What Is Not Safe to Put Down My Garbage Disposal?

One of the hardest working tools in your kitchen is the garbage disposal. These machines are often abused and expected to chop all kinds of food into small pieces. You will quickly discover that there are foods for the garbage disposal that are harmful to it. If you treat your garbage disposal the way you should, it is far less likely to break down on you. Here are a few tips about the worst foods for the garbage disposal.

Big Piles of Anything

One of the most certain ways to break this essential appliance is to stuff large pieces of leftover food down it. Smaller pieces will fare much better in your garbage disposal. Take the time to put items down it in small quantities.

Egg Shells

There is some controversy about putting egg shells down the kitchen sink. Some people think it is okay, but even these innocent looking items can cause a problem. The shredder ring of the disposal can become cluttered and damaged from the membrane of egg shells. If you have a septic tank, forget about putting these into the sink. Egg shells cannot be broken down by the bacterium in your septic tank.

Vegetables and Fruit with High Fibers

Stringy items like asparagus, celery, and corn husks have fibers that might wrap around the blades and moving parts of the disposal. Do not set aside these foods for the garbage disposal unless you want to have a headache, a mess, and if you are interested in calling us to fix any problems.

Used Coffee Grounds

You can find some people to advise that running coffee grounds through a disposal is good for it. While it will not hurt the appliance, it may create a sludgy mess and clog up your kitchen pipes. Coffee grounds are not foods for the garbage disposal.

Peels and Skins

You may already know better than to put banana peels or onion skins down into the sink. These items are very likely to get caught in the moving parts of your disposal. They do not break down easily, and can also clog pipes.

Pits and Bones

Fruit and avocado pits are not foods for the garbage disposal either. They are thick seeds that take a long time to grind, so it is better to put them into a compost pile or throw them in the trash. Bones will fragment if you try to grind them, and this is likely to shorten the life of the disposal. Even if the bones were to pass through to the pipes, they can become lodged instead of passing through. This will cause your pipes to gather debris and clog.