when you bought it or you’re planning to install a new one and reduce food waste. In either case, it makes sense to learn about how to avoid a premature breakdown and take care of your own garbage disposal. Here, you can get to know how to use your disposal in the kitchen and when to call a professional so you get the most life from a kitchen garbage disposal and ward off expensive repairs, water damage, blockages, or bad odors.
A kitchen garbage disposal is an easy and convenient way to cut down on food waste. Of course, putting food inside means a disposal is prone to clogs unless you know how to use it and what is safe to process.
To avoid clogs and jams on a day-to-day basis without constant repairs, it’s important to run the garbage disposal regularly. Even if you aren’t cleaning up after a meal or just haven’t run it in a while, turn on the tap, drizzle a little bit of dish soap down the drain, and run the disposal to ensure any remaining food or debris gets completely pushed through, keeping odors and clogs at bay. In the winter months, doing this will also prevent the disposal from freezing over or developing rust and corrosion damage.
Always use cold tap water, whether you’re running the disposal with food or just to clear it. Cold water keeps food particles hard enough to be ground up by the garbage disposal into small pieces instead of sliding through whole and hardening in the pipe. Hot water can soften food that passes through and hardens into a blockage later on, while cold water hardens food right away for thorough grinding.
Finally, don’t put any of the following types of foods or materials through the garbage disposal. Please throw them away, recycle, or compost them:
- Grease or oil
- Potato peels (citrus peels are OK!) and other sticky or expandable foods such as pasta and rice
- Non-organic waste including glass, plastic, metal, or even paper
- Hard organic waste like bones, large seeds, and fruit pits
If you’re having trouble with your garbage disposal, you can call our team any time for repairs. When you aren’t sure how serious the problem is, you can always try cleaning the garbage disposal to see if the problem or odor goes away without professional help. Try dropping in the peels from acidic citrus fruit (lemons, limes, or oranges) to clear waste and freshen up the smell. The next level of cleaning is to pour a half cup each of baking soda and vinegar down the drain and wait for one to two minutes while the chemicals dissolve waste. Boil a pot of water and pour it down the drain, then turn on cold tap water after a few minutes and run the disposal to flush it. If cleaning doesn’t do the trick, it’s time for our professional repair service!
