Now go give your garbage disposal some love! Because the disposal is always processing and draining, it can be difficult to give it a good soaking and cleaning. But as far as I’m concerned, that’s pretty much where the benefits of a garbage disposal end. The list of what you can’t put in a garbage disposal is much longer than what you can put in a garbage disposal. Grease (I can’t stress this enough. · Grease. Sure, you might sneak a little bacon grease down the drain, thinking if you flush with hot water it will stay liquid. You can also try filling your sink up about halfway with water and then pulling the stopper while running the disposal—the added downward pressure will help flush out the lower hopper. Just use some dish soap while running cold water and the garbage disposal. Do not use regular drain cleaners, which contain fine sand or caustic substances that will corrode the inside of the unit and shorten its life. Accumulation of the harmful and unwanted matters happens quite fast and at a time when it comes to your attention, you will find yourself in the midst of a mess if you do not plan ahead about how to do away with these.
When it comes to repairing a garbage disposal, be prepared to replace the unit entirely or take it out. To do this, you’ll need a screwdriver to take out the garbage disposal. You’ll also need varying lengths and shapes of pipe, a p-trap, a file, some plumbers putty, and a sharpie. The biggest problem is that if a single piece of the garbage disposal breaks, such as the seal, you’ll still have to buy a whole new garbage disposal unit. Then pop the formed tabs out, and lay them out onto a piece of parchment paper. It’s always good to buy extra, just in case you cut a piece too short. But I try to never pass up a good opportunity to reuse something, so when I came across the idea to use coffee grounds to deodorize your garbage disposal, I was immediately on board! Use the stopper to stop the sink drain and fill the sink basin halfway with water. The water hasn’t been able to flush it down into your disposer. However, you need to disconnect it from the disposer.
The bottom line is this: if you have a garbage disposal, you need to take care of it. If that still doesn’t work, you may need a professional opinion. The repairs are fairly simple, but if you’re unsure about what to do, you can always call a professional. Blocked or packed garbage disposals are a number of the best repairs to form. Secondly, there are best practices for cleaning your garbage disposal that may be unknown. The first step in taking the best care of your garbage disposal is being selective about what you put down the drain. The chemicals used to unclog a drain can eat away at the plastic parts of your disposal. I still scrape my plate off over the trashcan, and whatever crumbs fall down the drain won’t be detrimental. No big crumbs means no clogged pipes, and if you can skip raking the crumbs into the trashcan and go straight to the sink, crumbs don’t end up on the floor.
They smell bad. All the food crumbs that you grind don’t just disappear. There are numerous options for cleaning a disposal that will get rid of garbage disposal smell. Coffee can also help neutralize odors, which makes it a great thing to have on hand if your garbage disposal starts to smell unpleasant. Combine the coffee grounds, Epsom salt, and baking soda in a mixing bowl and stir to combine. · Baking soda and vinegar. Using a little vinegar or a baking soda mixture can help kill odor-causing bacteria. When it seems like my garbage disposal could use a little freshening up, I usually reach right for my vinegar and lemon cubes. The active ingredients in this product are citric acid and sodium lauryl sulfate — two strong chemicals that you must use with extreme caution. They’re effective, inexpensive, and don’t contain any harmful ingredients. Stir the ingredients until the mixture starts to clump together. You want the mixture to be damp enough that you can form a ball. If it seems too dry, add more vinegar in 1/2 teaspoon increments until it’s damp enough. Slowly add the vinegar to the mixture in the bowl. The vinegar will start reacting with the baking soda, so it will fizz up a bit, but it will subside quickly.
And the better you treat your garbage disposal, the longer it will last. It’s not a perfect method, but it’s better than not cleaning it at all. This creates the perfect environment for mold and bacteria to grow and produce unpleasant odors and unhealthy spores. Yes, bleach will kill all that disgusting mold and bacteria. Borax is a natural sink cleaner and sanitizer that effectively works on odor-causing mold and mildew that accumulates. If you just have a clog, try a drain cleaner first. If a bunch of it gets caught on the rubber gasket, use your fingers or a spoon to try to push most of it down into the actual garbage disposal. 1 Tip: Don’t let your guests use the garbage disposal! And you don’t even have to waste your good, fresh ground coffee; you can use your used grounds, too! Trained professionals know their way around proper waste disposal, therefore, they work in an organized system which saves time. In order to avoid these complications from affecting your household, it is imperative that you strive to clean the garbage disposal system a minimum of at least once weekly. Simply pull it out, rinse it off, and wipe it clean of food waste residue with an old sponge or toothbrush.
