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1. Coffee Grounds
Don’t let coffee grounds fool you. Although they may appear to be finely milled, they’re very densely packed and almost paste-like when you take them out of a filter. Put that down your garbage disposal and you’ll end up with a pile up of gunky sediment in your drain, increasing the likelihood of a clog.
2. Pasta, Rice, and Bread
What do these three things have in common? They all absorb water and expand, which can easily lead to a clogged drain. Don’t stress about a little bit of leftover spaghetti down the disposal, but don’t make a habit of dumping pasta into the disposal either. If you do run pasta, rice, or bread down the disposal, run it for at least 30 seconds, and make sure to run cold water down the drain to flush the grains down without expanding them. The same goes for oats, and any other grain that will absorb water.
3. Animal Bones
Although it can be hard to accept, the garbage disposal is not indestructible. It’s simply not built to grind up exceptionally hard items. Bones are one of the hardest naturally-occurring substances out there, and they can significantly shorten the lifespan of your disposal. Don’t panic if you accidentally drop a small fish or chicken bone down the drain—a garbage disposal can handle that. But anything larger than that will simply spin around your disposal, and damage its grinding mechanisms.
4. Nuts and Shells
Similar to bones, nuts and shells (including seafood shells) can be very damaging to your garbage disposal. And softer nuts, such as peanuts, are still not a good idea for the disposal. You garbage disposal is not unlike a nut grinder, and know what you get when you grind and mash peanuts? Peanut butter. Well maybe not exactly the peanut butter you get in a jar, but a somewhat thick, peanut paste that can easily clog up your drain.
