Thanksgiving Day is here and you have 12 guests due at dinner. The turkey is in the oven, potatoes are mashed and the green bean casserole is ready for its debut. Everything is running smoothly in the kitchen when you decide to dispose of some celery and carrot peelings to get them out of your way and all heck breaks loose, at your house.
Among the food items that should never be processed through the average home garbage disposal are fibrous vegetables like celery strings, carrot peelings and onion skins. Other foods that your garbage disposal should never be introduced to include anything greasy and starches (like rice and potatoes).Fibers can wrap around the blades, jamming the garbage disposal, fat can coat the pipes as can starches, worse they can attract small tidbits of this and that and glue them to the ever increasing restriction in the pipes, setting your kitchen drain line up for a clog.
As you prepare for Thanksgiving keep in mind the fact that your garbage disposal, like anything else, has its limits.
- Before you start working in the kitchen, run a tray of ice through the garbage disposal to clean and sharpen the blades.
- Throw a lemon in afterwards to cut grease build-up and further clean the blades.
- Avoid filling the hopper with large quantities of food waste; small batches are more easily processed by your garbage disposal.
- Avoid pouring grease down your drain.
- Don’t process potatoes, rice, food peelings, onions, carrots, celery, and any fibrous, greasy or starchy food through the garbage disposal.
- Run cold water, not hot when processing food waste and continue to let the water run for at least 10 seconds after you have processed the food.
Keep these things in mind as you prepare for Thanksgiving and you probably won’t have a problem in your kitchen drain that needs a plumber to solve over the holiday. And from those of us at My Plumber Heating and Cooling to all of you in Fairfax, Alexandria, Leesburg, Potomac, Laurel and Annapolis have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends.