Even though the New Year celebrations are officially over, you might still have more family gatherings coming up throughout the year. Hence, it is imperative that you make sure that your house is always in a working condition to host any gathering. One of the areas you need to pay special attention to is your kitchen sink. Untimely clogs can cause great inconveniences and impede your ability to host gatherings. To avoid unwanted downtime, you should consider the following tips.

Utilize your garbage disposal only when necessary

A salient thought to keep in mind is that your sink’s garbage disposal is unable to process huge pieces of food or waste at a single go. It is better if your broke them down into manageable portions before dumping the waste into the disposal. This practice helps to ensure that your disposal unit continues to operate flawlessly and avoids any unwanted drain clogs.

When you use your garbage disposal, you should run cold water from the faucet as it helps to solidify grease much more quickly. In turn, the garbage disposal is able to break down your contents easily. Remember this step will as it helps to save you from costly repairs or troubles later on.

Dump certain food items into separate repositories

There is a common misconception that garbage disposals have the ability to facilitate and make cleanup easy, but it is unable to process all types of items. Mostly such items include plastic wraps, aluminium foils, cigarette butts, small pieces of metal and so on. Here are some useful tips on how to appropriately dispose anything that falls under the following categories:

  • Tough food items: These foods are the ones that get lodged in between the garbage disposal rotor blades, causing the motor to stop entirely. For example, leftovers from corn on the cobs can’t simply be broken down.
  • Food Items that are not affected by the blades: Coffee grounds are a fine example of this category. Though they may not harm the garbage disposal directly, they accumulate in the drains of your kitchen sink and may eventually cause a clog.
  • Sticky food items: Potatoes, potato skins and egg shells can stick to the sides of your garbage disposal and even wrap around the shredder mechanisms causing inevitable damages. Additionally, bacteria in a septic tank can’t eat the egg shells and if you have one in place do not include egg shells into the list of things to shred!
  • Fibrous and stringy foods: Lettuce, celery, corn husks, garlic ends or onion peels contain many stringy and paper-thin parts that can easily entangle with the blade motor of your garbage disposal.

How to dispose non-food items

A more detailed list of items that do not fare well in a garbage disposal includes:

  • Glass
  • Hard metals
  • Rubber
  • Strings
  • Bones

These items can easily break down your garbage disposal unit, thus take great care when processing the aforementioned. If you really want a disposal unit that can handle the above items, consider a garbage disposal that has a 3/4 HP motor as they are known to process even the stringiest types of vegetables.

Sometimes it is best not to substitute your garbage disposal for a conventional garbage can. You should scrape larger chunks of food items into the can and only use the disposal to process smaller food particles. If you need to deal with unexpected clogs in your sink, we can offer quick repair services that are friendly to your wallet from Budget Plumbing Centre.