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No Comments [ Add Comment ]Plumbers profit from overstuffed disposals / Thanksgiving Day clogs, cooks' impatience fatten workers' wallets
By Charles TrentelmanOGDEN -- Plumbers dream of potato peels, turkey fat, rice and especially pasta for Thanksgiving because those culinary delights make their phones ring the next day.
Never mind "Black Friday" -- they think of the day after Thanksgiving as "clog Friday." Their cash registers ring along� with their phones.
"You would not believe what people try to put down the drain," said Cindy Decicco, who dispatches Roto-Rooter trucks in Top of Utah and around the West from the company's corporate offices in Mission Viejo, Calif.
The day after Thanksgiving typically sees double the normal calls, she said, mostly from panicked homeowners who woke up to clogged drains caused by Turkey Day food preparations.
It goes like this: In the process of preparing the Thanksgiving feast, families generate a pile of food waste that's much larger than usual.
Food's ready, kids are whining, people are hungry. What to do?
Down the handy garbage disposal with it. Cram it in, turn on the water, flip the switch, and ...
Too often, said Decicco and two Top of Utah plumbers, all that happens is a sick grunt and the water starts rising into the sink out of the disposal.
"You've got to know how to use them," said Bob Thatcher, owner of Root Master plumbing. His phone was unusually quiet Friday, but he had to answer a couple of emergency calls on Thursday.
Holiday service costs extra, but "usually when people call on Thanksgiving, they've got a house full of people -- they don't want to wait," he said.
To avoid clogs, Thatcher advises patience and careful handling, two things usually in short supply in the rush to put food on the table.
"If they would turn on the water, then turn on the garbage disposal, then add a little bit of food at a time, it will really avoid a clog that way," he said. "Usually, though, people peel the potatoes, then shove handfuls in and turn it on."
That's bad. Potato peels are mostly starch. Starch is good for thickening gravy and does the same thing to that lump in the disposal.
Laura Scothern dispatches for Mike Bachman Plumbing. Friday, she had five plumbers, including Mike Bachman, out clearing drains and working other jobs.
"People think everything can go down their garbage disposal, and some things can, but most garbage disposals are pretty basic," she said.
"If too much of the food tries to get processed, it gets clogged."
Anything that gums up and swells is bad, she said. Pastas and rice will clog things up nicely. So will fibrous skins from vegetables that tend to shred instead of getting chopped up.
Fats are a definite no-no. They melt in hot water, then quickly cool and congeal in the pipes. The fat then acts like glue, catching other stuff as it goes by until a clog forms. Then the plumber has to come and clean things out.
Decicco said she's had the same problem with her family.
"My ex- and I go to my grandparents' house, and every year there's Granddad under the sink. Granddad put potato peels in the disposal again."
So what should you put into a garbage disposal? As little as possible.
It's best, all three say, to put food waste in the garbage can and grease in an old soup can.
Thatcher sees garbage disposals as possibly more trouble than they're worth.
"They're great to have, but if you don't know how to use them, they can be your worst enemy," he said.
"Just make a conscious effort of thinking what you're putting down there," Scothern said.
"You could put soup down there, but not a thick soup," Decicco said. "I'm always afraid to put something down the disposal."
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