6 Things to Never Put Down Your Garbage Disposal

Thanksgiving is abundant in family time, festivities, and most importantly – food! In fact, some of us may spend the greater part of the holiday in the kitchen, preparing savory dishes and deserts.
While your friends and family members may enjoy the assortment of things you have so carefully prepared, your plumbing might not. When it comes time to throw away the remainder of your food, be smart as to what goes down the disposal.
6 Thing to Never Put Down Your Disposal (2)
Did you know that the day after Thanksgiving is the busiest time of year for plumbers? It’s because of all the junk that people put down their garbage disposals on Thanksgiving Day. You wouldn’t put money down your garbage disposal, so why would you put other things down it that will cost you upwards of several hundred dollars to fix?
Since we like to sleep in and enjoy the Thanksgiving weekend with our families too, we are going to offer you some friendly advice about how to prevent disastrous clogs in your drains and garbage disposals:

1.) Grease/Oil

Avoid putting any grease, fats, or oils down your garbage disposal. Grease and oil accumulates on the sides of your pipes, eventually causing a very costly clog. Your wallet and pipes will thank you for not doing so.
After using grease, wait for it to cool down a little and then pour it into a jar or can, which you can later throw in the trash.
2.) Fibrous Foods
Your green been casserole, onion peels, some lettuce, corn husks, kale, asparagus, and other Thanksgiving side dishes are hard for your garbage disposal to break down, especially in large quantities. Put these food items in the trash or compost.
3.) Peels
Whether you’re preparing loaded baked potatoes, a hash-brown casserole or plain ole’ mashed potatoes, keep the peels out of the garbage disposal! The starch from potatoes and potato peels can turn into a “thick paste,” which may cause the blades to stick.
4.) Bones
Avoid putting large animal bones down the garbage disposal. Your disposal is just not strong enough to handle them! However, small bones, and we do mean small, can go down your drain.
5.) Eggshells
Thanksgiving is a time where there are more pies than there are people. And you can’t make a pie without eggs. So whether you’ve prepared chocolate pies or cherry pies, make sure to avoid placing eggshells down your disposal. The inner membrane can actually get caught up in the disposal’s blades and the shell can get ground into a sand-like substance that gets stuck in the trap.
6.) Pits & Seeds
What do peach cobbler, cherry pie and apple pie have in common? Pits and seeds! Unless you want your disposal to be a DIY pinball machine, we recommend keeping these out of your disposal! For a fresh-smelling scent, put lemon and lime wedges down your disposal.
Here are a couple of things that you can, and probably should put down your garbage disposal:
  • Putting ice cubes down your disposal will help sharpen the blades.
  • Always run cold water down the disposal whenever the disposal is on.
  • Put lemon or other citrus peels/wedges down the disposal to help get rid of bad scents. Only a little at a time though.

For a recap, here is a video from ABC 15:

Despite all the precautions you take, you might still experience plumbing problems. Things just happen sometimes. In the unfortunate case of a plumbing problem, pick up the phone and call the experts at Boulden Brothers Home Services at (302) 368-3848.

We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to answer any questions you might have.

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Everyone here at Boulden Brothers wishes you a safe, warm, and clog-free Thanksgiving.