What don't you put in the disposer?

[insulinpumpuser]

Is there anything that you guys/gals don't put into your disposer? My friends are shocked at what I put down my disposer. I guess they baby theirs. Not me. If I have old chinese food take out, you know those square containers? Well, at my house the container and all go down the disposer, along with tamale wrappers, whole corn cobs,etc. What do you do???.....Bill in Az.....

 

[toggleswitch]

LOL OMG.

Shove it ALL in now. Think about it later. How perfectly rugged!

I do throw an occasional bone in there to keep the blades sharp. (Please, please please, let it go!)

 

[mixfinder]

Disposal Rule

I use the same rule for the disposal as the dishwasher.
Everything goes in but the refrigerator.
After I saw Maytag demo their machines with 16 penny nails, I quit worrying. I like to have a full HP to back up the grinding teeth, under my sink.
It's also a great way to get rid of people who annoy me.
Kelly

 

[frigilux]

The cat.

 

[compactc9]

My mom is way too nice to ours. She is too afraid of food residue in it. I usually put any extra food down the disposal, throwing it in the trash is just nasty, and it can smell too.

 

[sudsmaster]

I once stopped up the plumbing by emptying a half-gallon of old sauerkraut (how can you tell it's spoiled, anyway???) down the Waste King. It went right through the disposer without much alteration. How do I know? It started bubbling up through the stall shower drain in the bath that was down stream!

I wound up sending about 40 feet of snake down that drain from the cleanout just outside the kitchen external wall. Thankfully, that fixed the problem. Must have been some sort of old clot of hair or something in that area of the plumbing (the tub and sink share it as well).

Since then I am reluctant to send pickled cabbage down the disposer. Although I realize that a lot of blame directed at garbage disposers is really due to plumbing that already had a partial clog - the disposer just "reveals" it when its relatively minor load of food bits catches up and makes it a full obstruction. I still prefer to send major chunks of relatively dry food garbage to the trash bin or compost pile. The disposer is handy for those bits that land in the sink during food prep, or for soupy stuff that I dont' want leaking out fo the trash.

 

[tolivac]

No paper or paper products-these can clog your plumbing-those should go in the trash--or your compactor-never in the disposer-the disposer can shred it-but the paper pulp will later clog your plumbing.This is especially true if you have a septic tank as I have.The paper pulp will fill it and it will have to be pumped frequently.Another thought if your dispoer has a plastic hopper or and old cast metal one-I would not put large beef or pork bones in it-I did once-got wet feet and a large bone sliver poking thru the hopper.the machine was an old "Bus-Boy" disposer.

 

[hoover1060]

Most everything goes...

except for onion peelings, they go right thru an ISE, unshredded!!
Hard stuff like bones and peach pits are good for them, keeps thngs clean.
I currently have a 1989 vintage Waste King installed in my kitchen. It has the cast ring, its slower than an ISE but really chews stuff down small!

 

[panthera]

me - everything the rest

of the family only water. Last summer I put in the best garbage disposal I could find in our little one-horse-two-cow town. One horsepower motor, etc.
You would still think it was the ancient one that came with the house 50 years before.
Nobody believes it can handle anything. I think Rich is right - the garbage disposals get blamed for stuff which isn't their fault.
I did have the drains reamed out before replacing the old one though and what a mess...
Oh, well - it does make a lovely whooshy sound while eating its 700$ way through water.
They are forbidden over here in Germany, by the way. Our ecological freaks force us all to recycle bio-mass so it can be composted.
Which means we have stinking rubbish bins and rats. Since the heavy metals are too high in the compost, it is then burnt anyway.
When I get back to my folk's place this summer, I will continue to through everything down the disposal which it was designed for. Bones, corn husks, banana peels, lobster shells included. The poor thing is probably starving to death!

 

[tolivac]

The beauty of the vintage WK machine-is the cast steel-and sharpened shred ring and undercutters-those are the things ISE's lack-the WK will "mulch" the waste better.That would explain the unshredded Onion peels.And the spacing between the flywheel of the ISE is greater than that of the WK-On the WK the peelings have to try to get between the edge of the flywheel-the hammers reach out further,and the undercutter.I don't like the idea of No disposers--those rubbish bins sound reallly nasty and the unhealthy things in them besides the rats--the "Eco-Freaks" are nuts.The disposer and sewage systems is the MORE "ecological" way to handle the waste.

 

[maytagbear]

In the three

previous apartments I had disposers, and loved them.

My current landlord has said that if I wanted to pay for one I could have one installed.

First apartment had an ISE Badger 5. I did not give it steak bones, but it had a lot of chicken bones and egg shells, and ran well. I know that some of you don't think much of the Badger 5, but it worked well for me. Not sure if I'd want it for more than one or two people, but for one or two, I think it would be adequate.

The second apartment had the BOL GE from the late 60s. I gave it essentially the same treatment as the Badger 5, and it ran nicely, until it died. The managment replaced it with essentially the same unit, now labeled "Whirlaway."

Third apartment had the same BOL GE, but I think it was a bit newer. No problems whatsoever.

I do miss a disposer. But at least the Dumpster is out back.

My disposer dream is an orginal Maytag, not the current rebadged ones. I keep hoping for NOS somewhere.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[tolivac]

Yes-I have used ISE Badgers-tough little guys!!For a cheap BOL machine they are not bad-In hard water areas the flywheel and shred rings will corrode away leaving you with the SS hammers!!I wouldn't put large bones in the Badger-that cast hopper may give you wet feet.In early days ran some non-food items thru them--IT ATE THE WHOLE THING!!and it came back for more!

 

[panthera]

Yup, Yup - you got that right, Rex

unfortunately, the Öko-Fundies firmly believe that we poor souls need educating in all aspects of life. Speaking as a teacher, I know that my students will approach and probably master material they initially resist much better if I give them a balanced, reasonable learning environment. This also means that I have to really listen to their reasons for not liking what I want them to learn.
As far as garbage disposals go, I believe the spread in quality between the best Insinkerators and the BOL is just too great to damn to whole line.
But it is funny to see my dad washing the dishes with soap before loading the dishwasher then carefully throughing the "garbage" out. At the next meal I just through everything not made of wood or cast iron into the dishwasher, flush the remains - bones and all down the disposal and away we go.
Germans have a funny perspective on things. Because they are much more human rights oriented than the current US government and the christians over here don't define their love of their god through hatred of everyone else, it is easy to think they are more "liberal" or "advanced" than folks in the US. But this is only true for those things which are in conflict with US culture. You wouldn't believe the lecturing I get every week when I take the dry rubbish out. How can I "only" recycle glass (green, brown, clear), white metal, and paper? What a pig I am, a disgrace to the human race...'till they hear my accent. Then they give me the old "the wonder is not how well the bear dances, the wonder is that it can dance at all look."
I bet a well designed septic system would take better care of disposing the "wet" rubbish hygenically and ecologically than this nonsense.
Best of all - all modern German sinks have the drain cut-out for the garbage disposal flange...

 

[panthera]

my spelling-checker does it agan!

 

[hoover1060]

Quality

The Badger talk is interesting, I had one in my last apartment, and it was a major POS!!
I've known others who have had badgers and they've worked very well.
Today's badgers are crapola, disposable machines.
I also liked the old fixed hammer/cast disk ISE's they worked very well too!

 

[foraloysius]

Keven,

I was wondering, is there even a European brand that makes disposers? Overhere some cities have forbidden them because they have old sewer systems. But in most cities in the Netherlands you can have disposers I think. They are still very rare though. I will have a look in a kitchen store sometime. I think I saw an ISE sometime.

 

[scott55405]

I have a dead Badger in my sink currently. Fortunately it's not a smelly one! LOL Out it's going to be replaced by the top line 1 HP Waste King model. Had a Badger in the 80s that was great; had one in the last place in Minnesota that was not so. Not to mention I don't know what was up but it kept backing up into the dishwasher and it was horrible. When I got the new dishwasher that never happened, so maybe the d/w installer did something to it to help.

Now here's what I want to know: in recent years I've had a spate of those situations like that described above where I think I'm "disposing" and end up with a clog and a sink full of debris-strewn water, to the point where I've almost been a little put off my disposals, which is not desirable to me. Am I doing something wrong, or is it the lack of disposal quality (hence my insistence on the best and most powerful disposal I have been able to find). In my parents' homes I fed the disposals everything but the kitchen sink itself and never once had an issue.

 

[lavamat_jon]

Louis,

I know AEG and Electrolux, as well as Hotpoint sell waste disposers here in the UK, but I'm not sure whether they actually make them, or if they are produced for them.

Jon

 

[panthera]

Louis,

I have seen disposalls for sale in London, but they sure looked like rebadged Insinkerators to me. If you do buy one - lucky you, the Netherlands are much more tolerant than Germany on such issues - be sure to go top of the line. My experience with that brand in the 'States was, the best is ok, the BOL stuff is absolute crap.

 

[panthera]

Scott,

There should always be a one-way valve between the dishwasher pump and the disposer connection (dishwashers usually empty directly into the disposal).
I have often read - and certainly my experience confirmed it - that the angle of the waste pipe from the disposal is crucial. If there is any bend or rise, waste will gather there with 100% certainty.
When I replaced my folk's 50+ year old unit last summer, I had the drains reamed out. It is unbelievable how much faster the water now drains. Obviously, here to there is a real danger of blockage from the disposall if the plumbing system is dirty or slightly clogged - or poorly laid in.
You can get the one-way valve at any marine or camping store in case your appliance dealer looks at you like you are crazy, make sure to get one rated for hot water. Bet your plumber used one and that is why the problem is solved.

 

[foraloysius]

I dove into this matter and the outcome is a little different than I assumed. According to European rules the draining of solid food particles through a disposer are forbidden. But it's not forbidden to sell or own them. Typical European law I think. I also found an article about a kitchen store giving them away with a kitchen in 1996 which caused apparently some huha from the government here. I don't think the government is controlling this actively.

 

[fnelson487]

I Have Always Put Everything Down It!

For the most part, I have always had TOL KitchenAid. The Hobarts could grind up most everything. I have a new KitchenAid which Jeff tells me is an ISE, still a good machine, but I miss the Wham-Jam button which vibrated the whole unit if it got jammed (Good-bye broom handles). The one thing I have learned over the years is that a good practice is to clean out the drain pipes all the way to the street if you put a new one in. Did that and have never had a problem. Thank goodness I haven't had to deal with a septic system. Just keep that water running and drain the DW through it.

 

[fnelson487]

One Thing!!

I just thought about one thing I never put down the disposer. Learned this one a while back. Corn silk from corn on the cob is asking for trouble. Other than that - bones, corn cobs, everything short of glass and paper. That reminds me, one of my housekeepers used to empty the bathroom trash cans with the central vac. Had to stop that business!!

 

[vivalalavatrice]

Disposer??? Ma figuriamoci...

I think that is a tipical American appliance! As Louis said in Europe you can buy and own a disposer while is forbidden to dispose rubbish (as any other solid particles) throughout the waste line of your kitchen! What a fun LOL...

Usually here in condos you have TWO separate wasteline: one for water closet only (which is bigger), and the other for bathroom and kitchen sink (wich is smaller). Different is for detached house thar are allowed to have only one wasteline...

We don't dispose any waste food, we compost for our garden!

 

[sudsmaster]

True story

In my town, around the year 1998, the local waste management service sent out mail to all its customers encouraging them to buy and use garbage disposers to reduce the amount of food waste in the trash... That seemed rather strange to me.

They also prohibited adding fruit from trees along with green waste they collected every week in huge bins.

A few years later - perhaps in response to pressure from the local sewage treatment plant and environmentalists - they reversed course and started handing out little 2 gallon green trash cans with lids, and made available little brown paper bags to put in them. You were supposed to put all your kitchen food waste in them and then add that to the huge green waste containers so it all could be composted at the local waste collection facility. They even started inspecting green waste containers and you'd get an annoying note left by the garbage man if you hadn't put any food waste in the container that week.

My neighbor and I were up in arms about this, because by that time we were both composting most of our food waste in our back yards.

I still can't get over how they were actually trying to shift part of the waste load to the local sewage treament plant...

 

[hoover1060]

wow

What fun is having a disposer if you can't use it?
Half the fun is the DRAMA of putting something down and listening to it devour!

 

[neptunebob]

Don't put macaroni or pasta down a disposer!

It will turn into dough in the drain pipe! We don't put much down our disposal because the drain line is poorly laid out (and prone to clog) but it's good to have the machine for gross food messes.

Awhile back, there was a thread about GE disposalls. Makes me wonder, why don't they promote there disposals more today - Seems like that company is not using their "Ecomagination". Nep

 

[hooverwheelaway]

Today I pondered putting the top of a pineapple down the disposal. I had just finished cutting it up, and had put all of the rest down it.. I then got the overwhelming feeling of really not wanting to clog then unclog the drain today, so I placed it in the trashcan and walked away.

Nobody got hurt.

 

[tolivac]

We need to convince Germans disposers are the way to go-and fun--We all can't have SSI or Komar shredder compactors in our homes-but you can have the disposer-grinds up stuff on a smaller scale.I would think disposer fans would love the shredder-compactor videos on the komar,SSI,Sanitech websites.Again can't see the desire for the "garbage bins"--unless you want to be swampted in rats,cockroaches,raccons,possums,and street cats.How nasty and dangerous-and you can't get your .22 and shoot at the rats.How unfun!!Thats interesting bout putting pasta down the disposer-never thought of it turning to dough and clogging the plumbing-like paper turning into pulp-rehardening and clogging the lines.For the above--bet the Roto-Rooter guy recommends putting those down the disposal so he can come back and rooter your plumbing!

 

[panthera]

yeah, well - don't hold your breath

Rex, you have not encountered stubborness until you have met a "grüner" Politiker. They care more about their ideas than about people.
We do have 'coons - and that is good, they chase away the rats.
Our rubbish collectors (no political correctness over here so janitors are still janitors and sanitary engineers are the women and men who design and install lavatory fixtures...) lecture us every week because of all the bad things we have done. For many years, coffee filters were forbidden in the "braune Tonnen" - the bio-rubbish bins. Now they are encouraged.
It is all one very big mess. We now have three paper containers and two bio- containers in our little rubbish shed. To make space for them, they took out two of the normal containers. And all the glass/plastic/white metal containers. So now we have overflowing "normal" trash, have to walk about 15 minutes to recycle the glass (3 colours), plastics (two types), white metals...and the bio-rubbish bins have resulted in rats so big the cats are afraid of them.
But the Greens want to expand this nonsense even further. In Munich, we will soon be punished with fines if the trash collectors find that we have not sorted our rubbish correctly.