Keep These Items out of Your Kitchen Sink

Of all the various plumbing appliances in your home that you use on a daily basis, could you imagine living without your kitchen sink? Granted, there are some aspects of this plumbing fixture that are more of a luxury than a necessity—for instance, if you have a touch-activated faucet or a garbage disposal system. Still, even if you have the most basic kitchen sink there is, it’s a modern necessity of living to have one, and therefore, you should do everything you can to take care of it, right?

If you want to enjoy the benefits and convenience that comes from your kitchen plumbing, it’s important to do all that you can to avoid problems with this fixture, including your garbage disposal if you have one. Our plumbers in Denver can certainly help with this, with plumbing maintenance, but also by offering you some pro kitchen sink care tips.

Making Your Kitchen Sink a Priority

Failing to properly care for your kitchen sink, just like any other important plumbing fixture, can lead to damage as well as a compromised sewer line.

“But what if I have a garbage disposal? Can’t it cut up and break down anything I put down the kitchen sink?”

No, but this is a pretty common misconception. Yes, if you have a garbage disposal it has “blades” on it. But despite this given name, they are actually grinder plates rather than “blades” and depend on centrifugal force to grind down food waste. Then, that waste if flushed down the drain, and the flow of water from the faucet helps the waste move all the way down the drain—unless, of course, you’ve put something down the drain that doesn’t belong there. What would this include?

• Hard Food Items: This might include food byproducts such as meat bones, or fruit pits. And yes, before you ask, there are newer garbage disposal systems on the market that advertise that they can in fact handle fruit pits. But unless you are certain you have that model, we really recommend against it.
• Fibrous Food Waste: This means food items like cornhusks and celery stalks. What happens if you have a garbage disposal is that it gets wrapped up in the moving parts, potentially causing damage or a breakdown. What happens if you don’t have a garbage disposal is that it can build up and create a stubborn clog in the drainpipe.
• Pasta and Rice: Like fibrous foods, pasta and rice can cause blockages you didn’t plan on. This is because these food expand when they get wet—and even though it may seem harmless because they’re so small, if anything else is stuck in your drains like limescale or other foodstuff, you can quickly have a problem on your hands.
• FOG (Fats, Oils, and Grease): This is another one that’s not a problem for your garbage disposal, but can be for your drains. FOG congeals as it cools, and this means it’s cooling off within the drainpipes, causing those ever stubborn clogs we keep mentioning.

Kitchen sinks are pretty reliable and low maintenance plumbing appliances. But this can only remain the case for yours if you care for it as you should. While this means avoiding the above situations, it also means investing in plumbing maintenance once a year to ensure that all your pipes are in good shape.

Get peace of mind by calling Bell Plumbing and Heating, the company metro area homeowners have been trusting for over 90 years!