Is it your turn to host the holidays? If so, we imagine you’ll spend much of your time in the kitchen preparing the big family dinners and a variety of treats as gifts for friends and loved ones. We tend to repeat ourselves this time of year because people tend to forget what they can and can’t put in the garbage disposal as they cook. At Atomic Plumbing, we want you to enjoy a Thanksgiving and Christmas free of plumbing emergencies, and we’re happy to remind you how to make the best use of your plumbing fixtures.
If you’ve planned to make at least one traditional holiday dinner, it’s important to watch what goes down your drains. Take liquified animal fats and butter and margarine, for example. Once you’ve cooked the excess from your roast or turkey, your first impulse may be to tip the pan over your sink drain. This is not recommended, because while these olios and greases are liquid now, eventually they’ll solidify. In your pipes, they become clogs that hinder your water flow. It’s much better for your plumbing to collect the greases in a container for disposal or, like with bacon fat, later use in cooking.
Baking this year? Watch those eggshells. They may be fragile and organic material, but they’re not appropriate for sink disposal. Even if ground into little pieces, the fragments can stick to your pipes and the blades in your disposal, and contribute to water flow problems down the road. It’s better to save shells for compost or the trash.
By now you may be thinking, what can go down the sink? It’s a good question. Why have a garbage disposal in the first place if the list of restricted things is so long? Well, a disposal isn’t meant to serve as a food waste processor. It’s there to help keep your pipes clear of objects that may cause clogs. As you rinse dishes, it’s likely some food will end up down your sink, and the disposal helps to break it down. Ideally, though, you want to make sure only liquids go down your drains.
This year, if you have a plumber over for Thanksgiving and Christmas, we hope it’s because they’ve been invited to dinner! However, if you have an emergency over the holiday season, you can contact Atomic Plumbing and we will handle your problem efficiently so you don’t miss out on the festivities.