Holiday Garbage Disposal Tips

Who will get the final taste of your Thanksgiving Day leftovers? The garbage disposal in your Delaware home!

If you feed it carefully and limit portion size, your garbage disposal will reward you with reliability and efficient operation day after day.

When the Thanksgiving feast is over, your challenge is to grind food scraps without gumming up your disposal with fat, oil, grease, stringy veggies, and starchy waste. 

The Holidays Can Stress Your Garbage Disposal

At Joseph Frederick & Sons, we help many customers with garbage disposal issues, especially after a holiday when too much food or the wrong kinds of scraps go through the appliance.

Plumbers refer to the day after Thanksgiving as “Brown Friday” due to the surge in calls for clogged drains and broken garbage disposals. It is typically our busiest day of the year. 

Call the Plumbing Experts

If you need some hands-on expertise, we are ready to dive in and help you with plumbing issues whenever you need us. We have assisted customers in the Delaware Valley with their plumbing needs since 1947. Over the years, we expanded our services to include electrical and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) maintenance, repair, and installation. 

We want to spare you the hassle of dealing with a damaged, worn, or unresponsive garbage disposal, especially during the holidays. If you follow the tips in this blog, your disposal is more likely to operate without a glitch on Thanksgiving Day and beyond. 

How Does a Garbage Disposal Work?

It reduces food scraps to tiny particles that can flow through your drains. When you turn on the motor, two impellers seated on a spinning plate force food into a grinding ring. The tiny food bits flow through holes in the ring and into the drain. 

Why Install a Garbage Disposal?

A garbage disposal makes kitchen cleanup easy and more convenient by whisking away food scraps through the plumbing system. It prevents unpleasant odors of spoiled and decomposing food and reduces the risk of attracting pests.  

Garbage disposals offer environmental benefits, too. They reduce the amount of food that goes into landfills and emit methane, a greenhouse gas.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the greenhouse gas emissions from food in landfills are equivalent to the annual emissions of 15 coal-fired power plants.

How Do I Maintain My Garbage Disposal?

Here are a few tips to avoid a garbage disposal repair:

• Occasional Cleaning: Flush your garbage disposal with cold water and grind a few ice cubes to maintain a sharp grinder. 
• Cold Water: Run the cold water tap while using your garbage disposal. Water flushes the food particles and prevents clogs. 
• Citrus Peels: Grind a citrus peel occasionally to freshen your garbage disposal. The citrus oil in the peels will help clean and deodorize it. 

Small Bites Only

You may be eager to clean up after your Thanksgiving Day feast, but dumping bones and plates full of scraps into the appliance all at once will not be good.

Try feeding small batches of food into your garbage disposal. 

If you own a continuous feed disposal, you can add food while it operates. A batch feed model only runs when a safety cap covers the disposal opening. Check your manufacturer’s instructions for guidance on how much food you can process at once and what foods it can handle.

Some garbage disposals can safely grind bones, for example, while models with less horsepower may struggle. 

What Not to Put in Your Garbage Disposal 

Here is a general list of items that you should avoid grinding:

• Fibrous Foods: Celery, rhubarb, asparagus, corn husks, and other fibrous foods can get tangled in the grinder.
• Coffee Grounds: Grounds may accumulate and create a sludgy mess. Even if they successfully pass through the garbage disposal, they may clog your kitchen drain. 
• Grease: Grease and oils can solidify and cause a clog in your plumbing. Keep turkey skin and butter out of your disposal. 
• Starchy Foods: Foods such as potatoes and rice can expand in water, gumming up the grinding unit and creating clumps that clog your drain. 
• Hard Foods: Fruit pits and bonesmay damage your grinder. The instruction manual for your garbage disposal will clarify if the model you own can handle hard foods.  
• Membranes and Skins: Onion skins and eggshells with a membrane can interfere with the grinding mechanism or slip past it and clog your drain. 
• Inedible Objects: Foil, paper towels, plastic wrap, produce stickers, and other non-food items should go into the garbage, not your garbage disposal. 

Replacing or Repairing Your Garbage Disposal

Garbage disposals can last 12 to 15 years with TLC but eventually fail, even with the best care.

A garbage disposal that emits a burning odor may have a faulty motor. If it constantly needs resetting, its motor may be wearing out. 

Loud grinding noises may indicate a damaged grinder, and leaks are a sign the seals may be faulty.

If your disposal is not grinding effectively, let one of our licensed plumbers at Joseph Frederick & Sons diagnose the issue and recommend a repair or replacement solution. 

Prepare Your Garbage Disposal for the Holidays

You can ensure the garbage disposal in your Hockessin, DE home operates efficiently by maintaining it. If you need assistance with repairs or installation, our pros at Joseph Frederick & Sons can offer options that suit your needs without busting your budget. Call us at 302-994-5786 or request-service-online.