Dos and Don’ts For Kitchen Drains

The kitchen is where a lot of drain problems can arise. From a flooded dishwasher to larger plumbing system damage, mistreating your kitchen drains can lead to headaches and expensive repairs. To prevent those problems before they start, here are some basic dos and don’ts for kitchen drain health.

Kitchen Don’ts:

Pour grease down your drain. While cleaning up after cooking a meal, it may seem easy and relatively harmless to dispose of grease or cooking oils in your drain rather than disposing of them separately. There’s an important reason why this isn’t recommended! Grease might go down the drain easily, but as it cools, it solidifies and creates a trap for other debris. This can cause backups that require expensive repairs.

Overload your garbage disposal. Some food scraps are fine, but avoid disposing of non-food items, fibrous or starchy food waste, or disposing of too much food waste at once. Your garbage disposal works hard, but it can’t break down everything. This can cause damage to your disposal and drain clogs. 

Load your dishwasher with dirty plates. Loading a dishwasher with plates that contain food scraps and waste can quickly lead to clogs, draining issues, and an inefficient dishwasher. Your dishwasher collects food waste, but if overloaded, that food debris can end up clogging the dishwasher drain hose or causing water to back up into your garbage disposal.

Kitchen Dos:

Run cool water when using your garbage disposal. Running water while using your disposal will help flush food waste down the drain. This helps to avoid food just sitting in the disposal or building up. Cold water is recommended as it keeps any lingering fats and oils solid.

Regularly run your garbage disposal. By regularly running your garbage disposal, even without disposing of food, you can avoid build up of any residual food waste. It’s recommended to use a couple drops of dish soap while running your garbage disposal to loosen fats and oils that might be stuck. 

Regularly Maintain Your Dishwasher. From time to time, to keep it running smoothly, you’ll need to maintain your dishwasher. This primarily means clearing the filter basket of food waste, especially when you notice that your dishwasher is being less efficient, draining slowly, or not cleaning plates well. This simple task will prevent much more complex problems and clogs from your dishwasher.

These dos and dont’s can help prevent expensive plumbing problems and keep your kitchen drains working smoothly. Even if you follow everything exactly, plumbing issues can still happen. A backed up dishwasher, for example, can be caused by sewage issues – not user error! For problems large and small, Best Plumbing is here to help. Call us 24/7 at (206) 622-1700 for all your plumbing needs.