Your kitchen plumbing gets a lot of use, especially when you do a great deal of cooking, such as during the Thanksgiving and holiday season. To make sure you don’t run into any problems, especially with your garbage disposal, be aware of the following tips:

Tip #1: Don’t Use Hot Water 

This might go against your common sense, but using hot water softens food, which makes it harder for the garbage disposal to grind and chop it up. Therefore, anytime you run your garbage disposal, use cold water, which makes the blades in the garbage disposal work more effectively.

Tip #2: Throw Potato Peels into the Trash

Potato peels are easy to slice and they’re thin, so they should have no problem going through a garbage disposal, right? Wrong! Those potato peels stick and cling to the inside of your garbage disposal like there’s no tomorrow.

Tip #3: Do Not Put Bones into the Garbage Disposal

When you’re done eating turkey this Thanksgiving, throw the bones away in the trash can, not the garbage disposal. Garbage disposals are powerful, but they don’t always grind up the bones into small enough pieces.

Tip #4: Use Soap

When you’re doing using the garbage disposal, every few days put some dish soap into the disposal and run it for 20 seconds or so. The soap will help remove stubborn food particles stuck to parts of the garbage disposal.

Tip #5: Never Pour Grease or Oil into the Disposal

Oil and grease can solidify when cool, making it almost impossible for the disposal to get rid of them. Additionally, these hard clumps of grease or oil can cause blockages in your piping.

If you have problems with your garbage disposal or your kitchen’s plumbing system, contact our friendly team at Smoak’s Comfort Control before your kitchen heats up for the holidays.