How to prep your garbage disposal for Thanksgiving and other holiday events

As the holidays quickly approach, it’s time to prep your kitchen for making delicious foods. Part of the process involves deciding on a cleanup process and making sure you have everything you need so it goes smoothly. If you decide to use a garbage disposal, to take care of leftover food, you’ll want to check it and make sure it’s running correctly before the holiday season.

All those vegetable peels, bones, and other food scraps can put a strain on your garbage disposal. A clogged or broken disposal is the last thing you need when guests are arriving, so it’s important to take steps to get your garbage disposal ready before the big feast.

Don’t wait until the last minute to check or repair your appliances. If you need to order replacement parts, do it early to avoid shipping delays, holiday closures and out-of-stock parts. The sooner you check your machine and place an order, the more likely it is that you’ll get the part on time. You can grab your model number and check AppliancePartsPros.com for the correct parts.

Watch: How to clean a garbage disposal

Why your disposal needs pre-Thanksgiving prep

Giving your garbage disposal a quick cleaning and following proper usage guidelines will help it run smoothly during the added holiday workload:

• Increased volume: On Thanksgiving and other holidays, people may prepare larger amounts of food than usual, which results in more scraps and leftovers going down the disposal. This increased volume can strain the motor if the blades get clogged.
• Damage from bones: Turkey carcasses, along with other bones from roasts or hams, can damage blades if not disposed of properly. Bones should never go down the disposal.
• Clogs from starchy foods: Potato peels or large amounts of bread, rice, or pasta can clump together and clog drains.
• Problems from fats, oils and grease: Cooking oils and meat fats can build up, harden, and stick to pipes.

Read more: How To Repair a Garbage Disposal

How to prepare your garbage disposal for the holidays

Clean the disposal blades

Over time, grease and leftover debris can build up and prevent the disposal blades from spinning properly. There are two easy ways to thoroughly clean the blades:

Use ice and vinegar

1. Freeze vinegar in an ice cube tray.
2. Turn on your faucet to a low stream of cold water.
3. Drop 3-4 frozen vinegar ice cubes down the disposal while it’s running. The ice cubes will knock off any stubborn residue, and the vinegar will help deodorize and sanitize the unit.
4. Repeat as needed until the ice cubes grind easily.

Try a disposer cleaner

For a deeper clean, use a commercial disposal cleaner. Simply pour the cleaner powder down the drain and let it sit for 15 minutes before running the disposal. This cleaner uses oxidizing agents to break down grease and grime. The fizzing action scrubs the inside as the blades whirl.

Read more: How to Quickly and Easily Unclog Your Kitchen Double Sink With a Garbage Disposal

Check for jams and lodged objects

Before grinding up piles of food scraps, it’s a good idea to make sure your disposal isn’t already jammed. Here’s how to check:

1. Turn on the power to the disposal under the sink.
2. Listen for any humming or buzzing noises coming from the unit. If you hear these sounds, it could mean something is stuck.
3. Press the reset button located on the bottom of the disposal unit. If there’s a minor blockage, this should clear it.
4. Use an Allen wrench or special disposal jam key to insert into the center shaft on the bottom of the unit. Twist it back and forth to dislodge anything stuck between the blades and grinding ring.
5. Check around the inside rim of the disposal opening for any foreign objects like silverware or bottle caps that may have fallen in.
6. Remove anything that doesn’t belong.
7. Test your disposal by running water and turning it on. It should spin freely with no odd sounds. If it doesn’t, you may need to remove and manually clean the blades.

Check for proper drain connections

While prepping your disposal, take a quick look at the drain connections under your sink to make sure everything is correctly attached.

Inspecting the connections helps ensure that water and ground food particles continue flowing unobstructed from the disposal and down the drain.

Check that:

• The disposal drain tube connects securely to the P-trap drain pipe.
• There are no leaks.
• The rubber drain gasket is in good shape and isn’t deteriorating.
• Pipes are fitted together snugly using pipe hangers and clamps if needed.
• The pipe slope allows adequate drainage without any low spots where water can collect.

Read more: 8 Ways To Keep Your Kitchen Safe This Holiday Season

Tips for using the garbage disposal

Avoid adding hard or stringy foods

Certain foods are difficult for disposals to break down and should be composted or thrown in the trash can instead. Never put these items down your garbage disposal:

• Bones from turkey, chicken, or any meat: They can chip or dull disposal blades.
• Fibrous fruit & vegetable peels: The stringy texture of corn husks, celery, onion skins, artichokes and similar foods can wrap around the garbage disposal blades and cause clogs.
• Potato peels: They can expand and stick to pipes.
• Egg shells: Small shards of shell can accumulate over time, causing clogs.
• Coffee grounds: They tend to clump and clog drains.
• Rice or pasta: Starch expands when it gets wet and can clump together.

Read more: 8 Tips To Prep Your Kitchen For A Holiday Feast

Run cold water when in use

You should always run cold water when operating your garbage disposal. Here’s why:

• Cold water solidifies fats and oils, allowing them to be chopped up by the spinning blades. This helps keep the blades sharper for longer.
• Hot water causes grease to liquefy, which can then stick to pipes.
• Cold water keeps the motor from overheating as the blades grind up heavier amounts of food.
• ​​Cold water helps rinse away particles faster to reduce lingering odors. Hot water can make food particles smell worse as they go down the drain.
• Cold water is more energy efficient since you don’t have to heat up the water. This saves on electricity or gas usage.
• Using cold water helps prevent steam damage. Hot water creates steam inside the disposal which can damage the internal components over time.

Read more: Maximizing Your Kitchen Efficiency: Can You Run the Garbage Disposal and Dishwasher Together?

Grind in small batches

When faced with piles of potato peels, mountains of stuffing pieces, and other food scraps after Thanksgiving dinner, it’s tempting to cram it all into the disposal at once. Resist that urge!

Taking it slow protects the motor from overheating and prevents drain blockages.

Here are some tips:

• Place a small amount of food waste in the disposal at a time.
• Turn on a fast stream of cold water and activate the disposal. Let it run until all grinding noises stop.
• Repeat with another small batch, letting the water run during and after grinding.

Freshen it up

After entertaining and cooking, your kitchen probably needs a refresh. Give your garbage disposal one too by slicing a lemon, lime or orange in half and running it through the disposal with cold water.

The citric acids will help scrub away grime and the citrus aroma will leave your disposal and sink smelling fresh and clean.

Additional information

Preparing your garbage disposal doesn’t take much time or effort, but it makes a big difference in how this hard-working kitchen appliance performs. We hope that taking the steps in this guide will help your disposal operate smoothly and trouble-free throughout the holiday season.

Thanks for reading! If you have any other appliance repair needs or projects, you can find more resources including our DIY blog at AppliancePartsPros.com. There, you can enter your model number to order the exact parts you need. Most orders arrive in two business days.

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