The garbage disposal is designed to take lots of abuse, but there is nowhere close by what some people are placing them through. As delightful as it may appear, the powerful machine does have their limitations—and when it is used improperly, you will do as much damage as it can to the plumbing system with the disposal as you may without one.
Here are the substances that you should not place down your garbage dumping:
1. Anything really hard – the garbage disposal is one powerful grinding machine; however, it does not mean that it will be able to handle anything that you feed on it. The truly tough stuff—think of the fruit pits, bones, fruit or nut shell and raw meat — will not break down totally. Instead, it will just bounce about a chamber, getting increasingly banged-up until that you admit defeat, chuck it in a trash or compost wherein it belongs. When it is really hard to chew, it is too firm to grind up.
Certainly, just because the disposal will grind something does not mean it must be. Egg shells are the best sample of this: mainly disposals will finally smash them down, but it posed more risk to the pipes than a disposal itself. The remains do not really dissolve in the water, so they are prone to constructing up in the end and even clogging the pipes.
2. Fibrous or stringy substance
Thanks to the good old coherence, lots of people know enough to put down those chicken bones down a garbage disposal—but may think nothing of chucking within the stalk of celery. Sadly, some veggies and fruits are so stingy that their surprisingly firm structures do not always smash down in a disposal. As time goes on, the stingy fibers from the foods like celery, onions, garlic skins, asparagus, corn husks, pineapple, and artichokes will get tangled, placing those unnecessary stressed on a motor and shortening the life span.
3. Too much of all things
As is so frequently the case, when this comes to the garbage disposals, a dose will make a poison. Even the innocuous foods like the carrot peels will cause some problems when you cram the disposal full of it and then turn on a motor. Always run a tap, feed things gradually, keep a piece small, and then throw away anything which will give you pause—or will make lots of noise.
With what has been stated, the opposite is true to a certain extent as well. The tablespoon of a congealed bacon fats here or with a handful of your chopped celery there will not destroy your pipes instantly or disposal, but as time went on, the bad habits will return to bite you and your ass. Treat the garbage disposal really well—and then clean it from then on —and it will have you back in the years to come.
In the end, your garbage disposal can be the fancy front door of your kitchen sink that everything you put in it will finally end up in the pipes, so just be very careful with what you will place down there.
