The big holidays are coming up, and for many households, that means hosting guests and enjoying big feasts. And that also means a lot of work for the kitchen plumbing. In fact, Thanksgiving time is one of the highest periods of the year for emergency plumbing calls! The #1 part of the plumbing that can go wrong during Thanksgiving is the kitchen garbage disposal.
We’re always glad to help out with plumbing needs—it’s why we offer 24-hour emergency plumbing service—but we also want you to enjoy as trouble-free a holiday season as possible. So here are some tips for your garbage disposal in Chevy Chase, MD to see that it doesn’t run into any major snags:
- Keep meat bones out of the disposal. Turkey bones should always be disposed of in the regular trash (and we recommend sealing them in plastic bags). The disposal isn’t capable of grinding down anything as tough as bones, and you’re likely to break the mechanism if you do let bones down into the disposal.
- Pour fats, oils, and grease from cooking into a separate receptacle, not into the disposal. These cooking liquids, collectively called FOG, are deceptive when they’re heated up. But when they cool down, they change into waxy solids that can be a nightmare for the disposal and the rest of the drainpipes.
- Be careful with rice and pasta, which look harmless but can turn into a serious problem if they become lodged in the disposal. Both rice and pasta absorb water and start to swell, leading to problems.
- Fibrous vegetables, like asparagus and onion skins, can tangle up in the mechanisms of the disposal and cause it to break.
- Finally, don’t use ice to “sharpen” the blades in the disposal. The disposal doesn’t actually have blades in it, and the hard ice can cause damage.
Mallick Plumbing & Heating is the Service Contractor of Choice! Serving Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.