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I've been doing it for many years in my house with no problem. Are you claiming that someday something will go terribly wrong and I'll regret it?

by tlb 2y ago

buildbot 2y ago
Unironically, yes - You can find many sources online by googling it: https://www.stansac.com/blog/are-garbage-disposals-bad-for-plumbing https://www.stansac.com/blog/are-garbage-disposals-bad-for-p... It could be that it never happens, but most food waste should go in the trash or ideally compost.
- masfuerte 2y ago
  So what are they for? If you scrape your plates so there are only tiny bits of soft food going down the drain you don't need a garbage disposal anyway. I don't have one and I've never had a blockage.
  - analog31 2y ago
    Food waste. Chase it with a reasonable amount of water. I've never had a drain clog due to food waste. Hair in bathtubs, yes.
  - dghlsakjg 2y ago
    Someone selling a convenience product does not necessarily mean it is not flawed. The company that sells you a garbage disposal doesn’t really care if there’s plumbing issues ten years down the line, or if the waste treatment plant can’t handle it, they already got paid. Another example of this in the plumbing world is flushable wipes. They cause tons of issues in plumbing systems.
- tlb 2y ago
  A clog doesn't quality as something going terribly wrong. Empirically, my plumbing costs are $300 over 10 years. By comparison, rats are actually a big problem in the deep wooded suburbs. We spend a lot more on exterminators, rat traps, poison, and mesh covers to keep them out of the house. Rats smell bad, scare the girls, attack the chickens, spread garbage around the pickup area, spread fleas to the dogs, and are a nontrivial vector for serious human diseases. So given that rats are a bigger problem than clogs under my current policy of scraping plates down the disposer, I should probably do it even more.

I've been doing it for many years in my house with no problem. Are you claiming that someday something will go terribly wrong and I'll regret it?

by tlb 2y ago

I've been doing it for many years in my house with no problem. Are you claiming that someday something will go terribly wrong and I'll regret it?

buildbot 2y ago

Unironically, yes - You can find many sources online by googling it: https://www.stansac.com/blog/are-garbage-disposals-bad-for-plumbing https://www.stansac.com/blog/are-garbage-disposals-bad-for-p... It could be that it never happens, but most food waste should go in the trash or ideally compost.

masfuerte 2y ago
So what are they for? If you scrape your plates so there are only tiny bits of soft food going down the drain you don't need a garbage disposal anyway. I don't have one and I've never had a blockage.
- analog31 2y ago
  Food waste. Chase it with a reasonable amount of water. I've never had a drain clog due to food waste. Hair in bathtubs, yes.
- dghlsakjg 2y ago
  Someone selling a convenience product does not necessarily mean it is not flawed. The company that sells you a garbage disposal doesn’t really care if there’s plumbing issues ten years down the line, or if the waste treatment plant can’t handle it, they already got paid. Another example of this in the plumbing world is flushable wipes. They cause tons of issues in plumbing systems.
tlb 2y ago
A clog doesn't quality as something going terribly wrong. Empirically, my plumbing costs are $300 over 10 years. By comparison, rats are actually a big problem in the deep wooded suburbs. We spend a lot more on exterminators, rat traps, poison, and mesh covers to keep them out of the house. Rats smell bad, scare the girls, attack the chickens, spread garbage around the pickup area, spread fleas to the dogs, and are a nontrivial vector for serious human diseases. So given that rats are a bigger problem than clogs under my current policy of scraping plates down the disposer, I should probably do it even more.