When Food and Drains Clash: Five Items to Keep Your Eye On
Nov 15, 2010 5:32 PM
There always seems to a few troublemakers in every crowd. In this case, we’re talking about the crowd inside your refrigerator. Certain foods tend to create issues when they go down the drain, which can make your drain slow down or clog up completely. Even if you have a garbage disposal, clogs can still sneak up on you.
Five foods to watch out for:
1. Coffee Grounds
The trick here is to drink some coffee before you dispose of the grounds. Being sleepy and having grounds to dispose of can lead to coffee grounds in bad places (the drain, the artificial plant, your shirt pocket). Drink up, feel energized, and toss them in the trash.
2. Egg Shells
Egg shells and frustration seem to go hand-in-hand. How many times have you cracked an egg only to have one tiny piece of shell get in there with the yolk? Then, with a steady hand, you have to carefully remove that piece of shell, which can take anywhere from 30 seconds to 7 ½ hours. The only thing that could lead to more frustration is tossing egg shells down the drain, which can lead to drain clogs. Egg shells create very tiny granular waste that will stick to any sludge in the pipe and quickly create a clog.
3. Potatoes
Not only are they difficult to spell, they’re difficult to dispose of in your sink. Potatoes and potato peels tend to form a starchy paste once they enter your drain, which can lead to problems.
4. Cooking Grease/Cooking Oil
Just like you’re not supposed to have too much grease and oil in your diet, you shouldn’t have too much of it in your drains. It sticks to drainpipes and hardens, preventing water from flowing freely. Rather than pouring it into the drain, we recommend pouring it into sealable containers, and then throwing the sealed containers in the trash. If grease/oil does make its way down your sink, we recommend Drano® Kitchen Crystals, which melts down kitchen grease inside pipes. Just make sure you don’t use it in a drain with a garbage disposal.
5. Expanding Foods
Rice, pasta and bread are all troublemakers. They’re like those little toys that magically expand into a big, fun, toy dinosaur after they’ve soaked in water for a while. The difference here is that the toys are fun, while rice or pasta expanding in your drains is the opposite of fun. These foods also tend to leave starchy residue, which can lead to problems. Throw them in the trash instead of the drain, and you should be in the clear.