Keep out grease and oil, coffee grounds, fibrous vegetables, starchy foods, bones and pits, eggshells, and anything that is not food. Grease is the worst of them — not because it jams the disposal, but because it destroys the drain line downstream.
Never Put These Down a Disposal
- Grease, oil, and fat. The single most damaging thing. It goes down warm and liquid, then cools and congeals on the pipe wall a few feet in. Everything else sticks to it. Pour it into a can and throw it away.
- Coffee grounds. They do not break down — they clump and settle like sediment in the trap and line.
- Pasta, rice, and bread. They keep absorbing water and swelling long after they are down the drain.
- Potato peels. They turn into a starchy paste that coats everything.
- Fibrous vegetables — celery, artichokes, corn husks, onion skins, asparagus. The fibers wrap around the impeller.
- Bones and fruit pits. Hard enough to jam or damage the unit.
- Eggshells. They grind into a gritty sludge that binds with grease.
- Non-food items — silverware, bottle caps, twist ties, produce stickers, cigarette butts.
- Harsh chemicals and drain cleaners, which corrode the unit and damage older pipe.
What a Disposal Is Actually For
Incidental scraps rinsed off plates — not a plateful of leftovers, and not a substitute for the trash can. Scrape plates into the bin first, then rinse.
The Rule That Matters Most
Run cold water before, during, and for 30 seconds after every use. Cold keeps grease solid so it gets chopped and flushed through rather than melting and coating the line. Hot water does the opposite. Thirty seconds of runoff afterward is what actually carries debris past the trap.
The Albuquerque Compounding Factor
Hard water leaves mineral scale that roughens and narrows pipe interiors, giving grease and debris far more to cling to. That is genuinely why kitchen lines here clog faster than national guidance suggests. A water softener slows it throughout the house.
Contact B. Carlson for drain cleaning or disposal service in Albuquerque.
