Garbage disposal poll

Smootchy

When you turn on the disposal, do you:

shadypines

I don't have one....

BluepointToasted

I have never lived in a house with one, and none of my close family has ever had one.

jak554

I don't know about the temperature, but I know I have to run the water while it's going otherwise if the crap in there is piled high, then it comes up from it if I run it dry.

angelashly

Don't have one. My step dad does warm

msdrdg

I run cold water.  I'm cheap and don't want to pay to heat the hot water just to run it down the drain.

missymo

I have never once thought about water temperature when turning it on.  I generally just use it for 5 to 10 seconds at a time, so not a lot of thought goes into it.

I also thought it was standard and am surprised by the number of people who don't have one.   Older houses perhaps?

Liz4444

We have one, but DH doesn't like to use it because he thinks it makes the kitchen smell. 

JackoftheBox

ScarlettPanda said:

Liz4444 said:

We have one, but DH doesn't like to use it because he thinks it makes the kitchen smell. 

We used to throw all of our orange peels in and turn it on - our kitchen always smelled liked citrus.

We put lemon and bleach through ours about once a month. Oranges is a great idea! 

RondackHiker

Brewcitygal said:

HilarityEnsued said:

I had no idea the temperature of the water was as thing to be considered when running the disposal.

I didn't either until we moved into places that had them, and we were given instructions. I guess people break them a lot. 

I've lived in four rentals with them and never received any direction about it at all.

I hadn't grown up with one and didn't know for a few weeks I needed to run water.

Liz4444

JackoftheBox said:

ScarlettPanda said:

Liz4444 said:

We have one, but DH doesn't like to use it because he thinks it makes the kitchen smell. 

We used to throw all of our orange peels in and turn it on - our kitchen always smelled liked citrus.

We put lemon and bleach through ours about once a month. Oranges is a great idea! 

I tried lemons... then I gave up arguing with him and just stopped using it. 

jorkz821

HilarityEnsued said:

I couldn't live without my garbage disposal... the trash in the kitchen would be so effing nasty

My county has organics collection in addition to garbage collection. Then they compost it somewhere and the compost is used for county landscaping or is sold back to whoever wants it. Works pretty well, no gross garbage, and no food down the sink. Win-win!

jorkz821

Also, my parents told me once that disposals are illegal in their city. Something about it being hard on the sewer/water treatment plant.

missymo

BunkinMama said:

missymo said:

I have never once thought about water temperature when turning it on.  I generally just use it for 5 to 10 seconds at a time, so not a lot of thought goes into it.

I also thought it was standard and am surprised by the number of people who don't have one.   Older houses perhaps?

Septic systems, we have a septic tank and from what our installer said garbage disposals and really any excess food should not go down the pipes.  We compost a lot, the rest is trashed.

That makes sense.  Even with a city sewer system, I hardly use my own.   The majority is trashed or composted for us as well.  

SoDoMojo

My plumber H would be shaking his head at all of you sending food down the disposal. We put our food scraps in yard waste that the city deals with.

ReeseFox

dotgirl2 said:

SoDoMojo said:

My plumber H would be shaking his head at all of you sending food down the disposal. We put our food scraps in yard waste that the city deals with.

@SoDoMojoI'm not being snarky, this is a legitimate question because I don't know: If we're not supposed to put food down the disposal, what should it be used for? Or should we just not have one at all? 

I was just about to ask the same thing LOL.

SoDoMojo

dotgirl2 said:

SoDoMojo said:

My plumber H would be shaking his head at all of you sending food down the disposal. We put our food scraps in yard waste that the city deals with.

@SoDoMojoI'm not being snarky, this is a legitimate question because I don't know: If we're not supposed to put food down the disposal, what should it be used for? Or should we just not have one at all? 

We don't have one. In other houses that we've been in we only used it to clear out the shit left over in the sink after washing dishes. I'll ask DH why people even need them... but you're really not supposed to send your table scraps down.

SoDoMojo

I just texted him: what are garbage disposals supposed to be used for? Will update when he responds.

SoDoMojo

He says: Anything you want. But if you treat it like a garbage can, be prepared to call a plumber.

Thanks for the clarification H.