Garbage Disposal Maintenance Tips

Your garbage disposal is a real workhorse in the kitchen. It reduces the amount of food you throw in the trash, helps simplify clean-up, and reduces unpleasant kitchen odors. But workhorse or not, your disposal still needs proper care and maintenance to give you all its worth.

Here are 9 such tips that will serve you well.

Run the disposal every few days. Run the appliance with cold water at least every few days to keep the blades from rusting and remove food particles that might be stuck to the inside walls.

Fight odors with lemon and warm water. Cut up lemon wedges and place them in the disposal along with warm water. The high citric acid contains anti-bacterial properties while the peels act as a scrubbing agent.

Keep starchy, fibrous, and hard foods out. Of all the things that can gum up the works and cause repair issues, foods like meat bones, celery, onion peels, potato skins and more are better left for the trash or compost heap.

Cut power to the unit when cleaning or repairing it. Either unplug the appliance or cut power at the circuit breaker before going any further.

Don’t pull out clogs with your hands. Use tongs, not your hands, to remove dropped items like cutlery or food scraps that have not been ground up.

Avoid using commercial drain cleaners and bleach. Not only are commercial drain cleaning products bad for pipes, these caustic chemicals can fly up and into your eyes while the disposal is running.

Don’t pour hot water into a clogged disposal. The hot water will melt any fats that have accumulated in the disposal and connecting pipes, making unclogging the unit more challenging.

Thoroughly clean the disposal every two weeks. Fill the disposal with ice cubes and add a cup of rock salt. Run the appliance for about a minute, allowing the natural abrasives to scrape away any built-up gunk. Pour in one cup of white vinegar plus half a cup of baking soda to kill bacteria. Then, cut power to the unit and scrub the flaps with an old toothbrush. Restore power and rinse clean.

Garbage Disposal Maintenance Tips, Annapolis & Bethesda – Learn how to keep your disposal smelling clean working up to its full potential. Best Choice can help.