How to Use Your Garbage Disposal

Gainesville Mechanical Garbage Disposal Repair

It’s no surprise that when you operate your garbage disposal according to manufacturer recommendations and best plumbing practices that it lasts longer. However, most people don’t use their garbage disposals the way they were intended to be used. Most of the time, this is because people assume their disposals are tough enough to handle anything. After all, listen to the noise they make when turned on. It certainly sounds like it’s one tough cookie.

In truth, your garbage disposal is a small appliance, much like a toaster oven or microwave. It needs a gentle touch to last a long while. In this post, you’ll learn tips for keeping your kitchen disposal in great shape, so it works when you need it to.

Use It Often

For most households, this isn’t a problem. The garbage disposal runs daily. However, if you’re a single-person household or someone who thinks they’re saving their disposal by not using it often, you might not be running the disposal enough. Ideally, you want to use the disposal daily. There are a couple of reasons for this.

The first reason is that water gets into the disposal whether you use it or not because you use your sink daily. Gyrating the blades daily prevent corrosion and keeps the blades moving freely.

The second reason to run the disposal daily is to prevent jams and bad odors. When the disposal is running, sometimes food gets left behind. This leads to smelly problems, and the leftover food particles inside the disposal can dry and get lodged in between the blades.

Run your garbage disposal once a day to prevent these problems.

Also, when running your disposal, run it longer than you think you should. You want to make sure every bit of food is removed. Most people run the disposal until it sounds like all the food has been removed and the disposal gets quieter. However, plumbers recommend letting the disposal continue to run for another 30 seconds or so. This ensures that every little piece of food is disposed of.

Gainesville Mechanical Garbage Disposal

Use Cold Water

Hot water is ideal for cleaning many household products. However, using it to clean your garbage disposal doesn’t work the same way. The reason is that hot water causes substances to melt. In the case of your garbage disposal, when substances melt, they cling to the sides and cause clogs. Using cold water hardens substances and makes it easy for the disposal to grind up the harden pieces, removing them from your disposal.

Help Your Disposal Out

Don’t make your garbage disposal do all the work. Give it a hand and cut up large food scraps into smaller pieces before inserting them into the disposal. This keeps your disposal working better for longer and prevents leaky disposal.

Sometimes, no matter what you do, your garbage disposal just stops working well. Most disposals have a lifespan of 5-10 years. If you need a new garbage disposal or other plumbing repair services in Gainesville, GA, contact Gainesville Mechanical at 770-532-9130 to schedule a service call.

Comments are closed.