Last month we wrote a blog about handling your garbage disposal as the big holiday season kicked in with Halloween. It’s almost Thanksgiving, which is one of the biggest days of the year for professional plumbers. You can probably imagine why: the amount of cooking, cleaning, and food disposal in the kitchen can create clogs and broken appliances.
We’re glad to keep busy helping people with their plumbing repairs in Cleves, OH—it’s what we’re here for, after all. But we understand how important time with your family is during this holiday, and we don’t want you to spend a chunk of it dealing with a plumbing emergency. So here are a few pieces of Thanksgiving Day advice for keeping all your kitchen’s plumbing healthy, not just the garbage disposal.
- Proper disposal of FOG: As we mentioned before, FOG stands for “fats, oils, and grease.” It’s a nice shorthand for cooking oils and cooking byproducts that are deceptively liquid when hot, but solidify when they cool. Cooking and basting a turkey and other Thanksgiving Day foods results in plenty of FOG, and simply pouring it down the drain is tempting. But this is how a thick build-up develops in the pipes, making clogging much more likely. Here’s how best to dispose of FOG: pour it into a separate receptacle (an old coffee tin works well), then place it in the freezer. The next day you can easily dispose of the solid FOG into the garbage—no mess!
- Watch out for turkey bones: We recommend keeping turkey bones and any other meat bones away from the sink. The disposal can handle them. A good way to dispose of the bones is to place them in sealed plastic bags and remove them to the trash (this helps to keep wild animals away from ransacking your garbage by hiding the smell; it’s also good sanitation in general).
- Do not overload the sink: If you pile up huge amounts of dishes into the sink, you’re risking a bunch of food getting lodged in the drain pipe. Also, never try to stuff large amounts of food into the disposal at one time, you may break it.
When you need drain cleaning or other plumbing services in Cincinnati or the surrounding areas, call on Ken Neyer Plumbing, Inc.