How To Make Your Garbage Disposal Last

A garbage disposal helps you composite food scraps and send them to the landfill on your own. Garbage disposal also makes kitchen cleaning easy and quick. If you keep the garbage disposal functioning properly, you won't have to worry about kitchen odor and pipe leaks. From the surface, your garbage disposal might appear indestructible. You may not know that your garbage disposal is delicate, and if not properly maintained, it won't serve you for long. Here is a guide to help you lengthen the lifespan of your garbage disposal.

Use Cold Water Instead of Hot Water
Most people use hot water when running garbage disposal as they believe hot water cleans best. Using hot water softens the food scraps, making them stick to the blades. Besides, the garbage disposal finds it challenging to break the soft food and flush it away. Coldwater solidifies food waste, making it easy for the garbage disposal to break the food. When the food waste solidifies, you can easily flash it since it does not stick on the blades and other areas of the garbage disposal.

Flush With Boiling Water Once a Month
After running your waste disposal for a few weeks, food particles get stuck on the blades and in pipes. Such particles affect how your garbage disposal operates. To eliminate such stuck food particles, you should pour boiling water through the garbage disposal at least once a month. Hot water softens and loosens food particles stuck on the blades and pipes.

Let the Disposal Run for a Minute After Use
After grinding food waste, you should not turn off the disposal. It would help if you kept it running for an extra minute with cold water still running through it. Letting the disposal operate for another minute with water running through ensures the disposal is fully emptied. The running water flushes any food particles stuck on the blades and pipes.

Use the Disposal for Small Volume of Foods Only
Despite the waste disposal being designed to handle trash, there are types of food waste that only belong to the trashcan. Items that are hard to break, such as bones, can easily snarl the blades. Large volumes of food particles can also create logs. You must ensure the food particles going through the garbage disposal are easy to cut into small pieces.

Clean the Disposal with Ice
Ice cubes scrap and remove any food particles stuck on the blades when thrown in the garbage disposal. But you should not throw ice cubes too often in your garbage disposal. If your disposal handles huge waste, throwing an ice cube or two once a week is enough. You can use ice cubes made of lemon to eliminate any odors coming from your disposal.

Run the Disposal Regularly
The biggest area of your disposal consists of metal. With the disposal in regular contact with water, such metallic areas could rust. If the disposal develops rust, it might not function properly. If you don't grind waste regularly, you must run the disposal regularly while empty to prevent rust build-up.

Dispose of the Right Foods
Apart from disposing of food particles of the right volume, you must also ensure the food particles don't harm the disposal. Coffee grinds and greases should not go through the garbage disposals. Some people run oil and other liquids through the disposal, thinking they can't harm the disposal. But that's not true. Oil and other liquids might solidify while in the disposal, forming clogs. You should also avoid running fibrous vegetables through the disposals. The fibers in such vegetables get entangled in the drain causing clogs.

If you properly maintain your garbage disposal, it can last for years while operating efficiently. If you need advice on maintaining your garbage disposal, don't hesitate to contact expertsat Mike's Plumbing.