Garbage Disposals - Repair and Service

Garbage disposals are pretty simple and they all work on a similar principle. They have a flat plate with small, rotating, steel mashers, and an inner disposal wall that has "teeth" to do the job of grinding your food waste. A motor inside the unit rotates the flat plate in the food-grinding area. When you switch the unit on, the mashers are forced to swing toward the outside of the spinning plate.

Disposals should be run just until the food has been ground up-which is usually less than 30 seconds. Also, make sure to run a full stream of cold water through the disposal while it grinds.

If you are looking for a San Diego Plumber for any garbage disposal problems please call us today at 760-295-6252 or complete our online request form.

Garbage Disposal Tips

The ground-up waste does NOT go back to nature's water supply to be gobbled up by fish and other life forms. It must first pass through the sewage-treatment plant (or your septic system). This not only increases the load on our already overburdened sewage-treatment facilities, the process also removes any food value the waste might have had further down the line.

It's true that putting the food waste in the trash will shift the burden to the local landfill instead of your sewage treatment system, but landfills are causing us far fewer problems today than sewage treatment systems. The latter are a main source of "nutrient pollution"—one of the main causes of coastal dead zone in estuaries, gulfs, and bays. Adding your nutrient-rich food waste to the sewage stream only makes the problem worse.

Grinding food uses lots of water, and we're seeing fresh water become a more and more precious commodity.