Garbage disposals are awesome if you don't like fishing mushy food refuse out of a drain basket. Get a 1HP model and never look back.

Someone needs to put a colander in between the hot pasta and the garbage disposal. Then just the water goes down the drain and you get to eat the pasta!

Where the hell were you a couple of years ago???

Garbage disposals are great. Can't imagine not having one

Ecologically, disposals are a wash at best compared to landfill or incinerator. If you live in an environment where water is scarce (like, say, southern CA), it's probably a significant ecological net loss to use one.

https://www.treehugger.com/kitchen-d...-friendly.html

Obviously the eco answer is to composte that stuff, but I was talking about the stinky stupid etc stuff.

If I lived alone I would be fine with no disposal or dishwasher, but if I clean a whole sink full of crap I want the machines to help. And before you ask what the point of having kids is, to paraphrase Homer Simpson, don't steal my right to raise disobedient smart-alecky children!

My town doesn't allow garbage disposals, definitely miss the convenience.

Worst experience I had was when I peeled like a dozen carrots into the sink, then tried to wash the whole thing down the disposal. Carrot peels did an awesome job wrapping themselves around the blade and jamming up the whole contraption. Took forever to get them all out.

Still, can't imagine choosing to not have one.

Yeah, carrot peels are not good. I've had that happen as well. You probably figured this out, but there's an allen head at the bottom and you can turn the wheel backwards and unstick a lot of stuff.

I did not know this! (I knew there was an allen head at the bottom that you could jiggle around, but I didn't actually know what it was for.) I spent approximately 11 years pulling them out with the pliers on my multi-tool. Enormously inefficient.

Not sure how a conversation about disposals doesn't mention the power of ice cubes.

Ice cubes are great. I also use vinegar ice cubes which do a pretty decent job as well

Nothing more convenient than an appliance that requires you to freeze vinegar to keep it functioning properly.

Why would she do that when she can just pay $6.50 for some orange balls to toss down with the chicken bones and coffee grounds?

USA #1

Buying orange balls on Amazon makes perfect sense. First off it's easier to get delivered to your home and they don't rot. Secondly, what are you supposed to do with the innards of the citrus fruit that you peeled to clean the disposal?

Had some water show up in the bottom of the dishwasher. I removed the center part and cleaned it. More water showed up the next day without the dishwasher being used(I did use the laundry machine). At the deepest part it's about as much as a fingertip. Today I ran it on a rinse only cycle and there was no water afterwards.

If you got water in your dishwasher from doing the laundry I can't think of any explanation other than a blockage in the drain beyond both the laundry and the dishwasher.

Your sink could drain into the dishwasher if the drain line from the dishwasher doesn't have a high point in between where it attaches to the sink drain and the dishwasher. It could have been knocked loose from something that was tying it up.

Ok I also had a floor drain in the basement back up and overflow prior to this. When I cleaned up the water from that there was bits of food in the water that looked like it was from the garbage disposal. I put drano in it twice and it went down. Plumber came out and said it looked fine, to call them back if it happened again.

Sounds like the plumber needs to be called.

Being in California my adult life, I don't really get plumbing drains and basements. A floor drain in the basement drains out to the sewer in the street? No pumping? I guess you gotta bury the sewer lines below the frost line? Geez it must be a nightmare dealing with anything buried.

Is your 'laundry machine' a portable device that drains to the sink?

Dishwashers are supposed to have what's called a high loop on the drain, either integrated into the unit or as part of the drain line installation. It is meant to keep sink waste from flowing into the dishwasher. If you don't have one, or have an improperly installed one, finding water like you did is common.

The higher the water level in the sink the more likely it is to happen, which is why I ask if you're using a portable washing machine that drains to the sink. If not, then the washing machine is probably a red herring and you're confusing me by calling it a 'laundry machine'. There's no way a washer will back up into a dishwasher in a properly plumbed house without backing up everywhere else too.

In the London Borough of Camden you're supposed to put food waste in the green kitchen caddy (with compostable liner bag) and then in the bigger brown outdoor caddy, which they come and empty on Tuesdays for composting.

The laundry could just be a coincidence also. My dishwasher started filling with water and it had nothing to do with using anything else. It was pretty old and I ended up replacing it.

Don't call them back. Call someone else. Most older houses have the kitchen and laundry on a drain line that connects to the main. Often a basement floor drain too. The plumber should have cabled the line. That's what I would have done. And a dishwasher drain could be plumbed many ways. Directly into the garbage disposer, into a 1/2 copper line behind the dishwasher that is vented to a Johnsons tee, to its own 1 1/2 p trap, or to an air gap then to a drain.

There are a bunch of cities I see from googling, in the US and out. A bunch meaning like dozens or something, but still a tiny fraction. Running trucks all over town isn't too great though, especially if not that many people composte.

I guess I should make an effort. It's not that hard.