Kitchen

[chickenbutt]

On 7/4/2014 Thumperluver said:

With all due respect......Do NOT grind up lemon or orange peels in your disposal. Although this makes it smell better right away, you WILL have a different problem after you do this. When I did this, my disposal never quite ground it ALL up enough to be able to flush it away. Let me tell you ~ this was a disgusting chore having to dig out all the leftover peels that have been sitting in there, collecting bits of everything else you have sent down there.

I've heard of people having problems. I'm always very careful and when I do a few lemons I only put ONE half in there. It seems to grind it up very well. I do this very infrequently.

What I job, though! I don't envy you that. I've had to have my hand in the garbage disposal before and there is nothing fun about that!

[snappyfrappy]

If someone has already suggested this, I apologize. I had this problem and someone on another thread told me to fill 3 large glasses with ice cubes. Pour them into the disposal. You have to work at getting the third one in. Turn it on. It makes a lot of noise, but you will see water and nasty stuff come up into the sink. Don't worry, it will go back down and when it does, you won't have that bad smell anymore. It worked like a charm for me.

snappy

[Thumperluver]

On 7/4/2014 chickenbutt said:

On 7/4/2014 Thumperluver said:

With all due respect......Do NOT grind up lemon or orange peels in your disposal. Although this makes it smell better right away, you WILL have a different problem after you do this. When I did this, my disposal never quite ground it ALL up enough to be able to flush it away. Let me tell you ~ this was a disgusting chore having to dig out all the leftover peels that have been sitting in there, collecting bits of everything else you have sent down there.

I've heard of people having problems. I'm always very careful and when I do a few lemons I only put ONE half in there. It seems to grind it up very well. I do this very infrequently.

What I job, though! I don't envy you that. I've had to have my hand in the garbage disposal before and there is nothing fun about that!

We did it only sporadically and very little at a time too. It smelled great at first, seemed like a simple fix. But it caught up with us over time. And yes, is was nasty. yuck.

[chickenbutt]

Ha! I just thought of this - too bad Vitamix doesn't make garbage disposals. How great would THAT be?

[FranandZoe]

If you clean under the rubber splash guard once or twice a week you'll have no odor.

[Theoriginallacey]

I use citrus fruit also.

[chickenbutt]

On 7/4/2014 Thumperluver said:

On 7/4/2014 chickenbutt said:

On 7/4/2014 Thumperluver said:

With all due respect......Do NOT grind up lemon or orange peels in your disposal. Although this makes it smell better right away, you WILL have a different problem after you do this. When I did this, my disposal never quite ground it ALL up enough to be able to flush it away. Let me tell you ~ this was a disgusting chore having to dig out all the leftover peels that have been sitting in there, collecting bits of everything else you have sent down there.

I've heard of people having problems. I'm always very careful and when I do a few lemons I only put ONE half in there. It seems to grind it up very well. I do this very infrequently.

What I job, though! I don't envy you that. I've had to have my hand in the garbage disposal before and there is nothing fun about that!

We did it only sporadically and very little at a time too. It smelled great at first, seemed like a simple fix. But it caught up with us over time. And yes, is was nasty. yuck.

Good to know. I appreciate the benefit of your experience and will probably not do this again - just in case. I've probably done it 3 or 4 times in the entire 13.5 years since we bought this house. But I certainly don't want to have to replace a garbage disposal.

It's not all that expensive, but the one we have seems pretty good so I don't like to play the odds. Ours is an Insinkerator. I don't know how many years old it is, as it was in the house when we bought it but I'd imagine it's definitely over 16 years old as the previous owner only had the house for 2-3 years and I'm pretty sure he didn't put it in.

I did find (well, my husband did) this cool little tool for if you get a sudden blockage. It just looks like a double-ended kind of Allen wrench thing (made specifically for Insinkerator brand, or so it says) and you just get in this place on the bottom of the unit and turn it back and forth until it turns easily and, voila!, back to working perfectly. That was a scare I had a while back and thought I was going to have to replace the unit.