Disposers

[jakeseacrest]

Hey ladies and gents....tell me about your garbage disposals. What kind do you have, what do you put in it,etc. Pics are a plus. I have an In Sink Erator 777ss 1hp. Everything goes in mine except for beef or pork bones and coffee filters. No food goes in my compactor. Sorry no pic for now.

 

[hoover1060]

Viking here, VCFW75

ISE made, just about a year old. pics later when I get home

 

[gadgetgary]

ISE 333 SS

Coffee Filters and grains, celery, potato skins, carrot peels, lemon and orange rinds.

Do not throw onion skins down the disposer or corn husks.

 

[jakeseacrest]

You're right...I don't do onion skins anymore. Corn husks I won't even attempt.

 

[maytagbear]

Don't currently have one

and that's a disappointment.

Landlord says I can, if I buy it and put it in.

I had GOOD luck with an ISE Badger 5.(my first apartment).

I'm thinking about the new series ISE, the batchfeed one.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[rp2813]

I've had a Maytag for almost 17 years. I got it for $29 (in an opened box but complete) as it was likely returned to the appliance dealer by a contractor who maybe bought one too many. It's quiet and very effective and I like the removable splash guard and the open/closed option on the sink stopper. The literature that came with it says it will actually grind nails. I haven't bothered to test that, and having had the enjoyable job of crawling under my parents' house to regularly snake out the sewer pipes due to cloggage from the disposer that the old pipes were never intended to handle, I watch what I put down my Maytag. The arrangement of the pipes under my own house invites problems so I toss a lot of stuff into the garbage instead. I would consider finding a MIB Maytag disposer or a known good used one a major score for anyone looking to replace what they have.

Artichokes are another thing you don't want to put down your disposer in addition to what's already been mentioned.

P.S.

That same dealer is where I bought my KA dishwasher the same day, a display model that was priced to move and that is equally as old as the Maytag disposer and still doing a great job. Hands down those were the two best deals I found when remodeling my kitchen back then.

Ralph

 

[washabear]

I have an Insinkerator that came with the house I bought. When I bought it, I was so excited to have a disposer. But, truth is, I don’t use it very much. It’s good with potato peels, but I seldom eat potatoes anymore. Apparently onions are too fibrous and stringy to put in a disposer, so I don’t put them in. Carrot peels seem to work OK, though.

As a side note, the best disposer scene I have seen is in Ordinary People, when Mary Tyler Moore shoves the French toast left uneaten by her troubled son into the disposer. “You can’t save French toast!” she says.

So, if I ever find myself in the kitchen with an uneaten stack of French toast, well, there you go!

 

[exploder3211]

I'd never put half that stuff down the disposer, we have some really old ISE here and it works alright, but can't chop much up.. My favs are the kenmore 3/4 horse models.. I have bought and used a butt load of these trhough ebay for any where between $15-45 and they all are great

 

[hoover1060]

my Viking

Has a cast disk and fixed hammers, its considerably slower than the ISE models, but it chews finer.
Nothing is sacred with the Viking, if it will fit, it goes. Most of its diet consists of potato peelings, coffee grounds(with filter), table scraps, and occasionally corn cobs or chicken bones. The Viking will chew down onion peels, but they take forever. I've never known an ISE to chew onions, ever!

My favorite disposer brand is Waste King. I have a 1989 model SS3300 that will go back into use once the fun of this Viking wears off.

 

[jamiel]

I used to be a dyed-in-the-wool WasteKing (GE, ...) fan (even special-ordered one from Home Depot last house I had) but the new ISEs are quite nice and I think I like them better...the house I just bought has one in there--nice and quiet, removable splashguard, cast pivoting hammers---I'm well impressed. BTW the ISE air-switch works great (put that in with a GE in the last house instead of limiting myself to a batch-feed model)

 

[andrewinorlando]

I have a KitchenAid 3/4 HP model, with the Wham Jam breaker feature. It takes corn husks, chicken bones, artichokes, and just about everything else you can fit in it. Only had a problem with it once with potato peels, but soon learned to do that in smaller batches when there is no other food waste in there with them. It's about 24 years old or so at this point and still going strong. Surprisingly, it's fairly quiet for such a powerful machine. It doesn't jam often at all, but I don't put beef or pork bones in it...takes too long to grind, and too damned noisy. It's kind of fun to fill up the sink with garbage and water and turn it on and watch it sucks everything down the drain in a big whirlpool. I think these units were built by ISE way back when......

 

[hoover1060]

Andrew

If your KA is that old, its Hobart made, and one of the best ever made!

 

[andrewinorlando]

Well then, that would explain its grinding abilities and its reliability!! It really is a fantastic unit. There's nothing it won't take and I just love it. I know it won't last forever, but I can always wish!!

I would love to find another one of these babies MIB, for the time when this one decides it's had enough. I think way back when, these units cost like $129. What a bargain.

 

[hoover1060]

They are out there...

The old Hobart design was very good, almost bullet-proof! I'd keep watch on ebay for one. All but one of the vintage disposals I've found have come from ebay.
There are also some of the Hobart design Vikings still in the stores, but they are expensive! There is an appliance store near my BF's house that still has a couple of them, but the price is $400+!!!

 

[passatdoc]

Insinkerator 444SS

They don't even use these model numbers anymore. Now it's Evolution Compact or Evolution Essential. If my current unit broke, I don't even know what model I would need to replace it.

Bought the house in 1988 and it came with a basic Badger. I had to replace the Badgers every 3-4 years, BUT I have a salt water aquarium and used to drain the tank via the garbage disposer (not anymore, I use the bathtub). After burning through three badgers in 3 years each (they were $40 at Costco in those days, so replacing it wasn't a big deal, and it took ten minutes for me to do the job), I moved up to a 333SS. It lasted about ten years, now I'm about 5-6 years into the 444SS.

 

[tolivac]

I use my newer Vita-Mix-have a container that I use for my "disposer"so far anything goes-but do filter out the stringy stuff and put it into the trash.

 

[retroguy]

ISE Badger 10 half horsepower. Originally installed in this house by the developer when it was new. As the sign in front of the subdivision says "Circa 1986". =)

 

[gibsonfl]

Another Vote for ISE 777 1 HP

My nine year-old KA 3/4 HP was working fine, but when I had to replace my sink for a kitchen remodel five years ago, a friend recommended to move up to a 1 HP.

The ISE 777 1 HP eats everything. The KA (also made by ISE) jammed only once in those nine years. I avoid the usual things like artichokes, corn husks, etc., but I grind onions, pasta, potato peels without issues.

Lastly, Mom and Dad's KA 3/4 HP, which must be close to 15 years old is still running strong.

 

[bwoods]

1hp Viking. I got one of the last units built using Hobart's Design, before Viking started contracting ISE to make them.

Good Points:

Put virtually everything down there. It is the best disposal I've had for cornhusks, even if they do take awhile it's better than putting them into the compactor.

Has tremendous power and the automatic reverse works great to prevent jams

Bad Points:

Noisy, motor vibrates stainless steel sink mercilessly- disappointing for a disposer that cost $400+

Not the largest grinding chamber I've ever had. Not the fastest disposer on fruit pits and pork chop bones (never put heavy beef bones in)

My favorite disposal?

The old GE's with the series wound motors, that were actually built by GE in Appliance Park, Kentucky. (the new GE's, built by Annaheim Manufacturing, are permanent magnet motors.)

The high rpm (8000) makes it sound like a vacuum cleaner under no load, but it's by far the fastest disposer I've ever had on fruits pits and pork chop bones. It's the only disposer I ever had where I put in pork chops bones routinely, as it was too slow on most other brands

Series would motors don't operate a constant speed as do induction motors but have speed directly proportional to load, torque is inversely proportional to speed so it really fights against jamming and has a large torque kick on start up.

If you see one of these on Ebay--grab it!