What Not to Put Down Your Kitchen Sink

Four categories of kitchen waste do not belong in a kitchen sink drain: grease and oil, coffee grounds, starchy foods such as pasta and rice, and fibrous foods. Each category damages the drain in a different way — coating, clumping, swelling, or matting. This article covers what each item does inside the pipe; the daily habits that keep these items out are in how to prevent kitchen sink clogs.

Why does grease not belong in the sink?

Grease does not belong in the sink because grease leaves the pan as a liquid and becomes a sticky solid inside the pipe, coating the wall a little more with every pour. Hot water and dish soap move grease a short distance before the water cools and the grease sets. The coating then catches everything else on this list. Bacon fat, fryer oil, butter, and meat drippings all behave the same way. Grease is the foundation layer of most kitchen clogs, as the kitchen sink unclogging Fort Pierce FL homepage explains in the causes section.

Why are coffee grounds bad for a kitchen drain?

Coffee grounds are bad for a kitchen drain because wet grounds clump into a dense, heavy sediment that settles in the trap and at low points in the line instead of washing through. Grounds do not dissolve, and grounds do not scour the pipe, despite a common belief that the grit cleans the walls. A disposal grinds food waste, and grounds pass through the disposal unchanged into the trap, where the grounds accumulate load after load. Coffee grounds belong in the trash or a compost bin.

Why do pasta and rice cause clogs?

Pasta and rice cause clogs because both foods keep absorbing water inside the pipe and swell into a thick, paste-like mass that blocks the line. A handful of cooked rice down the drain can expand well beyond the volume that went in. The swollen mass is soft enough to let a thin stream of water past and dense enough to stop normal flow, and the mass re-forms after plunging pushes a hole through the mass. Dry scraps swept into the sink during cleanup are the usual source. Starchy water from draining a pasta pot carries dissolved starch that also thickens the grease layer.

Why are fibrous foods a problem even with a disposal?

Fibrous foods are a problem because the long fibers of celery, artichokes, corn husks, and onion skins do not shred cleanly in a disposal, and the strands mat together inside the pipe. The disposal plate wraps strands around itself, and strands that pass through tangle at bends and at the trap. A fiber mat acts as a net: grease and grounds collect on the mat, and a combined plug forms at the mat's location. Fibrous scraps belong in the trash even in a kitchen with a disposal.

What else should stay out of the sink?

Flour, eggshells, and produce stickers should also stay out of the sink. Flour and water form a paste that sets in the trap. Eggshell fragments settle as heavy sediment and bind with grease; the belief that shells sharpen disposal blades is not supported by how disposals work — disposals grind with blunt impellers, not blades. Produce stickers slip through strainers and stick to pipe walls as a base for buildup. Bones and fruit pits belong on the list for the disposal's sake: hard objects jam the grinding plate, a fault covered in garbage disposal humming but not working.

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