They aren’t any trouble, you wash dishes as normal and while the water is running, turn on the garbage disposal (almost always another light switch).
I don’t use them that often even when I do live someplace with one, though.
Concur, but I think hand washing of dishes is a completely different affair in the USA to what it is here in the UK - I’m pretty sure that the American mode of operation involves scrubbing the dishes under a constantly-running stream of water.
I agree with other posters that say the horror stories you hear in this thread, while I’m sure they happen, have never happened to me in the 15+ years I’ve owned houses with garbage disposals. Granted, I don’t abuse mine, but in regular usage they have been trouble free for me.
You’ll find them in a lot of the newer, upscale houses in Canada.
Best not to put fibrous material in them, as mentioned - banana peels, corn husks, etc. I never tried bones - that does not sound good. Eggshells and icecubes, yes, hard but “crunchable” will scour any buildup of goop like grease that adheres to the garburator.
The theory is it grinds material to a fluid that washes down the drain. Considering that a good garburation is a lot less fluid than sink of water, and a lot less dense than a toilet flush, (and done less often than a flush in an average household) it probably has not added much to the toal volume sent down the sewer each day.
Plugs can occur from grease buildup in the sewer line, incorrect drainage (an uphill section so carried matter settles), roots breaking into the line, etc. If you get a plug-up form a garburator, you were going to get one eventually anyway. Simple all-fluid draining (many flushes, bathtubs, sinks, shaving, washing machines) should wash down any normal settled garbage from not running the water long enough during grinding.
You should always run the water for about 5 to 10 seconds before and after running the grinder.
Grease down the drain problems have nothing to do with the garburetor, except that you have a larger surface to coat and start to stink before the water/sewergas trap.
We have a garbage disposal economy is the USA. The fees/costs/etc associated with running the local city plumbing is based upon extra costs that disposals heap on top of the standard costs of doing sewer business. If we all ditched our garbage disposals, all the municipalities wouldn’t exactly realize a 5% lower operating budget and cut our rates accordingly. “Well, lookie here. People have been giving up their garbage disposals and our costs are lower. Let’s pass that on to the homeowner! Golly!”
Now that we have a garbage disposal sewer/utility baseline of operating costs, which has already been reflected in consumer sewer/utility costs, we should continue on with our ways.
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I never understand all the doom & gloom around garbage disposals.
I’ve had one my entire adult life (20+ years now). My parents have had one since at least the mid-1970s (40+ years). My brothers all have one. I know plenty of people who’ve had them.
Number of times I’ve ever had to call roto-rooter or a plumber because of them: zero
Number of times my parents have had to: zero
Brothers/friends: not enough that anyone has complained to me about them.
I don’t understand why they have this reputation as some sort of horrible plumbing-destroying things. I think it’s handy to be able to flush food down the sink; it’s certainly handy when you find those icky moldy things in the back of the fridge and garbage day isn’t for a week.
Of course, I don’t put bones or popsicle sticks or ten tons of carrot/potato peels in them. But I do put lots of vegetable scraps, plenty of old food, and pretty big chunks. LOTS of stuff bigger than peas. Never had a problem. Never called a plumber.
Yea, I would say (anecdotally) that their “trouble” is overstated in these forums. Most people have them, love them, and have never had an significant issues with them (unless they are putting stupid things in them).
In practice, it’s not going to grind solids into a fully emulsified fluid with water though. It’ll be a watery sort of sludge, from which some of the particles will drop out of suspension and fall to the bottom of the pipe between the house and main sewer, where it may or may not be washed away by the next batch of water washing through
Concur. In addition, most dishwashers are connected to the disposal to take care of orts that come off in the dishwasher.
They are damn good at turning nice silverware into garage sale surplus (in addition to make quite the racket in the process)
Well, they’re especially useful if you’ve got liquidy food waste - from a bowl of soup, or the milk leftover once you’ve eaten most of your cereal. Those are quite messy to deal with in a trash can.
Yes, you may have a sink strainer but it’s still hard to get all the bits without some going down the drain, and the disposal will ensure that anything that gets through is too small to cause clogs.
Re step 4,
- you don’t actually wait for them to start decomposing - that way lies Nasty Smells. You do your dishes, then run a bit of water and run the disposal right away.
HA… that’s what you think. I’ve been doing that in my home for 16 years!
Seriously, I HAVE been putting most basic food scraps (no bones, shells, peels, grease, etc) like the last few bites left over on the dinner plate down the GD for my entire life. I have never had to call a plumber, nor have my parents (from whom I learned this habit). Worst I’ve ever had happen is to have to shut off the power and pull something out of it that shouldn’t have been put in (coin, fork, something the kids thought made sense). No problems ever on the output side of the GD.
When we remodeled the kitchen about 6 years ago, I remember when shopping for a new GD that the one we bought advertised that it could handle something like 3 pounds of beef bones (not that I’ve tested this claim).
Oh yeah, Grandpa lived to 104 (but he didn’t smoke).
Here ya go: I’ve had a garbage disposal for just over 15 years, and I’ve never had a problem. I’ve also got ancient plumbing.
I don’t put bones, fruit pits or anything fibrous in it, like corn husks or potato peelings, and I never dump grease in it, but I do put eggshells and coffee grounds in it all the time.
Grandpa smoked and drank, and ate eggs and red meat every day. He died when he was 64.
First, I quoted operating instructions from a reputable manufacturer. Not advertising. So far you have provided anecdotes of doom and gloom.
Further, my future Father-in-law a licensed master plumber with 42 years experience kindly disagrees with your assessment.
I’m willing to have my ignorance fought, but given the contrary evidence I will need a little more than just your word.
ETA. I have to go with what md2000 said regarding drain blockages.
Yeah, but the price of a new disposal every 20 years (or more, mine is still going strong) is more than made up for by the convenience of just dumping whatever the hell I please into it.
Plumbing standards say the pipe should have a drop of what - 1inch in 4 feet or something? That should be sufficient that unless you are flushing metal nuggets down the drain, the bits will wash into the sewer system. Too steep and the water will flow away without carrying the oorts(?) or turds; and too level, the flow is not fast enough to keep washing the stuff along.
What happens is that in some houses, over the years, the slope may change as the pipes settle, creating a “dead spot” where the slope does not permit proper solid/sludge removal; a buildup will result and a rooter job is needed.
I still think - look how long it takes to fill up a sink - the water has to run a heckuva lot longer than I typically run my garburator. Plus, I have flushes, bathtubs, and washing machines that dump a lot more water down over the day/week. Garburators do not add that much to sewage disposal. (I also eat a lot of what’s on my plate - so leftovers and the bits cut off while preparing vegetables do not usually make a huge volume of waste…)
I would not live without a garbage disposal if I could help it, they’re the bee’s patellas. I have never, ever had any problem in over three decades of disposin’.
As for my grandpa, he live to 94. Coincidentally, his demise involved a garbage disposal, a long beard, and a wall-mounted telephone that was on the other side of the kitchen.
(I kid)
mmm
In fact I recall reading the problem was the opposite- that low-flush toilet rules in the last decade or two have so reduced the amount of water in the sewage treament plants that it causes problems.
You’ve got it all wrong. We just throw the dirty dishes in the trash and buy new ones individually wrapped in their own volume and weight of plastic packaging. Which we also throw out. We let the sink run so you don’t hear the sound of all that packaging going in the trash. 
Don’t remember ever seeing one of those, although I’m aware of the concept. I don’t know if they’re common in Montreal.
A garbage grinder is something I wouldn’t expect to see in anything less than an upper middle-class residence.
ETA: perhaps my cousin has one, though I couldn’t say for sure. That sounds like the kind of thing he’d have in his house. (He lives in Kanata.)