A broken garbage disposal is inconvenient, and garbage disposal repair can be difficult and expensive. For this reason, you should be careful to take care of your unit. There are some foods that don’t mix well with disposals, including the following.

What to Keep Out of the Sink Drain

1. Grease

If you pour hot fat and oil down the sink, it will cool and solidify, clogging up the pipes and your garbage disposal. Cleaning it out again is time-consuming, and you will likely need professional plumbing repair to make it work.

2. Bones & Pits

These large, hard food remnants are rough on your disposal, dulling the blades with every impact. They can also become lodged in the equipment, clogging it and damaging the motor so you’ll need garbage disposal repair. Finally, they are extremely noisy, and cannot be disposed of effectively by putting them down your kitchen sink.

3. Coffee Grounds

Coffee grounds tend to accumulate in your disposal rather than washing down the drain. They create messy and smelly piles which may last for days or more. Throw them in the garbage instead.

4. Rice & Pasta

These foods are extremely effective at absorbing water, expanding to many times their original size. This creates a gooey mess which you don’t want to have to clean out of your disposal equipment.

5. Egg Shells

Not only do egg shells fragment into small pieces that linger in your disposal, but the sticky membrane from inside the shell can also stick to the walls and blades of your unit. Avoid making a mess of your disposal and throw out or compost your egg shells.

If you’ve thrown the wrong food down the drain and need garbage disposal repair, call Lonneman Plumbing in Edgewood, KY. This emergency plumber is available 24/7 to help clients throughout Kenton County with many issues from drain cleaning to pump maintenance. To schedule garbage disposal repair and take advantage of their more than 50 years of experience, call (859) 341-7755 or reach out online.