You might be wondering, reading the title of this blog post, why you’d need to “protect” your kitchen sink. What we’re really referring to here is your kitchen plumbing in Salt Lake City. A large part of this involves the pipes connected to your kitchen sink that help it properly drain. It also includes the garbage disposal, if you have one in place.
Not properly caring for your plumbing system can leave you with stubborn clogs, leaks, and even broken components that need replacing. Of course, if any of this happens, our team is here to help! But we’d like to help you avoid some of the problems that befall kitchen sinks, if possible!
Don’t Put These Items Down Your Kitchen Sink (Even if You Have a Garbage Disposal!)
Here are some items that should never see inside your kitchen sink drain, if you want to maintain the health of your plumbing:
FOG. FOG stands for fats, oils, and grease, and should never be put down your kitchen sink drain. The problem with FOG is that as it cools, it hardens, and gets stuck to the interior of your kitchen sink drain pipe. This will only cause more and more buildup until you find yourself with a stubborn clog that only a professional can fix. Our suggestion here is to pour the FOG into a container of some sort–like a tin can–and dispose of it after it cools and hardens.
Unchewable Food Items. Your garbage disposal system is hugely beneficial. But oftentimes, homeowners rely on them a bit too much, thinking they can “chop up” anything and everything that goes down the kitchen sink drain. Unfortunately, this isn’t true. One thing, for example, your garbage disposal can’t handle is any food items that are too hard for you to even chew. This includes meat bones and fruit pits, for example.
Rice, Pasta, or Coffee Grounds. These are all food items that expand when wet. They’re also small enough that they’ll slip right through the impeller blades of your garbage disposal, so you can’t exactly rely on that to break it all up. Instead, they can get stuck in the drainpipe and build up until you have a clog on your hands.
Actual Garbage. The term garbage disposal might be a little misleading. It can’t rid you of all “garbage.” Things like napkins, wrappers, or any type of packaging should never go down the sink drain or garbage disposal as it can jam up the disposal. Or if it does make it through the disposal system and into your drain, it can cause a blockage.
The items that you can put down your kitchen sink/garbage disposal include non-fibrous veggie scraps, citrus peels (actually this is good to use your garbage disposal system with since it’s a natural cleaner and odor remover!) non-fibrous fruit scraps, small meat scraps, and soft foods like yogurt or applesauce.
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