If a garbage disposal isn't running, does food that goes down the drain go into pipes or is there something to catch it?

Every morning after I feed my cats, I rinse out the empty cat food can before putting it in the recycling. If I turn on the garbage disposal while I am rinsing out the can, it scares one of my cats out of the kitchen and my other cat eats her share of the food. If I don't run the garbage disposal, are the bits of cat food that go down the drain going on into my pipes, or do they sit in some kind of trap so that I can turn on the garbage disposal to eliminate them later?

Asked by wondering226 28 months ago Similar questions: garbage disposal running food drain pipes catch Home.

Similar questions: garbage disposal running food drain pipes catch.

A garbage disposal You should not regularly use your garbage disposal to dispose of gravel, but for your purposes, it is fine. In a garbage disposal, there are multiple "blades" that spin on their own axis when the disposal is on. These work well on soft food that it is designed to chop up.

The occasional pebble can ding these blades, but should not significantly decrease their ability to chop. A more rare circumstance is a pebble wedging between the blade and its axle preventing it from spinning. This might decrease the efficiency of the chopping action of the blades, but the disposal spins so fast that it should not be significant.

Since rocks are more dense than water, there may be a greater chance of them remaining in the disposal until it is turned on. Only a knuckle size rock or larger has a chance to jam the disposal and cause real damage. You can use a drain strainer to catch any boulders too big for your disposal to handle.

Sand and dirt should be no problem. The whole point of the disposal is convenience, so keep those doggy feet clean the easy way! I remember that coffee grounds can most definitely clog a sink... at my previous job the cleaning personnel clogged it virtually every night by dumping the coffee grounds from the machine into the sink (we eventually wrote them a note in Spanish which solved the problem).

Thus, given that dirt is a lot like coffee grounds in consistency, I am convinced you can clog it. Also, given that there are either blades or a grinding mechanism in every disposal, with big enough pebbles (about marble size? ) you can damage the mechanism enough that you'll have to replace it.

Final word of advice: never wash a shedding Collie (spring time! ) in your bathtub. Pounds of long dog hair will reliably clog it... Sources: askville.amazon.com/damage-garbage-dispo... .

If appliances were movie stars, then garbage disposal repair .... If appliances were movie stars, then garbage disposal repair would be in the tabloids every week. Garbage disposals have been one of the more controversial appliances in recent history. It was actually banned in New York City until 1997.

The ban was put in place because officials believed that the garbage being sent down the drain would have a damaging effect on the city's sewer system. As a matter of fact, in countries in Europe and in the U.K. , it's still hard to find people who own one. They've also become known as one of the deadliest appliances in the house.

That is, if you believe every horror movie you've ever seen. It never ends well when someone drops a ring down the drain. Despite the bad rap and bad-boy image, the garbage disposal is still one of our most used appliances in the kitchen today.

Many people associate the spinners inside the garbage disposal with the actual blades. That's incorrect. The spinners are actually dull and are used to push the food toward the outside edges of the disposal, which is where the shredders are.

Here's how a garbage disposal really works. Food items get stuffed into the disposal through the sink drain. Inside the disposal there are a series of spinners that spin freely, which are sometimes called "the hammers."

The hammers are connected to a turntable that is spun around by the motor. Along the outer wall of the disposal are the shredders. When you turn the disposal on, the motor spins the turntable at an extremely high speed.

This causes centrifugal force that pulls the food outward towards the shredder. The hammers spin around and assist with pushing the food into the shredder. The shredder tears the food into tiny parts that get flushed down the drain along with the water.

Garbage disposals should never be run without the water running. They are dependable appliances, but let's see if you've ever had this experience:You just had a big dinner and instead of throwing the debris left on the dishes into the garbage, you choose to stuff it all down the drain (make sure no silverware sneaks in! ).

You hit the switch on the wall, the disposal screams to life and then... nothing. You flip the switch a couple of times only to be met with a humming and then a "click. " Now when you hit the switch, you don't even get the humming.

This is a common problem and an easy one to fix. This is just one of the problems you may face with your garbage disposal. Ahead, we'll look at more, but first let's fix this one.

Sources: doityourself.com/stry/howgarbagedisworks .

Garbage disposal If a garbage disposal isn't running, food goes down the drain go into pipes Sources: It is my opinion .

Garbage Disposal: Repair and Info If appliances were movie stars, then garbage disposal repair would be in the tabloids every week. Garbage disposals have been one of the more controversial appliances in recent history. It was actually banned in New York City until 1997.