Holiday Plumbing Tips | Dependable Rooter

If there’s one thing that makes the holidays festive, it’s the food. Sure, it’s nice to meet family and talk about the year’s events, but let there be no confusion; everyone’s waiting on dinner. So whether you celebrate the holidays with a roasted turkey, glazed ham, or other treats, you can be sure that your ravenous family members will make short work of these culinary delights. Your plumbing, on the other hand, may not be quite so eager to handle the leftovers. While it might not be the first thing on your mind during the holiday season, your pipes are under near-constant attack during these festivities. Between the fats washing down the drain, food scraps lodging in your lines, and other issues, you’re practically guaranteed to have plumbing issues. Thankfully, we at Dependable Rooter & Plumbing are here to help you with a few tips to keep your plumbing flowing free and clear this holiday.

Separate Your Trash

Your sink drains can only handle so much waste, which helps separate your food waste before washing dishes. Start by cleaning compostables off of your plates and into a proper container. Next, you should place any other scraps in the trash to minimize the work your disposal system needs. While this goes without saying, don’t let plastic or other inorganic waste wash down your sink, or you will have a clog form in your lines.

Feed Your Disposal System Slowly and Carefully

When it comes time to run your garbage disposal system, avoid overloading the feed. No matter how robust your disposal is, it’ll never be able to cope with an entire sink’s worth of waste. Avoid jamming your disposal by feeding scraps with warm water flowing through them. This method will allow your system to perform more efficiently.

Avoid Certain Waste Entirely

Certain foods produce waste that is never fit for your garbage disposal. These include but are not limited to:

Eggs: Eggs contain membranes that wrap around some of your disposal’s components, potentially rendering them useless. Once ground down, the shells are complex to get rid of and often result in serious clogs.
Fats: Fats and greases coat your system’s blades, reducing their effectiveness. This same grease can also cause clogs in your lines; you should avoid it at all costs.
Vegetable or Fruit Skins: While they may seem harmless, vegetable and fruit skins tend to get caught underneath your disposal system’s blades, reducing their effectiveness.
Bones, Shells, Pits, and Seeds: These tough byproducts can dull your system’s blades, slow operation, and even result in a burnt-out motor! Avoid byproducts at all costs.
Stringy Vegetables: Stringy vegetables, such as celery, often congest your system, similar to fruit and vegetable skins.
Rice, Pasta, or Tea Leaves: These soft foods can gum up your blades and eventually form serious clogs.

Have A Plumber Service Your Home Plumbing

The best way to ensure the integrity of your plumbing during the holiday season is to call a plumber to do a regular inspection. This examination will give you an overview of your system’s health and alert you to any issues that may worsen during the holidays. That means you won’t have to worry about your disposal system shutting down on you during your celebration. Better yet, you’ll avoid any potential back-ups and the embarrassment that comes with them.

Let Dependable Rooter & Plumbing Tackle Your Projects

Hopefully, these few tips are enough to help you avoid the most common plumbing issues people encounter during the holiday season. Unfortunately, however, accidents happen. Thankfully, you have us help you whenever you run into problems. When you need help preparing for the holiday season, let Dependable Rooter & Plumbing help you with our drain cleaning and garbage disposal services. We’ll help ensure that your plumbing system is in top form so that you can confidently tackle this holiday season. Dependable Rooter & Plumbing offers garbage disposal and plumbing fixture services in the following areas:

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is holiday cooking hard on plumbing?

Fats washing down the drain and food scraps lodging in the lines put the plumbing under near-constant attack during the holidays. The extra cooking and cleaning raise the chance of a clog.

How should I handle food waste before washing dishes?

Clean compostables off the plates into a proper container, then place other scraps in the trash to reduce the work the disposal has to do. Plastic and other inorganic waste should never go down the sink.

How much food should I put in the garbage disposal at once?

Feed the disposal slowly and avoid overloading it, because it cannot cope with an entire sink’s worth of waste at one time. Scraps should go in with warm water flowing to reduce jamming.

Should eggshells go in the garbage disposal?

No. Egg membranes can wrap around disposal components and the shells are difficult to get rid of once ground, so they often result in serious clogs.

Why do fats and grease cause disposal problems?

Fats and greases coat the system’s blades and reduce their effectiveness. The same grease can also cause clogs in the drain lines, so it should be kept out of the sink.

Which foods should stay out of the garbage disposal?

Bones, shells, pits, seeds, vegetable and fruit skins, stringy vegetables such as celery, and rice, pasta, or tea leaves all cause problems. These items either dull the blades, catch underneath them, or gum up the mechanism and form clogs.

Why schedule a plumbing inspection before the holidays?

A regular inspection gives an overview of the system’s health and alerts you to issues that may worsen during the holidays. That can prevent the disposal from shutting down or a backup during a celebration.