garbage disposal - how hard do YOU work it?

[WolfeMacleod]

C'mon. How hard do you make your garbage disposal work? What sorta stuff have you crammed down there, only to have it whisked away to Mount Crumpit

Me? I'll put just about anything in the disposal that is or was edible. But not bones. I can't think of anything my disposal ever gave me problems with.

[Neilk]

I don't put any limes down mine.

[M.D. Holloway]

Pretty much everything that was off the plates and bowls sans bones. Canalope rinds have a tough time as do halves of grapefruits. Lemon wedges don't do well either. From time to time I do send a bunch of ice down it. I read or heard that ice helps take away any smell or stuck food stuff. I just like the crunching sound it makes.

[stomachmonkey]

Basic rule is if you can eat it it can go into the disposal.

Found out tonight that someone in my house thinks small cheese spread knives are edible;\

So not to hijack but how uneasy do you get when you need to stick your hand in there to clean out foreign matter?

I'll go first, puckers my sphincter.

[968rz]

Those plastic airsoft BBs don't chew well in them.
Repeat to self: I love my kids- I love my kids.....


And to answer Monkeys question I installed 2 off switches, no way I'm sticking my hand in there without them.

[Evans, Marv]

When I was young and a couple of buddies & I rented an apartment, it was the first time I had lived in a place with a garbage disposal. I thought you could put almost anything down it. I really liked artichokes, and one night after eating one, I put the leaves in the disposal. It turned them into a giant wad of hair filling the disposal. After having to clean that out, I started paying attention to what you could put in one and what you could not.

[Tobra]

I put most stuff in the trash, rather than the garbage disposal.

Rather have it in the landfill than the river.

[IROC]

Originally Posted by Tobra

I put most stuff in the trash, rather than the garbage disposal.

Rather have it in the landfill than the river.

I have also spent too much time underneath a house replacing drain pipes because they were hopelessly clogged with crap from a garbage disposal. My in-laws just had a portion of their drain pipes replaced after my M-I-L tried to put a bunch of leftover spaghetti noodles down the garbage disposal.

We don't use ours at all (or very, very sparingly).

[on2wheels52]

"We don't use ours at all (or very, very sparingly)."

That way in our house also, don't think the septic system would appreciate the extra load. Just run it every month to keep it from seizing up (had one do that).
Jim

[billybek]

If you can scrape it off the plate and into the garbage or into the container for your composter, why put it down the drain?
I don't use mine much.
I do put lime and ice into it every so often.... Smells good.

[legion]

I work mine. I work mine hard, like this: slap slap slap.

Seriously, I put in a 1/2 horsepower unit when my old one died. My wife has a habit of putting stuff down the disposal for days, but not actually running it until the drain backs up.

[john70t]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

So not to hijack but how uneasy do you get when you need to stick your hand in there to clean out foreign matter?

Plug <---> Outlet. (or main breaker if ya wanna get crazylike). Always stay safe.

There are enzymes that eat the organic material in plumbing and septics, but they work slow.

Usually the vapor trap is where the heavy setiment collects. Pan/bucket, wrench, towels. Extra gaskets are cheap. If not that, then you can 25' snake into the wall, but at that point there might be bigger problems.
If it drains slow, check flapper is working properly, and that the vent stack on the roof from birds/squirrels/africanized bees/locusts/tarantulas/camelspiders/chupacabra nests.

[jtfreels]

Don't drop a screw in the disposal........ don't ask.

But it WILL jam up the grinder and you'll be taking the blamed thing apart.

Jay

[vash]

Originally Posted by jtfreels

Don't drop a screw in the disposal........ don't ask.

But it WILL jam up the grinder and you'll be taking the blamed thing apart.

Jay

or a stemless wine glass.

new sewer line is going in on thursday. i am considering taking the disposal out. lessoned learned.

[Z-man]

Originally Posted by billybek

If you can scrape it off the plate and into the garbage or into the container for your composter, why put it down the drain?

+1.

We don't have one in our current kitchen, and won't be getting one in our new kitchen coming this summer. I've had enough problems in the past with clogged drainage lines to feel that whatever I don't need to put down the drain shouldn't go there.

-Z-man.

[TechnoViking]

Once you've shelled out $500 to the roto-rooter man, you look at the garbage disposal in a whole new light.

I use mine somewhat sparingly now. The trash can is for any large volume of stuff. I run lots of water when I use the disposal.

[HHI944]

I remember back in BCT, some high speed numbnuts shoved a bunch of silverware down the disposal while on KP. He ended up having a fork surgically removed from his hand and our company was banned from KP.

[notmytarga]

Things that have clogged disposals - usually at inconvienient times:

Potato peels
Carrot peels
speghetti noodles in bulk

The common thread here seems to be a mass effect. When lots of peelings are all put down at one time and the unit turned on. Usually I have about 30 family members for a holiday meal watch me pull the U bend and disposal unit (I go overboard to impress) to remove the impacted stuff. It gets caught against the diverter plate which deflects stuff down the T rather than up into the other sink. I encourage peelers to use the trash or at least a few 'courtesy grinds' to keep the peelings from accumulating. Now that the rest of the family has been trained it is less of a problem. Come to think of it we put new sinks in that are single basin - so there are no diverter T's anymore. That helps too.

[daepp]

Why no limes?

[JavaBrewer]

+1 potato peels and add red cabbage. Without fail these will clog our disposal in short order. I try to avoid putting food/bulk down the disposal when possible. Food scraps, baked potato jackets, etc go into a plastic bag that goes into the garbage.