Garbage Disposal Maintenance
Table of Contents
A garbage disposal is a kitchen appliance that grinds solid food into pieces, liquefies food waste, and makes the food waste easy to flush down.
When the garbage disposal works properly, the disposal unit works efficiently and chops up the food waste like a charm. It helps the cleanup task after meals be convenient and keeps your kitchen fresh and odor-free.
However, you will encounter problems like jammed garbage disposal or clogged drain pipes if you don’t use the disposal correctly or maintain it.
To avoid such an issue, this guide on Garbage Disposal Maintenance comes into play.
Why Regular Maintenance Is Essential for Garbage Disposal?
Regular maintenance is essential to ensure the longevity, optimal performance, and safe operation of your garbage disposal.
Here are some benefits of maintaining your garbage disposal regularly:
- Prevent Odors: Food particles may linger inside the garbage disposal after using the unit. If you don’t clean the disposal, the tiny food waste can start to rot and create a foul odor. But regular cleanup will give no chance for the unpleasant smell to stand. It keeps your kitchen fresh and odor-free.
- Prolong the lifespan of your garbage disposal: Regular cleaning extends the lifespan of your garbage disposal. If you clean the disposal regularly, your disposal unit goes through less wear & tear. Grinding food waste in a clean disposal unit can reduce motor strain and increase lifespan.
- Reduce the risk of clogs and malfunctions: If you maintain your garbage disposal regularly, the internal components of the disposal will remain functional. As a result, your garbage disposal can pulverize food waste efficiently and reduce the risk of clogs.
What Are The Garbage Disposal Maintenance Practices?
Here is the garbage disposal maintenance checklist:
| Daily | Weekly | Monthly |
| Use the garbage disposal regularly | Clean the disposal | Inspect the drain |
| Run cold water while operating | Check for leaks | Clean the splash guard |
| Avoid certain foods | Sharpen blades |
Daily Maintenance Practices
The daily maintenance practices for garbage disposal include:
Use the garbage disposal regularly
To keep the garbage disposal functional, you should run the garbage disposal regularly even though there is nothing to grind.
All the disposal parts will move if you run the garbage disposal a few times a week. As a result, no food particles can build up inside the unit to clog the mechanism.
Corrosion and rust will have no chance to form if you operate your food waste disposal a few times a week.
Run cold water while operating
Turn on a steady stream of cold water before, during, and after operating your garbage disposal.
Cold water helps solidify food waste and makes it easy to flush down the drain.
I recommend you run the cold water for 10-15 seconds after turning off the garbage disposal. It helps flush down food waste smoothly and efficiently.
Avoid certain types of foods
Never treat your garbage disposal as a trash can or a blender.
You can’t toss every type of food waste in the garbage disposal as you use your trash can.
Similarly, your garbage disposal has no sharp blades like your blender (it’s a popular garbage disposal myth). It means your garbage disposal can’t chop up every type of food waste.
A garbage disposal can’t process fibrous or stringy foods like celery, corn husks, and asparagus. The food waste disposal also fails to grind hard foods like bones, fruit pits, and nuts.
If you put fibrous foods in the garbage disposal, they wrap around the disposal blades and cause a clog. On the other hand, putting hard items will dull the disposal blade.
Read this article to discover the complete list of what not to put in a garbage disposal.
Weekly Maintenance Routine
Maintaining the garbage disposal weekly involves cleaning the disposal with cold water, checking for leaks, and sharpening the blades.
Clean the garbage disposal
Food particles may build up in the grind chamber and baffle over time. An unpleasant smell from the disposal indicates a food buildup in the unit.
Clean the disposal every week to remove the buildup and freshen the unit.
To clean the garbage disposal, go along with these three simple steps:
- Set the stopper in the sink opening and fill the sink halfway with warm water.
- Pour 1/4 cup baking soda and mix it with water. Turn on your garbage disposal and pull out the stopper from the sink to wash away loose particles.
- Remove the sink baffle and clean it by hand. Never operate your garbage disposal with the baffle removed.
Check for leaks
Inspecting the garbage disposal for leaks is a must-perform weekly maintenance workflow.
There are a couple of areas you need to check when looking for a leak in a garbage disposal.
Generally, a garbage disposal leaks from the gasket between the garbage disposal connector and the sink.
The leak can also occur between the locking ring from the garbage disposal and the connector.
You can also inspect the drain pipes and the dishwasher line for the source of your garbage disposal leakage.
Run the cold water and inspect those mentioned areas to find the source of the leak.
Replace the gasket if the gasket between the disposal connector and the sink gets worn out.
Or, tighten up the compression rings if they seem loose to fix the leaking issue.
Sharpen the blades
Garbage disposals have no blades like a blender. So, sharpening the component that doesn’t exist is impossible. It’s actually a myth about garbage disposal.
Instead of sharp blades, garbage disposals have impellers mounted on the flywheel or shredder ring.
Though you can’t sharpen the impellers, you can increase the efficiency of the impeller’s edges.
Regarding this, turn on the garbage disposal, run cold water, and put ice cubes in the disposal. Grinding ice cubes hone the edges of the disposal impellers.
Ice cubes also help dislodge blockage or food buildup from your garbage disposal.
Monthly Maintenance Tasks
Monthly maintenance tasks for garbage disposal include:
Inspect the drains
Inspect the drain lines of your garbage disposal to ensure the disposal unit drains the food waste efficiently.
To check the drain line, follow these steps:
- Place a plastic bucket under the discharge line of your garbage disposal.
- Fill the sink with water.
- Turn on your garbage disposal.
- Check if the water flows out quickly or not.
If you observe slow drainage, understand there is a blockage in the drain pipe.
In this case, it requires you to disconnect the discharge tube from the disposal unit.
To disconnect the discharge tube:
- Unscrew the bolts that secure the discharge tube to the disposal
- Remove the bolts and take out the gasket from the discharge outlet.
- Remove the flange from the discharge tube.
- Now, check the discharge tube for blockage.
- Inspect the drain line as well and use a sink auger to release the restrictions
Clean the splash guard
To clean the garbage disposal splash guard, try these steps:
- Remove the rubber splash guard from the top of the garbage disposal.
- Rinse the splash guard in soapy water and scrub the splash guard with a toothbrush.
- Wash the splash guard with running cold water.
- Replace the splash guard in its place after cleaning it.
Garbage Disposal Troubleshooting & Problem Solving
Despite proper garbage disposal installation & maintenance, you can still experience problems with the disposal unit. Troubleshooting the garbage disposal issue is also a part of maintenance workflow.
Below, I will walk you through three common garbage disposal problems and how you can resolve them.
Dealing with jams
A food waste disposal can jam if you put fibrous foods or non-food items in the garbage disposal. When items get stuck in the garbage disposal blades, the disposal can become jammed.
To prevent jam:
- Run cold water before, during, and after using the garbage disposal.
- Avoid fibrous, stringy, tough, and non-food items from putting in the garbage disposal.
- Never overload the disposal with food items
- Use garbage disposal regularly
- Put ice cubes to increase the efficiency of the impellers
If the motor stops while the disposal is operating, I bet the garbage disposal gets jammed.
To unclog the jam, follow these steps:
- Turn off the garbage disposal
- Get a wrenchette and insert it into the center hole on the bottom of the garbage disposal.
- Turn the wrenchette back and forth until it turns one full revolution.
- Reach the disposal with pliers to release the restriction
Dealing with disposal that won’t turn on
Garbage disposal won’t turn on due to one of the following reasons:
- Power issue
- The disposal unit gets clogged
- A defective motor
To resolve those issues, try these troubleshooting steps:
- Ensure that you plug the power cord into the outlet. Alternatively, make sure the circuit breaker doesn’t get tripped.
- Inspect the unit for a clog
- Reset your garbage disposal
- Reset the circuit breaker
- Inspect the wiring
Addressing odors
As mentioned, garbage may accumulate food particles over time and create a buildup. A foul odor from the disposal is a sign of food buildup in the garbage disposal.
To remove the food buildup and discard foul odor:
- Fill the sink halfway with warm water.
- Mix 1/4 cup baking soda with water.
- Turn on the disposal and remove the stopper from the sink opening to let the loose food particles flush away.
- Cut citrus fruits like lemon into wedges and put them into the garbage disposal. The citric inside the peels will eliminate the foul odors and freshen up the garbage disposal.
Safety Tips
Obey the following safety tips by all means while maintaining or troubleshooting garbage disposal:
- Turn off the garbage disposal and disconnect the electric power while maintaining your garbage disposal.
- Wear protective equipment like gloves or safety goggles while dealing with garbage disposals.
- Never put your fingers or hands in the garbage disposal to release objects.
- Use wrenchette while attempting to loosen jams in the garbage disposal.
- Use long-handled pliers only to remove objects from your garbage disposal.
Conclusion
It’s a must to perform maintenance workflow regularly to keep the garbage disposal in tip-top condition.
Follow these garbage disposal maintenance tips to avoid frequent clogs and control odor issues:
- Run plenty of cold water before, during, and after using the garbage disposal as it helps flush down the food waste smoothly.
- Operate the garbage disposal a few times a week even when there is no food waste to grind to keep the moving parts functional.
- Never throw fibrous, stringy, hard, and non-food items in the garbage disposal.
- Clean the garbage disposal with baking soda if a foul smell comes from the disposal unit.
- You can grind citrus foods like lemon and orange to remove odor and freshen the garbage disposal.
- Inspect the drain lines every month for leaks.
- Don’t forget to turn off the unit while maintaining or repairing the garbage disposal.
Never use harsh chemicals like bleach to clean the garbage disposal as it corrodes the internal components and impacts the environment negatively.
Contact a professional if you fail to resolve persistent leaks or electrical problems.
Read Also: Garbage Disposal Issues and Solutions
Sohel Rana is the founder of FixTheDisposal.Com. He is a plumbing expert with 7+ years of hands-on repairing garbage disposals, water heaters, space heaters, and other appliances used in a home. Before the launch of Fix The Disposal, he wrote and provided advice on water heaters, sump pumps, and space heater repairing & troubleshooting tips for LilDutchUncle.Com.
