Garbage Disposals

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Is anyone else interested in garbage disposals? I've had one for most of my life and since I was a kid have been using others if they had one. Some were ancient...we're talking mid 70s Disposalls and In-Sink-Erators........Any other disposal lovers?
 
Disposer Story

I like Garbage Disposers as well. When I was 13 my parents had the kitchen remodled and it was my job to pick out the dishwasher. Well I did but I also begged for a Disposer as well. My father had a serious aversion to them and forbade it and my mom went along with him. I pleaded but to no avail. I was told that if I wanted one I could get a job and buy it. Well I did just that. I baby-sat my 3 little cousin for almost a year, saving every dollar I earned. And did I earn it, they were brats. lol. But anyways nearly a year later mom and dad were surprised/shocked when I asked to be taken to Sears to buy the Disposer as I had saved up my money for it. Reluctantley they did and a few days later it was installed. The disposer itself was the cheap builders model with only a 1/3hp. It lasted 2 years before it was ripped out and replaced with a 3/4hp Waste King SS3300. The Kenmore would continually clog the drain line every few months. Even when doing nothing but table scrapes the line would stop-up. With the Waste King we never had so much as a hint of trouble from it for last six years we were there. When we moved into the new house the had the same disposer I got rid off only under the In-Sink-Erator name. Needless to say I took that out within the 1st week of my moving in. I replaced it with a GE Disposall. I hate that GE. I hate it , hate it, hate it. It is so noisey ( I know, no disposer is supposed to be quiet. But this one is outrageous.) Splashes food boogers and water in my face, has begun to vibrate like a sieve and is no taken forever to grind. So it is coming out within the next month or two and being replaced with a In-Sink-Erator 1hp. I can't wait. My cousin has the ISE Classic 1hp and combined with her cast iron sink it is very quiet. Well thats all for now.
 
I moved into my first disposer when I bought my condo almost 2 years ago. Frankly, I'm still getting used to having it!
The plumbing in our old place was so bad that the thought of having a disposer was out of the question. Guess I'm still operating on the theory that anything down the drain will cause a clog.
I do use it though, when I remember. Still not quite sure what goes in and what doesnt.
Like neptuneguy, mine's a GE and I hate it. Very noisy and it has started vibrating badly. We have an ISE here at work and it's a lot quieter. Think I might spend some of the tax refund money on a new disposer.
 
What goes in, must come out..Ground up !

Veg,

You can normally dispose of any food waste in your disposer. They warn you not put seafood shells ( though shrimp shells go down easily ), fiborous waste like corn husks or cobbs and large bones. Though ISE says small bones are good for the disposer as it scours the inside, clears jams and sharpens the blades. I love having a disposal as I have and use a compactor. All the smelly stuff goes down the drain while while solid trash is placed into the compactor. BTW Veg, what area of Baltimore are you in?

Chris
 
Our first disposal was the same story as yours neptune....my parents said that if I wanted one I needed to pay for it myself. I ended up with an In Sink Erator Badger 5. I totally loved it...hardly anyone in my neighborhood had a disposer.....think country setting with septic tanks and cesspools! Our sink used to clog all the time but it was the pipes in the house. When my parents remodeled the kitchen, my stepdad couldn't get the flange off the sink to remove the disposer. As much as he didn't want to, he went out and bought a new Sinkmaster disposal. He said that he didn't want to hear me bitch and moan every time I cooked or cleaned the kitchen. I thought he was cool after that. The Sinkmaster never once clogged the sink....way better than the ISE!
 
Seacrest69

Nice profile. Seems we both really like dishwashers too. I grew up in the city and not too many other people in our neighborhood had disposals or disshwasher for that matter. For longest time I had only aunt who had a portable Kitchen Aid dishwasher she says she purchased the same year I was born which was 1976. I loved that dishwasher of hers. We had a Whirlpool that died 1984. I only remember hearing it run a couple of times before it died. Then we got the Hotpoint. But my aunts Kitchen Aid was coolest machine. I loved how the dinner plates came right down the middle back to front. But anyways I digress. I am a little worried about going back to an ISE , but I figure the more expensive disposer should theoreticaly be better made. Besides, this house has all brand new plumbing,so I should not have any problems.
 
ISE Insinkerator

Hey,

We've got a new .65 HP ISE Insinkerator, its fantastic. No matter what you put down there it gets rid of it without any real noise or vibration. Its a very smooth machine.

We bought ours reco'd, apparantly the current series in AU has a tendancy to leak from the seals below the grinding chamber. Its a $20 parts kit to repair. We paid $80 (mates rates) Instead of $680AUD and could'nt have been any happier.
 
My parents had a disposer in the house built in 1964. It wasn't replace when it cratered.

There was one in my first house I bought in 1991. Again, I didn't replace it when it cratered and spewed nasty gunk around under the kitchen sink.

The new house has the wiring in place, but it wasn't installed (maybe because of fears regarding the septic system).
 
I've had lots of disposers in different homes over the years and of the two (yes, just two) manufacturers that make them now, In-Sink-Erator & Whilraway, ISE is the best no matter how cute the other name is! Whirl. makes for GE, Waste King, etc. but they are all the same machine of course. I've only had one of these in a townhouse rental in Phoenix, AZ. Worst disposer ever, slow and loud as hell. We had a GE Disposall when I was growing up, very loud as well but replaced with an ISE when the GE started shocking the user. I've killed a couple of ISE builder-grade (plastic housing) models through the years, once with a small screw driver I didn't know was down there, shot the blade right through the housing wall and once here with a screw that jammed the impeller plate. I replaced it with an ISE, a temporary stop-gap model until a major kitchen remodel next fall/winter. ISE has had some problems in the last couple of years with their motor shaft seals and have had to replace many, many units in warranty. My parent's new house had one with the same problem, but it was just barely out of warranty when it died. I think they've corrected that seal problem entirely now. I've been told that the best to get is the ISE with stainless steel grinding components, the SS chamber isn't as important as the components that do the actual work.

 
Neptune...my friend's mom still has her Kitchen Aid dishwasher from 1975. I love it. Same with you...I like putting plates front to back like that. Last I knew, she still had her green Kitchen Aid disposal too.
 
Gansky:

I am going to purchase ISE's 1hp model which should have the SS grinding elements I beleive. I am thoroughly disgusted with the GE. Also my other big complaint with the GE is that because it splash's food up and out of the opening, the food collects under the splash gaurd. Even if cleaned every few days, the smell is sickening. My previous Waste King(ca.1993) and ISE(ca.1991) never had this problem. As fastidious as I am about cleaning , that disposer has become the bane of my exsistance. That and my aunts old GE dishwasher. But thats another story all together.

Seacrest:

I wish Kitchen Aid would bring back that loading arrangement. I found to be most intriguing. Well it broke up the monotony of all other dishwashers loading arrangement at least. That and Maytags balanced rack system.
 
Actually, a gentleman I know in the vacuum club also collects garbage disposals, in addition to vacuums and small appliances. He has them right there on display with everything else.

We had a Sears disposal for years, the kind you turn on and off with the sink stopper. I think those may have been made by ISE. Never gave a moment's problem. I'm not sure what mom has in the house now, but it is used successfully with a septic tank. It had a switch to reverse the blades and a wrench to use in the event of a jam, which we never had to use.

I've always had Sears or ISE, and they've all been good. We had problems in the house I"m living in now at first, but I think it was a plumbing thing. We had the roto rooter come out and clean the line and it's been fine since. The previous owner was using a 30 year old cheap disposal that was probably dull and slowly clogging things up, and the roto rooter man thought the line had never been cleaned, and said there was only about a pinky finger's space left in that big pipe for stuff to flow.
 
I have a 3/4HP Kenmore that I picked out when I was 10. Much better than the Jenn-Air in our old house...I remember that vibrating horribly.

It's been going strong for 6 years considering we put EVERYTHING down the drain, and runs just as smoothly as it did when it was new.

Still wouldn't mind having a high-end Waste King though.

--Austin
 
The Worst Disposer I ever owned....

It had to have been an Emerson. I never had one stop up continuously as this one did. I was forever having to work it over with a plumber's friend and sometimes a dose of liquid drano or plummer. Potato peelings would stop it up. when it was about 7 years old the bottom corroded out and water began gushing through it like a sieve. I ran to Sears and pick-up a Kenmore 3/4 horse. That was a great disposer-only stopped up once in 7 years. Currently, I have a GE which works quite well, can do some mean grinding and doesn't stop up. (I moved). Nothing was as bad as an Emerson 1/2 horse. I don't belive KM was made by Emerson.
 
I remember now the first disposer we ever had. It was a Youngstown. It worked about 4 years and quit-I don't really know what was wrong with it except that when you flipped the toggle on the wall above the counter, the motor hummed and the switch smoked. We never got it fixed as usual. It had a turquoisish body and a square red stopper.
 
Disposers

Love-em and collect them as well!!Who is the other fellow that collects them? thought I was the only one.the way things are going now there is only two disposal makers-ISE and Aneheim Manufacturing-They make Sinkmaster,GE,Waste King-ISE makes their brand,Badger,Sears Kenmore,and Emerson.I like the Vintage Waste King and Maytag models(yes Maytag used to make dispoers-and VERY GOOD ones)The Waste King and Maytag machines had "undercutters" under the flywheel that chopped stringy-fibrous waste so it wouldn't clog your waste lines.Kitchen Aid also made an EXCELLENT machine-(now ISE)with a cast iron flywheel-fixed hammers and a micron cast steel grind ring.It took a while to shred waste-but was well shredded and good for septic tank owners.sadly no one makes a cast steel shredder anymore-would stay sharper longer and last longer.the cast rings just don't last and the cutters wear too quickly.present ISE's last and work-but don't cut and shred waste fine enough for septic tank users(I am on one)I use an old Vita-Mix container on my 2.5Hp Vita mix to shred the waste-The ISE batch feed disposall in my sink died years and years ago-the starter parts were taken out of it.Its a 77 model with fixed hammers and a cast shredder ring.Would love it if it still worked.At how long its been out of service-bet the seals would go if you could start it-also its hard to find batch feeder models anymore.They are easier to install-you just need an outlet for it.The switch is built into the machine!its started or stopped by the drain stopper.Another4 note I breifly used a 15Hp ISE disposer in a college cafeteria-was mounted on a dish "scrapper" table.Had a sink that you rinsed the food scraps in before loading the dishes into a "pass-thru" dishwasher.The base of that disposer set on the floor with 4 large SS legs.Ran off 480V 3Ph power-would shred anything you dropped in it-That monster Loved large bones and flatware!!that would definetly clean the shredders!also had a reversable motor.I afraid that one would be too big for my collection!And no way to run it at home!
 
The house I grew up in (and still live in) was built in 1952. At building, it had a Hotpoint Electric Sink with dishwasher and Disposall...that sink and dishwasher lasted until 1975, and a new GE diswasher was installed. No disposer. In 1990, when the house became mine, I installed another new GE dishwasher and a KitchenAid disposer. The dishwasher died in 1998, and was replaced by a Maytag (one of the best and quietest I have ever used). The KitchenAid disposer is going strong, having never been repaired or causing a clogged drain. Not a bad kitchen appliance history for a 53 yr old house that I have lived in for 43 yrs.....
 

SactoTeddyBear

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 25, 2004
Messages
1,302
Re: Garbage Disposals:

Hi! Club Friends, I had a Waste-King Disposal given to me in the 1960s, by one of our Neighbors. Our house had the Electric Receptical and Switch already installed, but no Disposal installed when my Parent's bought the house. It operated for several years, before it gave up. In the mean time, I had a Friend whos Parents had a In-Sinker-A-Tor Disposal Model #77, with the larger Motor and Auto Reverse. When out Waste-King quit, I bought a similar Model for my Parent's house and 2-houses thru the years that I had bought. I don't remember why, but I took the In-Sinker-A-Tor out of this house to sell with my 2nd house and I've installed a Maytag 3/4-hp Reversible Disposal here in 1995 and I really like it. It is really fairly quite and without Water running, for a quick On & Off, you can hear the Clutch operating during that "Test" period. Between the Maytag and the In-Sinker-A-Tor, I would buy either one stil today, over other Brands. I can "BTW" totally agree about the GE's being quite Noisy. One of my Aunts and Uncles had a "Batch-Feed" GE Disposal and it was terribly Noisy. It also had the Switch/Catch on the Cover being broken, so you had to reach just inside the opening to turn the Disposal Off, fortunately you didn't have to reach down too far, to reach the Switch. That Disposal also at one time had my Aunts "Scotch-Brite" Pads accidentally go into it and it got grounded up pretty small, before we found out what had happened to the Pad "OOPS" oh well, just get another one out to use. "BTW" again, my Aunt and Uncle also had the GE Dishwasher Pull-Out Drawer, with the Rotary Timer Control that's been shown recently on these Thread Postings. The Kitchen Appliances came with the house, including a GE "P-7" Self-Clean 30-inch Electric Stove and a GE Refrigerator, that had the Swivel Shelves, with a Button in the Middle-Front of the Shelves that you pushed to release the Locking for the Shelves Turntable movement, when they bought it, after my Uncle got out of the Military. They also had a 7-cu/ft GE Chest Freezer, that fit real nice next to the Refrigerator, next also to the Dinning Room "BBQ" Fireplace-Like Cooking area. He wanted to move back to the Town that he grew up in "Mariposa" near Yosimite National Park. They also had the 1950s RCA Whirlpool Washer/Dryer Combo, just like Robert "Unimatic-1140" has. They bought the house from the Architect who designed the house and it had Italian Tiles that matched from Tile to Tile, on the Floor, in almost all of the Rooms, including the Kitchen, Laundry Room and even in the Bath Rooms. The Master Bed Room and other Bed Room didn't have the Tile in them though.

Anyway, that is my "History" of Garbage Disposals and some of my Relatives neat Appliances.

Peace and Happiness, Steve
SactoTeddyBear...
 
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