You may have lucked out, then. At work I unjam at least 1 disposal a week, most of them being Insinkerator Badgers, which in general are good.
Potato peelings are only a problem if folks put a lot down at once, and then it isn’t the disposal that’s the issue, but the peelings that get washed down into the pipes, where they clog. Usually we don’t have clogs, but jammed disposals. Pennies, plastic bits, rags, broken glass (I wanted to hurt a few residents after finding that surprise), screws, bones, shells… anything small and hard, really.
Jammed disposals are the reason I recommend getting a model you can use a disposer wrench on. The goobers on our construction team have been installing models that you have to dismantle in order to unjam. Terrible.
This is also true in the states. Most municipal sewer systems are already overloaded and it is generally more environmentally sound to just throw the scraps into the trash. Of course, it’s best if you compost it. My sister has 3 garbage disposals in her kitchen. Save the sewers for turds and toilet paper.
I’ve heard slightly different: you should scrape off excess stuff (bits of sauce / small bits of food are fine but I’d imagine anything that could actually fall off in chunks might be overkill!). We use the fork or spoon that we ate with, to scrape off the stuff. We don’t usually rinse - with any modern dishwasher that should be unnecessary. Oh - rice left on dishes = bad idea - for some reason, I find that even a few grains tend to get redeposited on the dishes. I think they’re too light to flow to the dishwasher’s built-in disposal unit.
Most dishwashers these days do have built-in grinders to deal with little bits of food. The exception, IIRC, is some of the European models, which have traps you have to manually clean every few days.
The higher-end models have stainless steel tubs. Which look nice but don’t add anything to the functioning - though a salesperson told me they have better insulation so are quieter. We bought one with a stainless liner for that reason.
Disposal: I’m thinking of doing a kitchen remodel in the next few months and seriously thinking of swapping out my wall-switch-controlled disposal for one of the ones where you have to put in a special handled-plug and turn it, right in the sink. Mainly because the control switch is on a shared double-switchplate with the over-the-sink light and we’re sick of turning on the “light” and getting that grinding sound instead Yeah, you can’t toss additional stuff down those while they’re running, but I never do that anyway.
Regarding dishwashers: Mice ate my fittings three times. Who knew an appliance could be so attractive to vermin?
Regarding garbage disposals: I don’t have one, and in fact, my kitchen sink drains out of a pipe directly into the creek on my property. I peel potatos and stuff over the garbage can. This is one appliance I don’t think I’ll ever feel a need for.
Take a look at the old disposal, the mounting plate may match up with a current model, so the swap out will be simplicity itself. I heartily agree with getting a 3/4hp model, that’s what I went with. Even with that power, it won’t eat everything, I put some fat and gristle down there once, and all I got was a disposal full of ground up snot that I had to remove by hand… bleh.
If you use the disposal as a convenience instead of the only place you throw food, you’ll have fewer problems. Don’t try to cram the turkey carcass from Thanksgiving down there no matter how much it calls to you.
Seriously, I’ve had disposals since I was a kid living with my parents. I’ve have the disposal not turn maybe twice in my adult life, and a broom handle fixed it. I put almost anything down it (I don’t personally put bones, but my parents do and they don’t have problems either.)
I do know that one thing my Dad taught me was ALWAYS always always run the water when the disposal is going. Maybe that’s what’s saved me?
Well, one good thing about the stainless steel tubs is, they won’t discolor. Which is something that should be mentioned: with modern dishwashers, you normally don’t have to prerinse, but you may want to make an exception for items covered with tomato sauce. Excessive amounts of tomato sauce can, over time, stain the inside of your dishwasher, especially the plastic in the door. And once it’s stained, it’s stained for good.
I’ll echo the advice to pay extra for a super-quiet dishwasher. Our old dishwasher was so loud that we would set it to run it in the middle of the night. The new one is so quiet that we hardly notice it running. A delayed start feature is nice also.
We’ve had a garbage disposal and a septic tank for eight years, with no problems. We scrape most large food scraps into the trash, but if you have something like a half-eaten bowl of cereal, that’s really mushy and gross to pour into the garbage can, it’s nice to be able to dump it down the sink.
I agree! This is a very important factor, particularly if you take a lot of phone calls in the kitchen. Our dishwasher is pretty loud (better than the last one) but I think it’s because we have to go with the low-end models due to space constraints.
If properly installed, the drain hose shouldn’t ever back fill into the dishwasher. A portion of the hose should be above the disposal (or portion of the sink plumbing you can also choose to drain into - not a requirement to drain into a dipsoser). The drain hose “high loop” height recommended in the dishwasher installation guides that I write (for a high-end manufacturer of the stainless tub, super-quiet variety) is 20".
Another post here somewhere mentions the removable filter you must clean yourself. My dishwasher has been in use for about 6 months and I haven’t had to rinse my filter yet.
Regarding whether or not to pre-rinse, the operation manuals I write recommend to scrape off the big chunks but not to rinse. The detergent is meant to act on food soil. If none is present, ithe soap will act on your glassware and turn it cloudy (called “etching” in the industry).
I’ll also add that it is a fun party trick to have a guest open my dishwasher to load something inside and discover that it is actually running. The only time I hear anything at all is during the drain cycle and the sound is coming from the sink area, not the dishwasher.
Thanks for the input, y’all! I’ll have to crawl under the sink and try to figure out the make and model of the non-functioning disposal that’s already there. All I know now is that it’s a lovely shade of burnt orange. I’m futzing around over at Sears dot com trying to balance price with good user reviews.
I’m still skeptical about whether I actually even need a garbage disposal, but hubby wants one. I just keep remembering the time my grandfather tried to get rid of a box of outdated Potato Buds by dumping them down his disposal and turning it on. :eek:
I have a pretty old disposal and it works fine, however the other year I was struck by a blinding bolt of the obvious and realized that pretty much everything I put down it can go into my yard waste bin with the grass clippings and whatnot. I have one of the stainless containers with a spring-loaded “step to open” lids and a removable plastic bucket.
Now the only time I use the disposal is…hm, just about never these days. When I remodel the kitchen not sure if I’ll get one at all. Will definitely have a dishwasher though.
FWIW, the worst clogged disposal I ever witnessed was a few years back when my dingbat roommate tried to stuff 2-3 artichokes worth of leaves down the thing. She might as well have run 100 yards of hemp rope through the disposal. Took me three days and a ton of work with boiling water and a plunger to clear.
The only time I see problems is when the drain line from the dishwasher wasn’t properly installed. It should be fastened to the underside of the counter within the sink base cabinet and then loop down to the waste inlet of the disposal. Regarding brands, I owned a Maytag and it was excellent. Other good brands are Thermador and Bosch.
If ya’ want to do some futzing for user reviews, check consumer reports and J.D. Power & Associates Customer Satisfaction awards.
Forgot to mention in my earlier post regarding etching on glassware - most people use WAY TOO MUCH soap. If you have soft water, you need at the most a teaspoon, a little more if your water is on the hard side. If you are fillilng the entire dispenser up to the top with soap, you are using too much.
Visiting my parents onetime I noticed that Dad was adamant about installing all the knives, forks and spoons pointing “up” in the basket, which was in my mind somewhat dangerous, as well as nominally unsanitary. He maintained that they just weren’t getting clean unless they were installed that way.
Investigating further, I removed the upper and lower spray arms and noticed they were clogged with all sorts of crap, mostly long, thin strips of clear or white, shredded plastic material, like cellophane or thick plastic wrap.
Not much water was getting through the jets. Worked a LOT better after this - and although the Great Silverware Controversy (tines and blades up, or down) has not subsided, I was wondering - where in the hell did all this plastic come from - I check it now and then and still get a pretty good “harvest” of this crap. I mused that somehow, maybe something went down the disposal that shouldn’t have, and ended up in the dishwasher??
I put forks and spoons pointing up as you can get more in the basket that way, and the business ends will still be dispersed enough to get a good cleaning. Knives go points down as there is no space benefit in being point up, and for safety reasons.
Usually spray arm clogs are from hard water (lime or whatever). Since your stuff seems like plastic another guess would be that somebody washed a disposable utensil or container or plate or something that got chewed up in the macerator and sent back through a cycle.
My vote on the Great Silverware Controversy is that whichever end is pointing up is going to get cleaner by virtue of it’s exposure to the spray so it’s “eatin’ end” up for me.
Another vote for the biggest garbage disposal motor you can get. The worst thing for clogging in my experience is asparagus and artichokes. Putting a lemon down the disposal makes things smell nice.
Yeah, you can’t toss additional stuff down those while they’re running, but I never do that anyway.