Town Appliance Official Blog

It sounds very surprising that not everywhere in the world garbage disposals have been implemented into modern kitchens. This is a convenience that amazingly eases our work around the kitchen and reduces the amount of garbage that is produced in our home. Besides these facts, it’s important to mention that garbage disposals are an environmentally-friendly solution, since all the waste is being grinded into pieces that can simply be flushed away.

The only thing that may cause an inconvenience when it comes to performance of garbage disposals is clogging. This happens for many reasons, and it’s neither the fault of the manufacturer, nor of the user, it simply happens. Anyway, you should have no worries, we’ve got you covered in this situation, as always. Take a look at the next few tips on what to do in case your garbage disposal gets clogged.

Reasons Your Garbage Disposal Might Be Clogged

• After grinding the waste, a garbage disposal needs water supply to successfully drain the disposed waste. In case there is a lack of water, the built up sludge can cause clogging which prevents the water to penetrate through the pipes.
• Some items like coffee grounds and similar, tend to adhere to existing sludge. This can also cause garbage disposal clogging.
• Fibrous foods and similar items may catch on the impellers or enmesh with other materials to cause a clog.
• Foods that are highly rich with starch seem to cause clogging, since, when mixed with water, they form a dense paste which is difficult to run through the drainage system.

A Few Ways to Fix Your Garbage Disposal

• Often, the clog in the garbage disposal is not that huge, therefore, you can try cleaning it yourself, just make sure you do it carefully and neatly, following these steps:
• As you want to make sure you won’t get hurt while working on unclogging, first of all you need to unplug your disposal from the power and then turn it on and off once to make sure the impellers won’t start.
• Try to look down the drain, using a flashlight. You may find some items or material that can be removed using tweezers or pliers.
• In case this one doesn’t help, you’ll have to go under the sink. Place yourself under the disposal and look for a hex-headed bolt which is in the center of the disposal.
• For this one you’ll be needing a hex wrench. Insert the wrench into a bolt and turn back and forth to try to loosen the clog inside.
• When you feel it’s less resistant, press the reset button at the base.
• Plug the disposal into power and turn it on to check if the clog will drain down.
• If the disposal still drains slowly you can give it one more try with another possibility. For this you will unplug the disposal one more time.
• There is an S or P-shaped fitting within the drain system that is placed just below disposal discharge pipe.
• Place a bucket or a washbowl under the fitting and loosen the nut.
• Check if there is a built up waste inside and clean it with a brush or similar tool.
• When this is done, reassemble the pipe and check one more time if the clog is gone.

Anyhow, the best way to make sure your disposal won’t get clogged or need any kind of repair is to take care of it’s maintenance as this is the easiest of all the things we’ve listed before. Try these tips for maintaining your garbage disposal:

• During the grinding and a short while after, make sure to use cold water as most of materials bilge when on higher temperatures.
• Every once in a while, turn on the grinder on the empty sink with just cold water running.
• If any larger items are to go into the disposal crack or cut them into smaller pieces.
• Other than that, try to avoid putting materials that can cause clogging into the disposal. These include pits, bones, grease and things like pasta or rice.

These will make sure you won’t have problems with your garbage disposal, as well as take care of it’s longevity. In case you still need an appliance repair, we offer a full appliance service department, with appliance parts department that gives professional help with ordering parts, and our own repair subsidiary so you can have a service on your appliance in the same place it was purchased.