Maintaining Your Garbage Disposal

A garbage disposal is a very convenient appliance to have in your kitchen. It makes clean up after meals a breeze, keeps your house smelling fresh and clean and helps reduce the amount of garbage you need to dispose of. In addition, it increases the value of your home, since prospective house buyers look for convenience and updated, well-maintained appliances when looking to buy a new home.

Here are some helpful tips for maintaining your garbage disposal:

-Use your disposal on a regular basis to help prevent build-up of rust, corrosion and clogs. Any time you use your sink to prepare food or wash dishes you should run your disposal to prevent food particles from building up in the drain.

-Always run cold water while using your garbage disposal. Hot water can cause fats and grease to solidify which in turn cause clogging.

-Only use your disposal for non-toxic liquids and soft food items.

-Do not pour hazardous materials down your garbage disposal, including chemicals, solvents, pesticides or cleansers. Also, avoid putting in any hard food items such as seeds and fruit stones, bones, popcorn kernels and egg shells because they have a tendency of wrapping around the blades of the garbage disposal.

-Before running the disposal, make sure there are no non-food items in the sink to prevent clogging the garbage disposal.

-Periodically fill the garbage disposal with ice cubes, rock salt or vinegar and then run, to keep the blades on your garbage disposal clean and sharp.

-To keep your disposal and kitchen smelling fresh and clean periodically pour vinegar or baking soda down it. Grinding up an orange or lemon peel is also very effective and smells great too.

Keeping your garbage disposal well-maintained is not difficult or time-consuming. Just follow these simple maintenance tips to keep your garbage disposal in good working order, and it will serve you well for years and years to come.