what can you put down a garbage disposal?

[clrubin]

Last night all of our pipes backed up into our basement. Fortunately we caught it in time so no lasting damage. The plumber said he found lots of coffee grounds (from previous owner!) as well as other food stuffs when he snaked it out. I was not there when he told my husband we should not put any food down the disposal. ??? I would really like to know if that is true, what good is it??
Thanks!

[Troy]

Obviously no food is going to cause less problems than some food. But I think a little is fine. We had to have our pipes snaked too. Now I scrape food in the garbage and then use the disposal to take care of what is left when I rinse the plate. To me it is good for that at least.

I think it is probably better for landfills if there is some organic matter in the trash anyway. []

[Maintenance Man]

No food would be perfect, but who lives in a perfect world!.
I give give my residents a list of Do's and Don'ts.

Do not put down: Coffee grounds, ANY rice cooked or not, Any pasta cooked or not, no stringy vegatable waste, NO APPLE OR ORANGE PEEL (yes some of my people did this ), certainly no oatmeal (natures cement). I've found a good rule of thumb is: If you can't swallow it without chewing it the the disposer won't like it. Remember to let the water run for 15-20 seconds after the disposal is off to flush the drain lines out. Also egg shells are good for cleaning out food debris put some down with a full sink of water behind them and run the disposer until the sink is empty, this really helps to scrape old food debris away.

Good luck.

[xxxsheridan]

quote:Originally posted by Maintenance Man

No food would be perfect, but who lives in a perfect world!.
I give give my residents a list of Do's and Don'ts.

Do not put down: Coffee grounds, ANY rice cooked or not, Any pasta cooked or not, no stringy vegatable waste, NO APPLE OR ORANGE PEEL (yes some of my people did this ), certainly no oatmeal (natures cement). I've found a good rule of thumb is: If you can't swallow it without chewing it the the disposer won't like it. Remember to let the water run for 15-20 seconds after the disposal is off to flush the drain lines out. Also egg shells are good for cleaning out food debris put some down with a full sink of water behind them and run the disposer until the sink is empty, this really helps to scrape old food debris away.

Good luck.

[irregularjoe]

I have to disagree.
The purpose of a disposal is to grind food so that it can go down the drain.
If it doesn't, it generally means that the disposal is worn out and not doing it's job. I have to laugh at all the posts I see on this forum that read something like " my garbage disposal makes a terrible noise or just hums"....REPLACE IT! It's not the family car!

Aside from that, if you are finding garbage aka coffee grinds in the drain line downstream from the disposal, it's probably time to get the drains cleaned.

A good disposal SHOULD be able to handle most food EXCEPT things such as onion peels, potato peels, bones, and very course fibrous foods like celery. Of course you have to use discetion. It's not made to handle the leftovers of a Thanksgiving dinner.

Putting ice down the disposal while it's running cleans it. Add some lemon peels to freshen it (also while running.)

Did you ever see OHM'S mother in LAW?...... SHOCKING!

[FreeApplianceRepair]

I'm with irregularjoe on this one.



John@FreeApplianceRepair.com
www.FreeApplianceRepair.com