Before you go throwing a banana peel down the garbage disposal or letting a wad of hair circle down the drain of your bathroom sink, read this blog post!
While drains are meant to wash away wastewater, there’s a lot of types of waste they can’t handle. This is especially true for kitchen sink drains. Too often, homeowners assume that if they have a garbage disposal system, that system can handle anything you give it, but that’s simply not the case.
Read on as we uncover what shouldn’t go down your sink drains.
What to Avoid with your Kitchen Sink
Here are some things you should definitely never put down your kitchen sink drain:
- F.O.G: This stands for fats, oils, and grease—the byproducts of cooking. The problem with FOG is that as it cools down, it hardens. If it’s inside your drainpipes, this means it congeals and sticks to the lining of the pipe, eventually creating a clog.
- Unchewable Food Items: As we mentioned above, people often assume that their kitchen garbage disposals can handle anything, but this simply isn’t the case. In fact, if it’s something you can’t chew with your teeth—fruit pits and meat bones for example—then you shouldn’t rely on your garbage disposal to break it up either. Not only is this bad for your drain, but it can damage the garbage disposal, too.
- Rice and Pasta: These are both food items that expand with water. They’re soft and not too sticky, so many homeowners figure it will go down the drain just fine. However, it can very well start creating a clog. The same goes for coffee grounds and anything else that expands with water!
- Any Actual Garbage: Perhaps “garbage disposal” isn’t the best name for this system, as you should never put actual garbage down your kitchen sink drain. This includes things such as paper and plastic wrappers and the like.
What to Avoid with your Bathroom Sink
There are some very specific things people do over the bathroom sink—brushing their teeth, shaving, washing their face, etc. While these things are expected, it’s important to be mindful of what’s going down the drain with wastewater.
- Hair: Long strands of hair can get wrapped up with soap scum and other debris and create tangled clogs within your drains. You’ll likely find yourself calling a plumber if you don’t use drain covers to keep hair out of your bathroom drains.
- Beauty Products: Washing standard makeup off over your bathroom sink is understandable. But what about clay or charcoal face masks? Many people don’t realize that once these products dry up inside the drain pipes, they harden just like they did when they were on your face, therefore creating an opportunity for clogs.
“What If I Get a Clog Anyway?”
Let’s face it, clogs are one of the most annoying albeit the most common types of plumbing problems. If you have one, you might be tempted to reach for that bottle of store-bought drain cleaner you keep on hand. But that can actually do more harm than good! The best thing you can do to fix a clogging problem in any of your sinks is call our team for drain snaking or hydro-jetting.
Contact Brooks Plumbing Co. to fix your sink plumbing in Olympia, WA.
