Avoid letting vegetable peelings or fruit peels down your garbage disposal. Carrot, sweet potato, russet potato, cucumber, etc., etc.
Another method is using Salt and Baking Soda: Pour 1/2 cup salt and 1/2 cup baking soda down the drain. Follow with 6 cups boiling water. Let sit overnight and then flush with water. The hot water should help dissolve the clog and the baking soda and salt serve as an abrasive to break through the clog.
Things that can do down an Evolution 100 InSinkErator
Starchy foods: pasta, rice, potatoes and potato skins in particular, which can gum up the chambers of standard models.
You can put soft, small food scraps like fruit peels, vegetable bits, and small amounts of cooked meat down your garbage disposal. Avoid putting in bones, fibrous foods like celery, coffee grounds, eggshells, grease, and non-food items, as they can damage the disposal or cause clogs.
Throwing small amounts of leftovers down the drain is fine, but when you try to dispose of large amounts of starchy foods like pasta, rice, or potatoes, it can cause a serious backup in your system.
Avoid letting vegetable peelings or fruit peels down your garbage disposal. Carrot, sweet potato, russet potato, cucumber, etc., etc. They will jam up your disposal and get stuck on the sides of your disposal or your pipes.
Banana peels, pineapple tops, celery ends, cabbage — unless you're putting them in your disposal in extremely small amounts, they just won't break down properly. What's worse, they're liable to wrap around the blades, preventing them from working properly and eventually destroying the motor.
Coffee grounds won't hurt your disposal, per se. They'll actually go down easy and even smell good doing it. But once they get further, they can accumulate like they would in a coffee filter, creating an obstruction in the pipes. Coffee grounds are best disposed of in the compost pile or the trash.
You may ask, “Can rice and pasta go in a garbage disposal?” It may seem like soft foods like rice, pasta, and potatoes are garbage disposal safe, but they top the list of what can't go in a garbage disposal. These starchy items swell when exposed to water, causing blockages that can create clogs and backups.
Potato peels and skins are notorious for causing clogs due to their starchy composition, which creates a thick paste when mixed with water. This thick paste sticks to the garbage disposal blades and pipes, clogging and potentially damaging your plumbing system.
Coffee grounds, tea leaves and eggshells
Even if you have a garbage disposal unit in the kitchen, throw your coffee grinds, loose tea leaves (including tea bags) and eggshells in the bucket.
Egg Shells
The membrane lining the shell can wrap around the disposal blades, leading to clogs. Additionally, the shells can break into small pieces that are difficult to flush out. It's best to compost eggshells or dispose of them in the regular trash.
Put these food items in the trash or compost. Whether you're preparing loaded baked potatoes, a hash-brown casserole or plain ole' mashed potatoes, keep the peels out of the garbage disposal! The starch from potatoes and potato peels can turn into a “thick paste,” which may cause the blades to stick.
Produce Skins & Rinds
Everything from watermelon rinds to carrot skins should go into your trash can rather than your garbage disposal. While harder rinds can be outright destructive, even smaller skins can easily become wrapped around your disposal's blades, ending up stuck in your system for a long time.
Onion skins should be disposed of in the trash rather than your kitchen's garbage disposal because its outer layer is thin. The thin outer layer can get caught in the drain and not get ground, which eventually causes waste to pile up in your garbage disposal.
InSinkErator disposals can grind most everyday food waste, including leftover meats, vegetables, fruits, and food preparation waste. Don't be afraid to grind avocado pits, banana peels, and bones! The key to keeping your disposal working properly is to follow the proper operation steps.
Rice and Pasta
Both cooked and uncooked rice and pasta should stay out of the garbage disposal. This is because these food items swell when they get wet. When you run water down the sink, left-behind rice and pasta will swell up and cause blockages.
Not only are they one of the hardest types of fruit rinds in general, they can also wreak havoc on your garbage disposal's blades. So the next time you are enjoying the pulpy fruit of this summer favorite, just toss the rind in the trash, rather than testing the strength of your garbage disposal.
Myth: Lemons can clean your disposal
Lemon peels in your garbage disposal not only don't clean it, but they could also cause clogs and do damage to your drain. We recommend throwing lemon juice (no peels!) along with ice down your garbage disposal to help freshen it up.
Stringy, fibrous fruits and vegetables are problematic for garbage disposals, too. These include pineapples, mangoes, celery, and corn husks. You should also avoid putting corn cobs down your drain.
Don't throw these foods down the drain
Stringy fruits and vegetables may be good for our health, but they don't help our garbage disposals. Celery, asparagus, and pineapple can enclose the blades and destroy them. Moreover, banana peels and potatoes can also be harmful to garbage disposals.
If you can see any visible peels, use tongs to pull them out. Never stick your hand into the disposal even if you have turned it off and unplugged it. Once you have removed any visible peels, run cold water to see if it fixed the clog. Be sure to avoid warm water, as it can make clogs worse.
If you find a garbage disposal there, you already have one; a garburator is simply the Canadian word for a garbage disposal system.
Starchy foods.
Putting bread, oatmeal, pasta, and rice in your garbage disposal is a bad idea. These foods expand when wet, which can form a gelatinous paste in your drain and block up your sink.