When I was growing up, these seemed to be ubiquitous and I never liked them. They seemed overcomplicated for the purpose, and created a gross and smelly area under the sink that needed more cleaning.
I haven’t had one in years, as a simple sink mesh does the same job. But I don’t really know how other people are. Are under sink garbage disposals still common, and commonly actually used by people here?
They shouldn’t make a gross smelly area under your sink. It sounds like yours was leaking.
I went out of my way to get one installed in a house that didn’t have one. So, yeah.
If yours is making a mess under the sink, it’s either broken or installed wrong.
I use it all the time. Dump dishes into trash, rinse everything that sticks off in sink, grind up all the food bits from that in the disposal, put dishes in dish washer.
It’s only gonna get gross and smelly under your sink if something is wrong with the disposal. And if you’re not throwing a shit ton of garbage down it, just the little bits that wash off when doing dishes, it’s not likely to break or get clogged.
I use mine all the time, much easier than dealing with a nasty sink strainer as I just spray down the sink into the disposal and run it. Also keeps the trash from smelling.
If it’s being smelly under the sink, it’s broken or not installed right. If it’s being smelly from the drain hole sink side then you’re not cleaning it from time to time (Which is as easy as dropping in some cleaner and running it every other month or so).
I’m actually looking to upgrade mine so it can handle some bones
As a Canadian, the idea of a garbage disposal in a sink has always been insane to me. It can be hard to believe that Americans just grind up stuff and send it down their sink drain.
You’re a biological garbage disposal and your shit goes down the same sanitary sewer line. It’s just food scraps like peels, stems, and trimmings. Hardly qualifies as ‘insane’.
I find they’re pretty ubiquitous where I’m from. I had one in every apartment I’ve lived in. I don’t have one in my house though.
I know a lot of people will just dump a lot of food waste in there. After struggling with it, I started just throwing out all of the waste and using the garbage disposal for the small bits of food that would normally get caught in the sink strainer.
Now that I’m back to living in a place with no garbage disposal, I do miss it a little. The sink strainer is a bit gross to handle. But it’s also pretty nice not having to maintain the garbage disposal so it all evens out.
What maintenance? I had to fish broken glass out of mine once, but otherwise I’ve never had to mess with it.
Very small things, but still things I needed to remember to do. Running it every day. Making sure to clean it every week. (Ice or garbage disposal cleaner) If I didn’t clean it, even after running it every day, it would smell. When my partner would clog it, I would have to fix it. (Again, it took little time.) Making sure nothing fell in there before I ran it every time. I would often find my measuring spoons or a fork in there. (It doesn’t really seem to matter to my family how many times I tell them not to leave small things in the sink.)
I recognize this is very little and it’s basically nothing for most people, but sometimes I have a very hard time keeping up with things and the garbage disposal is very out of sight, out of mind. The sink strainer is very visible.
