How To Clean Your Garbage Disposal: 10 Piece of cake Steps

Your straightforward guide to a clean and odor-gratis garbage disposal–plus tips for keeping it that manner!

Ah, the garbage disposal. It's kind of like...magic. Have whatsoever food waste you'd rather never see again? No problem! Throw it in, grind it upward, and y'all never accept to give it a 2d thought!

Well, that is, until something in your kitchen starts smelling not so great. If you've already checked to make sure it'south non coming from your fridge or your dishwasher, that odor just might exist the upshot of built-up slime, gunk, and bits of nutrient waste that didn't quite make it all the manner down the drain and into the grinding chamber (ooof). To make matters worse, the nighttime, moist climate of your garbage disposal is the perfect convenance footing for bacteria, which is most definitely non what you desire in your kitchen of all places!

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Why it's of import to clean your garbage disposal

Your garbage disposal therefore requires some routine maintenance to keep it both fresh and functional. The good news is that—as unpleasant equally cleaning out your garbage disposal might audio—it's actually surprisingly easy. All you need are some basic household items and about 20 minutes. The icing on the cake? For the bulk of those minutes, you just take to permit your cleaning mixture sit down and exercise the work for you lot while you curlicue through your phone or take the dog out for a quick jaunt around the block.

How oft to make clean your garbage disposal

Then how frequently are y'all supposed to be cleaning your garbage disposal anyway? It depends on how much apply your garbage disposal gets, but bold y'all're in the addiction of using it relatively often (like almost of us are), y'all should really aim to clean information technology weekly (or at least bi-weekly). A good dominion of pollex: if y'all have a smell coming from your garbage disposal, you're not cleaning information technology plenty.

Products you'll demand to clean your garbage disposal

To go started, all you demand are a few items you probably already have lying around the house (we told y'all this would be easy!). Here'due south a list:

  • A pair of tongs or needle-nose pliers
  • Baking soda
  • Rock salt
  • Ice
  • Vinegar
  • A balmy dish detergent like Dawn
  • A scrub brush or toothbrush
  • Lemon (citrus) peels

Got them? You're set!

How to clean your garbage disposal

  1. Commencement, disconnect the power to the garbage disposal. Seriously, exercise this. A clean garbage disposal is not worth losing a finger. Garbage disposals are typically plugged into the wall somewhere beneath the sink. If you lot can't notice the outlet that yours is plugged into, you can always just turn off the circuit switch that generates electricity for the sink surface area instead. Whichever selection you opt for, double check that the power to the disposal is deactivated past flipping the on/off switch before attempting to make clean.
  2. Clean your splash guard (as well known as the baffle or shield). This is the round safety piece between the sink and disposal itself that helps keep water and the bits and pieces you launder down the drain from splashing back up again when y'all run your disposal (and helps muffle the noise, besides). To clean your splash baby-sit, pull it out from the drain and scour with a scrub brush or toothbrush and a mild dish detergent like Dawn. Alternatively, a paste made of a mixture of vinegar and baking soda likewise works like a charm. Be certain to get the underside of the splash guard, too! When yous're done, gear up it aside.
  3. Adjacent, shine a flashlight down the drain and into the garbage disposal to bank check for miscellaneous objects that may have become lodged in the impellers (e.m., chicken bones, bottle caps, silverware, nuptials rings). Please please delight: practice not stick your hand into the disposal. We know, yous turned the disposal off, but it's still very possible to accidentally nick your finger. Instead, use a pair of tongs or needle-nose pliers to remove any objects trying to hitch a ride down the bleed.
  4. To clean your disposal, dump a full tray of ice cubes and ½ cup of rock salt into the drain. Restore power to the garbage disposal and run the faucet and disposal at the aforementioned time, making a salty bleed smoothie that will knock the grime free from the disposal's impellers. Steer clear of fix-fabricated cleaners. Shop-bought garbage disposal cleaners aren't necessarily all that effective and can actually contain chemicals that are corrosive to your garbage disposal. Moreover, when you run your disposal subsequently yous're done cleaning, yous risk these chemicals spraying back up into the air and all over the area around your sink–and you lot really don't want potentially unsafe chemicals contaminating the space where you set up and eat food. Instead, stick with vinegar and baking soda: they're natural, eco-safe, inexpensive, and plenty strong enough to get the job done. They as well happen to be excellent at neutralizing odors.
  1. Cut ability to the disposal over again. Yes, nosotros made this its ain step. It'due south that important.
  2. Add one cup of vinegar and ½ cup of blistering soda into your drain, which will crusade a fizzy reaction. Let this mixture sit for nigh xv minutes and work its magic. It'll assistance kill any bacteria that might be growing in the drain and disposal.
  3. Mix some more vinegar and blistering soda into a paste and, using a toothbrush or a scrub brush, scour all rubber parts of the garbage disposal'south cervix. Bacteria can but every bit hands alive here as in the grinding chamber itself. While you're at information technology, check the splash guard one time more than to make sure information technology doesn't need any extra love.
  1. Replace your newly clean splash guard, making certain y'all've positioned it correctly.
  2. Restore power to the garbage disposal. Plug the drain and fill your sink ¾ of the way full with warm, soapy h2o. So unplug the drain and run the disposal while the water drains.
  3. Equally a final bear upon, send some citrus peels downwards the drain while running the disposal for a fresh, zesty aroma. This step's especially useful if you have an especially pungent olfactory property you're trying to eliminate.

Tah-dah! You're washed. That's all there is to it!

A few more garbage disposal tips

As easy every bit cleaning your garbage disposal is, at present that yous've been through the procedure, nosotros're guessing you'll want to minimize futurity build-up, clogs, and/or repairs. To that terminate, we have a couple pieces of parting communication for using and caring for your disposal:

  1. Run the h2o whenever you apply the garbage disposal. Nigh of u.s. know we're supposed to practise this, but we're reminding you considering it really is important. Plow the faucet on before grinding and keep it on until later you've turned the disposal off. Doing so will help ensure that all of the food waste you just washed downwards the drain fully exits the disposal and that partially ground pieces don't get stuck there.
  2. Watch what you put downwards your garbage disposal. We know, it's tempting to just wash anything and everything down there. Just you actually don't want to do that. Even garbage disposals–invincible as they may seem–have their limits. Do your all-time to avert using them for the following:
  • Fats, oils and grease. Sure, they're liquid now, but these guys congeal over time, making a clog nearly inevitable.
  • Bones, seafood shells, and fruit pits. This one's probably pretty cocky-explanatory, but bones, shells, and pits are Hard and they can push button your disposal well past its limits. If you're not in the marketplace for a new garbage disposal and want yours to terminal, throw away beast bones, seafood shells, and pits instead.
  • Nuts. Toss a bunch of nuts down your drain, add some h2o, and grind them up. What do you accept? Yes, peanut butter. In your garbage disposal. Which is going to make the work your disposal is supposed to be doing next to impossible.
  • Really gristly vegetables. Vegetables and vegetable peels are kind of the staff of life and butter of garbage disposals, and so to speak. Only some vegetables or parts of vegetables–think corn husks and rhubarb–take fibers that tin can easily get tangled around your disposal's impellers.
  • Java grounds. They probably seem innocuous, but coffee grounds basically turn into sludge and make clogs waaaayy more than likely. Your compost bin is a much better candidate for disposing of them.
  • Pasta, rice, and breadstuff. Weird, right? Merely all iii of these expand when they get wet...which they absolutely will in your garbage disposal. And then yeah, you're looking at a big ol' mess if you lot go far the addiction of washing these down your drain.
  • Potato peels. We're sorry to be the ones to break this to you lot, but potatoes peels are a no go for your garbage disposal. They can miss the impellers entirely (and potentially become stuck somewhere down the line) OR become ground up similar they're "supposed to" and turn into a starchy paste...and then you've basically got the same problem posed by pasta, rice, and staff of life.

So there y'all have it! Follow these guidelines–and add together cleaning your garbage disposal to your regular cleaning schedule–and you lot should have a happy, odor-free disposal for years to come.