August 5, 2021

How to Clean a Garbage Disposal in 3 Easy Steps

If you have a garbage disposal you rely on its magical feature to make leftovers disappear in the drain. However, every time it’s used, leftover debris collects, and after some time it starts to stink. But don’t worry, in this article, we would show how to clean your garbage disposal in few easy steps. There are few standard practices to keep unpleasant odors and you can find the ingredients in most kitchens of New Yorkers.

Our NYC house cleaning experts notice that most odors that you are feeling from garbage disposal are coming because of food leftovers on the splash guard. If you don’t know it’s a black removable rubber that you can find on the top of your sink’s drain hole. You can clean it with a mix of baking soda and hot water or you can put it aside and clean it in a dishwasher.

Food particles can build up the garbage disposal. A most common household component can take care of it. “Ice helps to divide any food that stuck in the disposal, also use bleach or baking soda to kill any kind of germs, while lemon helps to remove the smell,” says White Glove Cleaner’s owner Khrystyna. 

The citrus skin will leave a charmingly fruity smell that refreshes the whole kitchen.

If you often use the disposal, it’s a good practice to use such steps to clean it:

• Turn off the faucet and the disposal; 
• Remove any visible food debris: when the splash guard is separated, use a flashlight into the disposal to inspect for any food shreds that escaped the grinder. Use pliers or tongs and reach into the disposal to exclude the food scraps. Be careful with your fingers doing this;
• Step 1:  put 7 ice cubes in the hole and add 2 teaspoons of baking soda, 2 lemon slices, and 1 teaspoon of bleach. And add 7 ice cubes more above;
• Step 2: Turn on your disposal but don’t open the water until the grinding would stop;
• Step 3: While the motor still running, run the water for 40 seconds and flush everything out.

Things to Avoid

We recommend evading using special garbage disposal cleaners, because some may contain corrosive chemicals that can damage metal components of the disposal. So be careful buying them, at least use them only periodically. 

Also, try not to put chemical drain cleaners into your garbage disposal.

Safety measures: most garbage disposals don’t use sharp razors (instead they have special impellers based on centrifugal force and spin the particles against a fixed grind hoop), to avoid reaching owners hands inside the disposal to wash it. So you wouldn’t cut a finger but it could be still very harmless.

Read also: Cleaning a Coffee Maker In 5 Easy Steps

Common Usage Tips

If you want to keep smells and gunk away, always use the disposal with water if you are grinding food leftovers.

“Usually, odors from the gutter actually come from food particles that stick there,” says John, cleaning expert. So run the water before using the garbage disposal, when grinding food, and then for 10 seconds more after the grinding is over. Such measures are simple but effective. It allows food to move through the drain after the grinding without a stop. 

We found out that it’s effective to use a last flush of water when you switched off the disposal.

The thing is the food traps in the bottom of the grinding machine and the last water flush moves them away, which leaves no chances to the unpleasant odor.

Besides careful usage and systematic cleaning, you don’t really need to do something else to maintain the garbage disposal. It’s easy to prolong the life of the disposal to 12 years if you will carefully choose the food that is put into the garbage disposal.

Read also: How To Clean The Microwave At Home