Garbage disposals can be very convenient,plushelpkeep food waste out oflandfills. But garbage disposals areoftena mystery to homeowners. But while it might seem daunting, garbage disposal maintenance can actually be prettysimple.
Don’t leave food waste in the disposal more than a day
A garbage disposal has a tank that catches food waste and allows water to pass, collecting the food to be shredded and liquified. This chamber generally shouldn’t be left with food waste in it, though,because the food can dry out—making it harder to shred (andalso causing asmell). Best practice is to run your disposal at least once a day, keeping the cold water runningwhile you do it. (It’s important to use cold water, ashot water can makesome foodsmore difficult to grind, causing clogs.)
Don’t put stringy or hard foods down the disposal
Avoidputting stringy foods downthe disposal. As you might imagine,thestrings canget wrapped around the mechanism,sometimes necessitating a repair. Stringy foods are hard on the inner workings of your disposal, so save the celery for the compost pile. Bones from meat are also known to jam the disposal and can cause the flywheel that drives the grinding mechanism to get stuck.
Cleargarbage disposaljams
Ifstringy foodor some otherobstruction appears to bestopping your blades, start byturningoff the appropriatepowerfrom yourbreaker box.Yourdisposal unit should have come with a wrench, and you can that toturn the flywheel clockwise. The flywheelwill be located under yoursinkandhave an opening for thewrench. In the likely case thatyou don’t have the wrench, you can usually find one at the hardware store—just b环the model number of yourdisposal or a picture of the underside of the unit, and get somehelp tofigure out which wrench to buy. Once you get the flywheel freed,你可以把你disp的权力osal back on and try running it. Remember that draincleaners can damageyour disposal’s tank,and a drainsnake can get stuck in the mechanism.
Clean your disposal and use ice to sharpen the blades
Putting ice cubes down your garbage disposal once per month is a good way to keep the blades sharp,as well as keeping the tank from holding onto food particlesstuckinside.
You should also clean your disposal once a month to keep it from clogging and keep the motor running well. Just add some coarse salt to your ice cubes and run the disposal for about a minute, thenpour some white vinegar down the drain to follow. This will help break down greasy food waste and keep the trap from clogging. You can also usesome baking soda withcold water and run the disposal for a minute. If you’re ambitious, you canremove the rubber guard on the sink drain and give that a good scrub as well, thenfill the sink with warm, soapy water that you canrun that through the unit.
Of course, don’t ever stick your hand in the disposal
If there’s food waste in your disposal that seems stuck and other methods don’t dislodge it, you can turn the power to the disposal off at the breaker and use a tool or a wooden spoon handle to dislodge it. Never, ever put your hand into the garbage disposal.