On Oct 19, 11:18 pm, aemeijers wrote:
Doug Miller wrote:
In article . com, professorpaul wrote:
Nice Insinkerator. Generally nothing more than the occasional stall,
fixed with the hex wrench. However, recently have had a couple of jams
in the connection between the GD and the "T" that comes down from the
other sink. There is a baffle there to deflect the water down, which
seems to be a good thing.

Yeah, that's what I thought at first, too: "oh, cool, a baffle - that's a good
idea!"

NOT.

A bad dose of Brussel sprouts and broccoli clogged it up. Cleaned out
OK, with the usual water in the face and appropriate profanity. This
has happened twice now.

The chief domestic engineer might be feeding it too rapidly, but any
thought on different "T" designs or general observations?

Yeah -- baffle tees suck for garbage disposal drains. Don't wait for a
third time. Get rid of it now.

This is a
new house, and never had that kind of problem in another house I
owned. No obvious burrs, etc. to catch things. Before I start
replacing fittings, I thought I'd seek the advice of the group.

We have two sinks in our kitchen, each with a garbage disposer -- and each,
originally, with one of those damned baffle tees in the line. The drains used
to get plugged regularly, and always at the baffles. I finally got sick and
tired of cleaning the stupid things out, and replaced them with baffle-less
tees. No more clogs.

Cutting or grinding away as much of the baffle as you can reach is a waste of
time. It will reduce the frequency of clogs, but not eliminate them. BTDT,
didn't work.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, and restarting an old
flame war- IMHO, large chunks of food waste should go in garbage can or
compost collection canister, not down the disposal. Disposal is for the
little flakes that stick to the plate after scraping.
(Of course, this septic tank house doesn't even have a disposal, being
built in old-school era. After 2+ years, I find I don't even miss it any
more.)

aem sends...- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Many years ago we had one of those gadgets someone had given us, free;
feeling very up to date and modern we installed it. Eventually the
outflow to the house sewer got blocked and operating the disposer
resulted in a jet of water containing food shreds out of the roof
vent! Although it was a powerful 1/3 HP IIRC model it also jammed;
twice in some three years! Once because of small bone that
inadvertently got in there and on another occasion for what appeared
to be no reason at all.

So two new houses and some 45 years later we have never had another of
the nuisances. A completely unnecessary device AFIK! Would never
bother with one again even though we have been on municipal sewer for
last 30 odd years.

Our vegetable scraps, banana peels etc. go in an empty waxed paper
milk carton, (non recyclable btw) next to the sink. It fills at
approximately the same rate as we use each two litres of milk.
Whereupon the top is folded down securely and the carton is placed out
side the patio doors.

Next time one is outdoors the contents are emptied into the compost
heap and immediately covered over with earth and the carton is tossed
into the trash burning barrel. We don't have very good recycling
systems here; yet. But anyway we don't buy many of the items that are
usually recycled, such as soft drink bottles etc.

Paper, especially anything with a name, account number or address on
it and other combustibles are put in a small bag in the kitchen and
regularly tossed downstairs. Next time one is down there, workshop
area etc. the papers are put near or in the wood stove. Result is that
we have very little actual garbage indeed.

Today it was weekly garbage pick up. Glanced at our trash can with a
normal sized plastic garbage bag lining it and it was no more than a
third full. Let it go another week!. And because the trash container
contains very little in the way of actual food scraps it doesn't
usually smell. If/when a proper recycling system is introduced we can
keep tin cans and probably glass out of it also and will then have
virtually zero garbage to put out for collection.

Just as well because trash collectors these days are defining more and
more items as 'hazardous waste' including those CFLs (compact
fluorescent lamps, that do occasionally fail we are told here) and
other items. They won't take 48 inch fluorescent tubes at all; unless
I break them up and hide them inside something. And the recycling
depots don't want them! Half expecting that one of these days the
collector will be standing out there holding up one or two used
flashlight batteries in triumph and stating 'Cannot collect due to
presence of hazardous materials'! Or something else will be declared
unsafe; might have lead paint on it, don't chew!.

The human animal is one of the best garburators around. Maybe the sign
on some marine toilets which reads, "Please don't put anything through
this toilet system unless you have eaten it first", is a good
maxim? :-)