Garbage disposals work hard to get rid of the mess we made in our kitchen. But even when we try to follow the guidelines for using this hard-working kitchen appliance, we sometimes still end up with a less than fresh smell coming out of our sink drains. How do you get it to go away? Here are some tips to help keep your garbage disposal from smelling like a landfill.
4 Tips for a Smelly Garbage Disposal
- Try hot water and dish soap first. Fill your sink with hot, soapy water, then pull the plug to flush it through your running garbage disposal. Because this tip actually fills the garbage disposal with water, it flushes out a lot of the junk that isn't flushed away by everyday operation. For many situations, this is an easy fix that takes no more than a couple minutes of your time to clean up the source of the problem.
- If the smell is still there, it's time to scour the disposal blades. How? Ice cubes, lemon peels and coarse salt. These three ingredients help knock food off the grinder with the ice, scrubs the sides with the salt and the lemon peels make it smell awesome. As a deep cleaning solution, it will typically work well to get rid of any remaining smell that wasn't handled by the hot water and dish soap.
- If you're in a rush and need a great hack that gives you great results, try vinegar and lemon ice cubes. Cut a lemon into quarter-sized wedges, then place them in a muffin tin cup. Add distilled white vinegar into the cups over the lemon wedge. Put the muffin tin into the freezer overnight to freeze, then put a few down the disposal with a small stream of water while it's running. You can keep the extra cubes in the freezer in a plastic bag to use down the road.
- Maintain it. Take a little time to drop a few ice cubes down the drain once a week and you'll notice that the smell doesn't come back.
By taking a few minutes to maintain your garbage disposal, you can get rid of that nasty smell and have a wonderful kitchen again. If you need help from a Pittsburgh plumbing service, please feel free to contact us. At Stahl Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning, we're Pittsburgh's most trusted, respected service company.