Your garbage disposal works hard to keep your Oneida kitchen running smoothly, but treating it like a trash can often leads to costly repairs and frustrating clogs. Understanding what should not go down your disposal protects this essential appliance and prevents emergency plumbing calls. Mr. Rooter Plumbing of Oneida helps homeowners maintain their disposals with expert advice and professional garbage disposal repair services when problems arise.
Common Items That Damage Garbage Disposals
Many Oneida residents unknowingly harm their garbage disposals by grinding inappropriate items. These materials either damage the blades, create stubborn clogs or cause complete system failures requiring professional intervention:
- Grease and cooking oils: Fats and grease top the list of things you should not put in a garbage disposal. While liquid when hot, these substances solidify as they cool, coating the components and pipes of your disposal.
- Coffee grounds: These fine particles accumulate in pipes, forming dense, paste-like clogs that require professional drain cleaning services. Oneida's older plumbing systems are especially vulnerable to coffee grounds buildup.
- Eggshells and onion skins: The membrane inside eggshells and the thin layer in onion skins can wrap around disposal blades, slip past the grinding chamber and lodge in your drain pipes, creating blockages that worsen over time.
Hard Items That Break Disposal Blades
Your disposal's blades are made to handle soft food scraps, not hard materials that belong in the trash. Chicken or beef bones and fruit pits from cherries, peaches or avocados are too tough for standard disposal blades to handle. These items can damage blades or cause the motor to jam.
Seafood shells, nut shells and other hard materials do not break down properly in your disposal. They can damage the grinding mechanism and create sharp fragments that scratch and wear down internal components.
Fibrous and Starchy Foods to Avoid
Certain food textures can cause trouble for garbage disposals, even though they seem harmless enough for kitchen drains. When stuck in garbage disposals, these materials require professional plumbing repair services to be removed completely.
Avoid stringy vegetables, like celery, asparagus, corn husks and artichokes. They contain long fibers that tangle around disposal blades, reducing grinding efficiency, straining the motor and potentially leading to burnout.
Pasta, rice, potato peels and other starchy foods expand when exposed to water. They can form a starchy paste that coats disposal components and clogs drains.
Proper Garbage Disposal Maintenance Tips
Avoiding harmful materials is just the first step in disposal care. Here are other steps you can take to keep your unit running efficiently:
- Run cold water: Always use cold water before, during and after grinding to solidify grease and flush debris.
- Clean monthly: Grind ice cubes and citrus peels to clean blades and eliminate odors naturally.
- Use proper amounts: Feed small amounts gradually rather than overloading the disposal.
- Listen for problems: Unusual noises indicate jams or damage requiring immediate attention.
Professional Garbage Disposal Services in Oneida
When disposal problems arise despite proper care, Mr. Rooter Plumbing is ready to help. Our licensed plumbers diagnose issues and provide solutions quickly, from simple clogs to complete disposal replacement. For professional maintenance or repair services in Oneida, call us or request an estimate online today.
