Maintaining A Garbage Disposer

• Tweet
• Share
• Email

• Tweet
• Share
• Email

To eliminate odors in the garbage disposer, grind cut-up citrus rinds while flushing the unit with cold water. If food gets caught in the disposer, turn off the power and use a broom handle to move the flywheel back and forth by pushing against the hammer, a notched metal piece on the flywheel.Once it moves, you should be able to remove the problem causing object with a pair of kitchen tongs. Never put your hand in a disposer to free a jam.

To prevent jamming, don’t pack the disposer tightly. Never grind clam shells, glass shards or bottle caps. Keep the cold water running fully while the disposer is on and for a minute after it has finished to clear the drain line. Never use chemical drain cleaner in a disposer because it can damage the machine’s internal parts.

Here’s a useful tip – run bones through the garbage disposer. They’ll make a racket while being ground up but small bones and fruit pits can do wonders to clean the inside of the grind chamber. Grind them with a strong flow of cold water. To further clean and freshen the disposer use baking soda or a foaming cleaner.

• Tweet
• Share
• Email