Don't put anything down the garbage disposal!
 

Be sure to note what you can and cannot put in the garbage disposal. It is not meant for peelings of any kind, lettuce, seeds. Found out the hard way. Also if you do get a clog do not put Drano in. Disposal not covered by warranty either. A service call to your home costs $70. Be careful to use the disposal only for table scraps (repeating what plumber told us).

I opted out of the garbage disposal. Never had one before. Did not see the need for one now.

Are they puny? Get what you pay for I guess. Peelings shouldn't be a problem.

We have been putting peels down the disposal for a year with no problems. Maybe I need to rethink doing that though.

This is open for debate. We USE our garbage disposals. They are insinkerators. We don't put potato or onion peels down but pretty much everything else. If you ask a plumber that is their advice...you would think they would encourage you to use them to drum up business.

My dad and brother were Steam fitters.

The insinkerators here are not inferior. We have had two new homes and they both were fine. Do not put your silverware down them.

The disposal is typical builder's junk. My disposal in Jersey would shread a spoon if you put it down the drain. The one in my house in the Villages gets jammed up if you put a toothpick in the drain. I will be shortly replacing it with a more powerful motor.

Gee, your post is surprising. We have had one(new) Gardenia and one(new) Seabrook and the insinkerator grinds up things the way they have at all of our other homes.

Is there a different quality used in different series of homes or at different times they were built perhaps??

Peelings shouldn't cause a problem...except for celery and onion skins because of the stringiness of the vegetable.
Celery will cause problems guaranteed. One trick I've used in the past is if your disposal is clogged, and the water in the sink slowly drains, try putting ice cubes in the disposal. Run the disposal and let the blades chop up the ice. Often it will break up whatever is causing the clog.

Ours is listed as a "Badger 5 1/2HP". I looked on Home Depot and saw an "InSinkErator Badger 5 1/2 HP Continuous Feed Garbage Disposer" listed. It had 4 out of 5 rating with 120 reviews.

But it won't matter since we eat out almost all the time. We have to "dust" the stove off once in a while in case one of the burners accidentally gets turned on :)

Dump ice down it once in a while and it keeps it clear. Also the dish washer in suppose to dump into it but I dont see them hooked up that way ( Run the disposal with the ice in it)

I have a Sears and I put everything down it.... potato and carot peelings all food scraps. I have found that after I have ground up a bag of potato skins (for example) I usually fill the sink full with water and spin that through to flush it out. Once or twice a week I grind up a lemon or orange (any citrus you have hanging on the tree) and that makes it smell clean and fresh.

The one piece of advice re: garbage disposals that I pay attention to is:
Never, never put your hand in it, even though it's turned off it could turn itself on. Weird things happen. Sh--t happens.

Just had to respond to your post. I am a steamfitter also, local 638 NYC...Hoping to sell my place up here..soon. been to TV twice with my wife and we enjoyed it...One thing I do know about the disposals is dont run them dry. Always run the water when you use them...

We've put potato peelings down ours. I'd never put tomato peelings down or onion skins as someone else said. I always do it slowly with ALOT of water going with it too. In all the years of having disposals have never had a problem....except when one wore out and needed a replacement.

I've been told to never put potatoes or potato peelings down the disposal -- too much starch and it will ultimately clog it up (learnt that lesson the hard way in California). Other things to not put in disposal are anything stringy (celery, broccoli stems, asparagus, etc.); pasta (it swells as you add more water and clogs up the pipes); egg shells; large seeds such as peach and avocado pits. Ice is a good thing to put down every so often. So is the occasional lemon cut into quarters (makes the whole kitchen smell good).

We too dump some ice down and turn on disposal once in a while. Like Philnpat said, don't put celery in disposal, because the strings wrap around cutter. Then you have problems. Sometimes freash stringbeans do same thing. 1/2 horsepower is good

Asparagus... NEVER put this down. Stops everything!! I also put my eggshells down there to clean out anything that might get stuck in the blades as well as ice which was previously mentioned. My plumber also told me to use cold water when using the disposal, never hot... Good luck!

We upgraded our disposal when we built our house. I put everything down it except onion skins. Have never had a problem in 7 years.

Never, I repeat, NEVER put a large container of pretzels down the disposal... ;) I had one of those large containers from Costco when we lived in CA. They had expired and at that point, were less than crisp so I just dumped them into the sink and started the water running, pushing the pretzels into the disposal. Well, after a while, everything just stopped working, the disposal, water wouldn't drain down either of my sinks. Plumber was a good guy and did a good job of not laughing, but I had made paste out of all the water, wheat and gluten and stopped up the works. Took quite a while to unblock all the plugged up pipes in the kitchen....:D

My disposal here doesn't like potato peels, nor lettuce!

yup, I agree with the ice......my icemaker makes more than we can use, so periodically I run ice cubes down the garbage disposal. We did have to replace the one here in our villa when we moved in......It was almost 10 years old, and they only last so long.......

We had a 1/4 hp in NC and I constantly clogged it up, but the good news is after watching my husband fix the problem, I was able to fix it every time I clogged it. When we moved to VA I had a 3/4 hp installed, big difference. So far here I have no problems and I use it all the time except for celery and onion peels.
PS: If you clog it up its really pretty easy to take apart and fix!

LOL Thats funny!!! Probably not as funny at the time. Thats what can happen with potatoes if you feed too much at one time. YES, always use cold water, not hot!!AND of course No Hands down drain. hehehe

No problems with our garbage disposal, & yes ice works great.........But I was just wondering...Can they make a disposal unit for the Tolet also????????:duck:

So I guess you and I won't be rushing to answer Gracie's thread on " Please give me your favorite main dish for potluck.".
Oven = place to hide potato chips, right?

The word is "Don't put anything down the disposal that you don't eat." In other words bananas yes- peels no. Meat from ribs - yes, Bones- No.

garage disopal
 

So what can you put into your garage disposal? I never had one so I don't know. Good tip about the ice chips and lemon.

Appears garbge disposals have become an oxymoron. It seems they reject so much. So I try to ignore it becomes it ignores me. I agree with the ice and citrus treatments.

What the builders put in his purely cheapest lowest quality, you can buy garbage disposal that will eat silverware. I have dressed a dear put innards and bones down the garbage disposal.with the inferior quality disposals once again the villages are in our pocketbook for anything and everything any chance they get. Buyer beware do not drink the Kool-Aid

I have disposals in my home in Lexington and TV, very rarely ever use them.It's not real strenuous to dump the food in the wastebasket positioned in cabinet below the sink.How did my parents and grandparents EVER live without a disposal??????When i bought my first apartment building,my plumber gave me the best advice i ever received from any of my service contractors.He told me to remove all 48 disposals, since over 80% of his service calls for clogged drains came directly or indirectly from problems with garbage disposals.

they are the cheapest they could find.mine won't grind potato chips.

If it won't grind up peelings and the pipe gets plugged, it's a matter of horsepower of the motor. It takes force to blow the stuff out of the grinding area and out the piping.

My spoon seems to get munched up pretty good:ohdear:

Cheap cheap cheap
 

Perfect example of the developer buying cheap cheap cheap and charging us enormous sums of money for inferior quality construction buyer beware

I wouldn't be without a garbage disposal. There isn't much that I don't put down there..I am cautious with large amounts of lettuce, peelings and such but for the most part ALL food scraps go in the disposal. I don't want any food scraps in trash as I don't want to do ANYTHING to encourage bugs nor do I want feral cats and whatever else may be lurking curbside tearing open the trash to find dinner.

Man, I got scared when I read your post that you had a 5 1/2 hp garbage disposal. My lawn mower has a 5 1/2 hp motor. But when I searched further I found out its a Badger5 1/2 hp unit. But It would be cool to unhook your high hp garbage disposal and cut down some trees. :coolsmiley:

We had one of those triangular drainers in the corner of the sink. Remember those? You would dump your food waste in it, the liquid would drain into the sink, and then grandma would wrap the waste in the newspaper and grandpa would put it in the garbage can outside. That's what my family did in the days before garbage disposers or plastic trash bags. :icon_wink:

I haven't had any trouble with mine. I don't put anything large in the garbage disposal. I like to put lemon, lime or orange peels in it to keep it smelling fresh!

Tim the Tool Man says you can never have too much power! arrgh…arrgh…arrgh

So where do you put all the meats,vegetables,pastas and fruits that a disposal can't handle, so the bugs and cats don't get to them ?Ask any reputable plumber about garbage disposals and they will give you a list of all the problems they create.Plus, when you are dealing with new home builder grade disposals, that can barely grind up ketchup,your plumbing nightmares are just beginning.