what can/can't go down the disposal

If any of you have ever argued with your wife over what can go down them I now have an answer. Attached is my email to customer support at Insikerator and their response.

We have a 1/3 HP disposer in our kitchen and that thing will eat just about
anything. My wife refuses to put anything, but the smallest scraps in
there. I'll put everything down it with plenty of water to flush it away.
Our big debate is over boiled corn cobs. Not corn husks, but the cob. I
say it is soft like an apple core yet she disagrees. Please solve this
mystery for us on what can/can't go down. Lord I hope I'm right!!!!

Thanks,





Dear Cicero


Thank you for writing to InSinkErator.

We understand that you are inquiring if boiled corncobs may be placed in the
disposer.

Your disposer is designed for use on all kinds of food waste. Most
vegetable, fruit, and meat waste can be disposed of easily in your disposer.

The disposer is a very durable appliance specifically designed to grind hard
food items such as steak, pork and chicken bones. It can also grind
corncobs. Grinding bones keep the shredding components in the disposer clean
and moving freely.

When grinding food items made from light materials such as vegetable or
fruit peels, we recommend adding small bones or fruit pits. This would help
your disposer grind peels thoroughly.

The disposer is designed to dispose of normal household food items. Putting
non-food items in the unit may affect the product's performance and cause
property damage.

Hope this information helps.

For your future reference, your case number is xxxxxxx

If you have further questions, please feel free to email us at
www.insinkerator.com or call us at our AnswerLine, 1-800-558-5700.


Sincerely,
Claire
ISE Technical Support Representative

 

very amusing.

that's fine for public sewer, but if you have a septic system, you want to be more judicious about what you route into your tank.

doody.

 

I know from experience being the clean up guy in the kitchen as well as the plumber.
NO ASPARAGUS
NO RICE

 

You are turning solid waste into liquid waste. Solid waste to the landfill is much more cost effective waste disposal than turning it to expensive to treat liquid waste. In some instances garbage disposals are not allowed by the EPA for this reason. I have not seen any cities ban them with the plumbing code, but I know some have considered it.

That's a powerful disposal. Don't put your hand in there while your wife's at the switch.

 

What can go down the disposal is an age old question.

I maintain that the CONTENTS of the head can go, but the adult skull is too hard to be adequately ground up. All bones except the long bones of the leg and arm can adequately be disposed of in a .5 horsepower disposal.

You will need to break the skull and long bones into pieces no bigger than .5 inches and widely distribute them out the car window no closer than 50 miles from your house.

Make sure any tools used, likewise are buried, not less than 50 miles from your house IN AN AREA YOU DO NOT NORMALLY GO.

DO NOT USE YOUR OWN DISPOSAL. You cannot get it adequately clean. If you use a disposal it need to be in a rental apartment, house or extended stay hotel, not less than 50 miles from your home.

Make sure you have a full tank of gas so you do not get on a surveillance camera at a gas station.

 

Orange peels, in quantity, are a problem.

 

Interestingly, when we did our kitchen remodel a few years ago, I specifically told the designer "NO DISPOSALS".

I have dug crap out of too many In-Sink-Erators to remember. They all suck; they never get rid of everything. For about $3, I got a nice mesh screen than I simply dump into the garbage can. No clogged disposal, no clogged pipes.

Those things suck. Sometimes technology is not our friend.

 

this is actually a really disturbing post, good, but disturbing.

 

I just put a new disposal in over the winter because our old one was on its way out. When talking about it at work one day with a co-worker, he mentioned that he had a plumber out to his house once upon a time, and the guy told my coworker that disposals are "a plumber's best friend" because they get so much business out of them.

I don't use mine for much, but one thing I've found that you definitely CAN'T grind up is celery....Oof. What a night that ended up being.

 

I just remembered I'm very busy in July.

 

Great thread!!!! I am printing that out and giving it to the GF!!!!

 

We have three sinks in the kitchen and they all have disposals. Much easier than trying to remember which one has it. They work great....... never had a problem with them. But, the drain will clog if you put to much of the wrong thing down them.

 

In the past couple of years the disposal has been clogged up twice.

First time was all the potato peels for the Thanksgiving dinner mashed potatoes. Dropping the trap to clear this on Turkey day was a highlight.

Second time was an enormous pile of edamame husks.

Both times the contents were shoved down the hole and then the water turned on. If the cook had started the water and and grinder going BEFORE shoving all that fibrous stuff it would have taken it.

The other no no is pouring bacon grease down the sink.

 

I've never quite understood the need to have one. Personally, I wouldn't have one of those things stuck in my ass......but that's just me.

 

LOL!! Dude you're posts are freakin' hillarious.

 

never flush it out with sperm

 

...ESPECIALLY if your plunger is in the hole.

Mr. Gunboat is correct about who/what/when/where bone-crushing. Why is plainly obvious.

 

On "Made in America" they visited the In-Sink-Erator plant where garabage disposals are made. The test lab had a couple dozen tiny bar sinks with a disposal mounted and draining into a pan underneath. With a mere trickle of water running the tests involved stuffing handfulls of beef rib bones, 1"x1"x1" blocks of wood and anything else you could think of into the disposal. Even though they made terrible sounds grinding all that up they did so quite happily and ejected much tinier pieces into the pan You could use the things to chip wood!

 

Things I learned today:

Rice, celery, asparagus and orange peels are not disposal friendly
FarmerDave is busy in July
Dr. Cosgrove apparently likes to experiment on different ways to unclog a disposal unit
UroTrash is very detail oriented and should probably be banned from using his friends' disposal units (at least those friends who live 50 miles away or more)

 

Grease and onion peels are a no-no for the disposal. My old landlord found that out. I have never had a problem in the houses I have owned.

BT

 

Thank you for your advice Dr. Dahmer