Have you ever sat there trying to figure out what to do after broken glass has found its way into your garbage disposal?
Your garbage disposal helps to efficiently clean up food scraps and leftovers with a push of a button. But when accidents happen and glass gets into your garbage disposal, you want to make sure that you carefully remove the glass and not create a hazard for yourself, or ruin the blades or other parts of the disposal.
6 Steps To Handle Glass in the Garbage Disposal
These simple steps can make the glass clean up quick and easy:
- Before getting started, make sure that you’re garbage disposal is turned off.  The last thing you want is a to add a trip to the emergency room to your list of things to do for the day. Simply unplug the garbage disposal at the power source.
- To avoid accidents, do not put your hands into the garbage disposal! You’ll want to use kitchen tongs or a needle nose pliers and pull out any large broken pieces from the disposal. Another effective way of removing the glass is to find a raw potato that is large enough to fit into the opening of the disposal and cut the bottom off of it. Push the potato down into the bottom surface of the disposal to imbed glass pieces into the potato. You can continue this process with additional potatoes until you are no longer picking up glass.
- After removing the large pieces of glass from the disposal by using either of the methods above, use a hex key on the bottom of the garbage disposal to unblock any glass that may be lodged and blocking the blades from turning.
- Using a wet/ dry vacuum, now remove any small pieces that may still be lying at the bottom of the disposal. If you have a double sink, to maximize suction cover the other sink opening.
- Turn the power back on to the disposal. If your disposal fails to turn on, you may need to reset it by unplugging the unit again and pushing the reset button on the bottom of the disposal and then reconnect it to the power source.
- The final step, allow cold water to run down the disposal drain and start the disposal. Any small remaining pieces should be ground down and rinse through the unit leaving your disposal clear of glass. As you are doing this, it is important to keep your face away from the disposal or hold a plate over the disposal to avoid possible mishaps from glass flying out.
If none of these tips work for you, contact the professional plumbers at Central. We can help fix the problem!
Whether you are need of a plumber in Kalispell, Whitefish, Bigfork, Columbia Falls or anywhere else in the Flathead Valley. . .As always, your Comfort is our Central concern, call 406-756-6656, for all your heating, cooling, plumbing, electrical and drain cleaning needs.
