How to Maintain Your Garbage Disposal in San Mateo, CA

A well-maintained garbage disposal makes kitchen cleanup faster and easier. In San Mateo, CA, Sanmateo Plumbing Co assists homeowners with garbage disposal installation, repair, and maintenance. Follow these tips to avoid common disposal problems and extend the life of your unit.

How Your Garbage Disposal Works

Contrary to popular belief, a garbage disposal does not have sharp blades that cut food like a blender. Instead, it uses a spinning flywheel with two impellers (also called lugs) that fling food waste against a stationary grind ring. The grind ring has small teeth that break the food into tiny particles, which are then flushed down the drain with running water. Understanding this mechanism helps explain why certain foods cause problems and how to use the disposal properly.

Most residential disposals have a one-third to one horsepower motor, with higher-powered units handling tougher food waste more effectively. The motor drives the flywheel at high speed, and the impellers can be dulled or obstructed by certain materials. The key to disposal longevity is running it correctly and keeping the wrong things out of it.

Foods and Items to Keep Out

The biggest mistake homeowners make is treating the garbage disposal as a trash can. Many common items can damage the disposal, clog your drain, or both. Never put these items in your garbage disposal: grease, oil, or fat in any form, as they solidify in pipes and cause clogs. Fibrous vegetables like celery, artichokes, corn husks, and asparagus, because the fibers wrap around the impellers and can jam the motor.

Starchy foods like pasta, rice, and potato peels expand with water and create a thick paste that clogs the drain. Coffee grounds seem fine going down but accumulate in pipes like sediment and create stubborn blockages over time. Egg shells do not sharpen the blades (there are no blades) and the membrane lining can wrap around the impellers. Bones, fruit pits, and other hard items can damage the grind ring and impellers. Non-food items like glass, metal, plastic, paper, and cigarette butts should never enter the disposal.

What you can put in the disposal: soft food scraps, small amounts of cooked meat (no bones), fruit and vegetable scraps (no fibrous types), bread, and small leftovers. Always cut large items into smaller pieces before feeding them into the disposal, and always run cold water while the disposal is operating.

Proper Operation Technique

Using your garbage disposal correctly is just as important as knowing what to avoid. Always start the cold water before turning on the disposal. Cold water solidifies any fats or grease so they can be ground up and flushed away, rather than coating the inside of your drain pipe. Run the water for at least 15 seconds after the grinding stops to flush all particles through the drain line.

Feed food waste into the disposal gradually rather than stuffing a large amount in at once. Overloading the disposal can jam the motor or overwhelm the grind mechanism. Let the disposal fully process each batch before adding more. Keep the disposal running until all grinding sounds have stopped, then let the water run for another 15 seconds to clear the drain.

Run your disposal regularly, even if you do not have food waste to process. Running it with just cold water for 30 seconds every few days keeps the moving parts from seizing due to corrosion or buildup and prevents the drain trap from drying out.

Keep Your Disposal Fresh and Clean

Garbage disposals can develop unpleasant odors over time as food particles accumulate on the splash guard, grind chamber walls, and in the drain line below. Regular cleaning prevents odors and keeps the disposal functioning efficiently. Once a week, drop a handful of ice cubes and a cup of rock salt into the disposal and run it with cold water for 30 seconds. The ice and salt scrub the grind chamber and impellers, knocking off accumulated food residue.

For deodorizing, cut a lemon or lime into quarters and feed the pieces through the disposal with cold water running. The citric acid helps break down grease and the citrus oil leaves a fresh scent. Alternatively, pour half a cup of baking soda into the disposal, let it sit for 30 minutes, then flush with hot water while running the disposal.

Clean the rubber splash guard regularly since food particles accumulate on the underside of the flaps. You can lift the flaps and scrub them with an old toothbrush and dish soap. Some splash guards are removable for easier cleaning.

Troubleshooting Common Problems

If your disposal hums but does not grind, it is jammed. Turn it off immediately and never reach into the disposal with your fingers. Most disposals have an Allen wrench slot on the bottom of the unit. Insert the Allen wrench (usually a quarter-inch size, often included with the disposal) and turn it back and forth to free the jammed flywheel. If you do not have the wrench, you can use a wooden broom handle inserted into the drain to manually turn the flywheel.

If the disposal does not turn on at all, check the reset button on the bottom of the unit. The reset button is a thermal overload protector that trips when the motor overheats. Press it to reset. If that does not work, check the electrical connection, the wall switch, and your circuit breaker. If the disposal still does not run, the motor may have failed and the unit needs replacement.

Leaking from the disposal can come from several locations: the sink flange at the top, the dishwasher connection on the side, or the drain connection at the bottom. Flange leaks require re-sealing with plumber's putty. Connection leaks may just need tightened fittings. A leak from the body of the disposal itself means the unit is cracked and needs replacement.

When to Call a Professional

While many disposal issues are minor, some problems require professional attention. Sanmateo Plumbing Co provides garbage disposal repair, installation, and replacement throughout San Mateo, CA. Our plumbers can diagnose any disposal issue, recommend repair or replacement, and complete the work quickly and cleanly. Call (650) 519-0591 for fast, friendly disposal service.