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Remedies for Disposer Smell?
- Thread starter rp2813
- Start date
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You don't need a stopper.. even a plastic bag can help. you just need to hold the water time enought to fill the sink and release it at once.
verizonbear
Well-known member
3 belt westy-----
As a renter, and as a responsible renter, I am dismayed by your insinuation that all tenants are irresponsible and do not care about the landlord's property. I do a better job of maintaining this property than my landlord does, and I am about to sink over a hundred dollars into capital improvements, including better lighting in the living room, kitchen, and bathroom. Drop ceiling with flourescents(sp). I am having new fixtures put in.
I have replaced the kitchen faucet, I have had the front door rehung and weather-stripped, I had the washer and dryer connections put in, I replaced the showerhead with a low water one--I could increase the list!......
It has been my experience (and this is ONLY my experience)--being a renter since 1996--that landlords who think all their tenants are lazy and destructive tend to get lazy and destructive tenants.
In future, please try not to tar all renters with the same brush.
Lawrence/Maytagbear
As a renter, and as a responsible renter, I am dismayed by your insinuation that all tenants are irresponsible and do not care about the landlord's property. I do a better job of maintaining this property than my landlord does, and I am about to sink over a hundred dollars into capital improvements, including better lighting in the living room, kitchen, and bathroom. Drop ceiling with flourescents(sp). I am having new fixtures put in.
I have replaced the kitchen faucet, I have had the front door rehung and weather-stripped, I had the washer and dryer connections put in, I replaced the showerhead with a low water one--I could increase the list!......
It has been my experience (and this is ONLY my experience)--being a renter since 1996--that landlords who think all their tenants are lazy and destructive tend to get lazy and destructive tenants.
In future, please try not to tar all renters with the same brush.
Lawrence/Maytagbear
My 2 cents on disposals.........
Grind several handfuls, or even a binful of ice cubes. Someone may have mentioned this, but I don't remember seeing it.
I have heard about ice cubes from many plumbers. I do not currently have a disposer, but when I did, I did send ice down on a regular basis.
Lawrence/Maytagbear
Grind several handfuls, or even a binful of ice cubes. Someone may have mentioned this, but I don't remember seeing it.
I have heard about ice cubes from many plumbers. I do not currently have a disposer, but when I did, I did send ice down on a regular basis.
Lawrence/Maytagbear
3beltwesty
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2010
- Messages
- 1,057
Renters
Lawerence;
A neighbor in California in the a mirrored apartment to mine use to run hot water down the disposal and dump grease down there too. Thus one comes home to find ones kitchen sink overflowing; since the neighbor used a plunger and forced the barf looking food into ones apartment. I had that happen 4 to 5 times in a high rent apartment, in an exclusive area. My experience is that renters tear up stuff and do not give a damn. Thus you and I can be goodie two shoes as a renter and do ZERO damage and other rotten renters do massive damage.
An associate of mine had 5 rental houses. He always had renters tearing stuff up.; One renter had a cat, that was suppose to be a house cat. It turned out to be a mountain lion. The big cat pooped and peed and tore the whole house up. The cat did its business in the living room. The Los Angeles experts who rid houses of dead corpse smells could not rid the house of the cats odor even with thousands spent. To FIX the problem involved jack hammering about a 14x16 foot section of the slab; since the concrete held the big male cat's urine smell. It cost about 45K two decades ago to fix that rental house. The real animals were the renters.
ie was not their house thus they tore it up.
In cars; one place I worked had our clients folks who arrived go out for breaks in the parking lot trying to break their rental cars. They would rev the engines full throttle and have the brakes on and get the car to go back and forth fore and aft and make the care move sideways as it learched. The air would be full of burned automatic transmission fluid. They worked at a very respected well known company.
In California at my apartment complex the other renters tore up the washers and dryers in short order, thus most never worked. Some scummy types would place BM in the dryers; thus they stank and were not usable. This was at a place that was high rent too.
In Equipment rentals; shops want robust tools since renters sometimes are very hard on tools
Lawerence;
A neighbor in California in the a mirrored apartment to mine use to run hot water down the disposal and dump grease down there too. Thus one comes home to find ones kitchen sink overflowing; since the neighbor used a plunger and forced the barf looking food into ones apartment. I had that happen 4 to 5 times in a high rent apartment, in an exclusive area. My experience is that renters tear up stuff and do not give a damn. Thus you and I can be goodie two shoes as a renter and do ZERO damage and other rotten renters do massive damage.
An associate of mine had 5 rental houses. He always had renters tearing stuff up.; One renter had a cat, that was suppose to be a house cat. It turned out to be a mountain lion. The big cat pooped and peed and tore the whole house up. The cat did its business in the living room. The Los Angeles experts who rid houses of dead corpse smells could not rid the house of the cats odor even with thousands spent. To FIX the problem involved jack hammering about a 14x16 foot section of the slab; since the concrete held the big male cat's urine smell. It cost about 45K two decades ago to fix that rental house. The real animals were the renters.
ie was not their house thus they tore it up.In cars; one place I worked had our clients folks who arrived go out for breaks in the parking lot trying to break their rental cars. They would rev the engines full throttle and have the brakes on and get the car to go back and forth fore and aft and make the care move sideways as it learched. The air would be full of burned automatic transmission fluid. They worked at a very respected well known company.
In California at my apartment complex the other renters tore up the washers and dryers in short order, thus most never worked. Some scummy types would place BM in the dryers; thus they stank and were not usable. This was at a place that was high rent too.
In Equipment rentals; shops want robust tools since renters sometimes are very hard on tools
3beltwesty
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2010
- Messages
- 1,057
As far as a grease; some landlords prefer enzymes versus hot water and moving the grease down further to cool and clump/re-solidify.
Just unplugging the disposal and wiping the inside wall will often remove crud that is stuck.
In my Apartment heydays the apartment repair guy would place another 29 buck Badger 1 disposal in an Apartment once somebody complained or the apartment was vacated. The replaced the dishwashers like this too; they cost about 170 bucks wholesale.
If one does serious cooking and owns ones home on can add a grease trap; or design the plumbing to be cleaned out with ease to remove that grease.
Just unplugging the disposal and wiping the inside wall will often remove crud that is stuck.
In my Apartment heydays the apartment repair guy would place another 29 buck Badger 1 disposal in an Apartment once somebody complained or the apartment was vacated. The replaced the dishwashers like this too; they cost about 170 bucks wholesale.
If one does serious cooking and owns ones home on can add a grease trap; or design the plumbing to be cleaned out with ease to remove that grease.
Ralph, is the P-trap under the sink holding water to prevent sewer gas from coming up through the disposer drain? Also, have you checked the drains under the house to make sure there isn't a sanitary leak down there causing the off odors?
Personally I don't think the small amounts of grease on dirty dishes/pans in the dishwasher would be a problem, especially if they are saponified by action of the alkaline dishwasher detergent. Same with grease in the dishpan - add enough detergent to solubilize it before draining. Of course, any large amounts of grease (such as after cooking bacon etc) should be discarded in the trash, compost pile, or saved to make soap or explosives.
You do have a lemon tree, so you might try running some lemon quarters through the disposer. However don't overdo it if you think there is a clogging problem.
When was the last time you snaked the line between the sink and the main sanitary?
Personally I don't think the small amounts of grease on dirty dishes/pans in the dishwasher would be a problem, especially if they are saponified by action of the alkaline dishwasher detergent. Same with grease in the dishpan - add enough detergent to solubilize it before draining. Of course, any large amounts of grease (such as after cooking bacon etc) should be discarded in the trash, compost pile, or saved to make soap or explosives.
You do have a lemon tree, so you might try running some lemon quarters through the disposer. However don't overdo it if you think there is a clogging problem.
When was the last time you snaked the line between the sink and the main sanitary?
cehalstead
Well-known member
smelly disposer
My ancient KitchenAid disposer never smelled. However, the replacement, made somewhere else but here, smells frequently. I finally "discovered" Disposer Care, which is packets of some kind of stuff that makes a lot of blue foam when used as directed. One simply runs the hot water for a minute, drops the entire packet (unopened) into the disposer after turning the hot water flow down to a pencil sized trickle, turns on the disposer and runs it until the foam disappears. Done! and the smell is gone. Found it in the detergent aisle of my grocery store, and costs approximately $1.00 per use. Maker suggests once a week, but I have found that once a month usually works for me.
My ancient KitchenAid disposer never smelled. However, the replacement, made somewhere else but here, smells frequently. I finally "discovered" Disposer Care, which is packets of some kind of stuff that makes a lot of blue foam when used as directed. One simply runs the hot water for a minute, drops the entire packet (unopened) into the disposer after turning the hot water flow down to a pencil sized trickle, turns on the disposer and runs it until the foam disappears. Done! and the smell is gone. Found it in the detergent aisle of my grocery store, and costs approximately $1.00 per use. Maker suggests once a week, but I have found that once a month usually works for me.
Dishwasher powder (not tablets)
If you can get your hands on dishwasher powder or gel just dump a pretty large quantity of it into the sink (with the plug stopper in place).
Fill the sink with hot water (from tap (about 60ºC), not boiling water). If you use boiling water you will prevent enzyme action from occurring.
Using a spoon or spatula and ensuring that you do not splash make sure that the solution is well-stirred.
Then, wearing rubber gloves remove the stopper. I would suggest that you fit a chain or string to the stopper to make it possible to remove without dunking your hands into the sink.
Let that flow into the disposal unit and leave it for about 3 hours.
Re-fill the sink with hot water.
Remove the stopper-plug.
Then start the disposal and rinse through!
That should shift pretty much anything.
Dishwasher detergent is ideal because it will break-down fats and grease as it contains powerful detergents. It will also dissolve proteins and food matter in general using enzymes and it will kill bacteria off too.
If you think the disposal is still likely to be full of bacteria. Do a final rinse of it by filling your sink with a solution of liquid chlorine bleach and letting that flush through the disposal. Rinse it through after about 30 mins.
Before you do that, ensure that there are NO other chemicals in the sink though. Chlorine bleach if mixed with certain cleaning agents e.g. limescale remover and some drain unblockers can produce highly toxic chlorine gas which can damage your eyes, skin, lungs and airways.
If you can get your hands on dishwasher powder or gel just dump a pretty large quantity of it into the sink (with the plug stopper in place).
Fill the sink with hot water (from tap (about 60ºC), not boiling water). If you use boiling water you will prevent enzyme action from occurring.
Using a spoon or spatula and ensuring that you do not splash make sure that the solution is well-stirred.
Then, wearing rubber gloves remove the stopper. I would suggest that you fit a chain or string to the stopper to make it possible to remove without dunking your hands into the sink.
Let that flow into the disposal unit and leave it for about 3 hours.
Re-fill the sink with hot water.
Remove the stopper-plug.
Then start the disposal and rinse through!
That should shift pretty much anything.
Dishwasher detergent is ideal because it will break-down fats and grease as it contains powerful detergents. It will also dissolve proteins and food matter in general using enzymes and it will kill bacteria off too.
If you think the disposal is still likely to be full of bacteria. Do a final rinse of it by filling your sink with a solution of liquid chlorine bleach and letting that flush through the disposal. Rinse it through after about 30 mins.
Before you do that, ensure that there are NO other chemicals in the sink though. Chlorine bleach if mixed with certain cleaning agents e.g. limescale remover and some drain unblockers can produce highly toxic chlorine gas which can damage your eyes, skin, lungs and airways.
At least the disposer acknowledges that it has teeth. lol
What great ideas. But when all else fails, go for the Massengil.
What great ideas. But when all else fails, go for the Massengil.
DISPOSER SMELL
A lot of good and a lot of overkill ideas have been suggested here. First of all this this is a little like smelly- moldy washers, it shouldn't happen in the first place. A properly used disposer should almost never develop an odor and it wouldn't if you grind plenty of citrus rinds, poultry bones, potato peals, coffee grinds, peach pits etc etc. It is true that a disposer should be generally run with
cold water when grinding food waste, but of course it won't hurt it in the least to run even boiling water through it.
I would never waste money on special cleaners or even regular detergents and lots of bleach trying to remove smells. First try turning on the disposer { with-out the water running ]start feeding ice cubes usually at least a full trays worth, then when the hopper is full of ground ice and no more ice can be added turn on the COLD water and let it swirl around till it all flushes down the drain. Many times when you do this you will see the ice turn brown from all the gunk that gets scoured out from under the rim of the hopper. Sometimes too the sink will monetarily back up when you start running the cold water and when it drains it will do so very forcefully and this really flushes the drain. This is the best method we ever found for cleaning disposers and it is much cheaper and environmentally more responsible than dumping lots of chemicals down the drain.
A lot of good and a lot of overkill ideas have been suggested here. First of all this this is a little like smelly- moldy washers, it shouldn't happen in the first place. A properly used disposer should almost never develop an odor and it wouldn't if you grind plenty of citrus rinds, poultry bones, potato peals, coffee grinds, peach pits etc etc. It is true that a disposer should be generally run with
cold water when grinding food waste, but of course it won't hurt it in the least to run even boiling water through it.
I would never waste money on special cleaners or even regular detergents and lots of bleach trying to remove smells. First try turning on the disposer { with-out the water running ]start feeding ice cubes usually at least a full trays worth, then when the hopper is full of ground ice and no more ice can be added turn on the COLD water and let it swirl around till it all flushes down the drain. Many times when you do this you will see the ice turn brown from all the gunk that gets scoured out from under the rim of the hopper. Sometimes too the sink will monetarily back up when you start running the cold water and when it drains it will do so very forcefully and this really flushes the drain. This is the best method we ever found for cleaning disposers and it is much cheaper and environmentally more responsible than dumping lots of chemicals down the drain.
I don't think I've ever had disposer hallitosis. I make it a routine habit when draining pasta, it's drained in the sink where the disposer is.
lotsosudz
Well-known member
I was told, by a plumber years ago to put three things down the disposal on a regular basis: eggshells, ice cubes, and chicken bones. To keep them fresh, fill the sink with hot water and bleach, pull the plug and let it roll. Follow it with a lemon, and it will cure any ills that they have. When I first moved into the house with my partner, and son, the kenmore 3/4 horse disposal just gummed everything to death. I followed the above regimen, and it is sharp as new, and takes anything you throw at it now.
Hugs David
Hugs David
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[COLOR=black; font-size: 10.5pt]I agree with John, A lot of good ideas and a lot of overkill ideas too. Here's what I've done on the very few occasions I've had any issues with disposer "smell".[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=black; font-size: 10.5pt]My suggestion: lemons. I take a whole lemon and quarter it. Turn on the water (cold or warm), turn on the disposer, toss in a quarter of the lemon and a large handful of ice cubes at the same time. Run it until it’s quiet (empty) and repeat. Once it's running quiet again, add the two remaining lemon quarters at the same time (no ice cubes) and run until nothings left and it’s running quiet again.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=black; font-size: 10.5pt]This has worked for me and leaves a nice lemon smell for a few days.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=black; font-size: 10.5pt]Good luck with it Ralph![/COLOR]
[COLOR=black; font-size: 10.5pt]Kevin[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=black; font-size: 10.5pt]I agree with John, A lot of good ideas and a lot of overkill ideas too. Here's what I've done on the very few occasions I've had any issues with disposer "smell".[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=black; font-size: 10.5pt]My suggestion: lemons. I take a whole lemon and quarter it. Turn on the water (cold or warm), turn on the disposer, toss in a quarter of the lemon and a large handful of ice cubes at the same time. Run it until it’s quiet (empty) and repeat. Once it's running quiet again, add the two remaining lemon quarters at the same time (no ice cubes) and run until nothings left and it’s running quiet again.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=black; font-size: 10.5pt]This has worked for me and leaves a nice lemon smell for a few days.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=black; font-size: 10.5pt]Good luck with it Ralph![/COLOR]
[COLOR=black; font-size: 10.5pt]Kevin[/COLOR]
