Things You Should Never Put Down Your Garburator
A backfilling, broken-down, or smelly garburator is frustrating, but there is much that you can do to extend the life of your garburator for as long as possible. The first and best thing you can do is to simply understand what you should and should not put down it. By avoiding misuse, you can ensure that your machine stays spinning for a good long while!
So what shouldn’t you put into your garburator? A better place to begin might be with what you can put down it. Liquids are fine, so long as they’re not going to congeal—but more on that in a moment. As for food particles, the garburator is really designed to catch the few tiny crumbs that might fall off a plate, not to take the place of your garbage can.
In fact, there are many common food items that are regularly put down the garburator—and when they are, they can cause problems in the long term. Several specific items to avoid include:
- Grease or oil. This is what we were referring to earlier when we mentioned liquid-like substances that congeal; over time greases and oils harden, solidify, and build up in your pipes—which is obviously not good.
- Vegetable peels. A peel here or there probably won’t make a big difference, but over time these will build up and you’ll find a mushy mess filling back into your disposal and sink.
- Eggshells. The inner membrane of the egg will wrap around the blades of your garburator and cause it to cease working!
- Stringy fruits and vegetables. Cornhusks and banana peels will have the same impact as eggshells.
- Coffee grounds. These may seem fairly harmless, but they are essentially sediment that builds up over time, causing the pipes to either clog or erode.
- Anything that isn’t food. This one may seem obvious, but it warrants saying: Pieces of paper and cigarette butts should never be tossed down the garburator.
- Full meals or anything in bulk. You do not want to feed your garburator a meal of its own! The garburator is intended for very small quantities of waste only.
- Anything that is going to rattle around in your garburator and make it sound like a pinball machine! This includes peach pits, avocado pits, bones of any size, seeds, and so forth.
The bottom line: Use your garburator carefully, and if you’re ever in doubt, just opt for the trashcan. If you do end up with garburator problems, however, our Vancouver plumbing team is standing by to help; call us when you need us!