# Best garbage disposal for new home?



## jordansamuels (Nov 30, 2008)

I am a long-time amateur cook and I've lived my whole life with no garbage disposal. I am building a new house and will finally have a chance to design the kitchen right, from the ground up. I note that there are consumer-grade garbage disposal units all over the market, and maybe these are just fine. There are also commercial grade ones, such as Hammerall which look much more powerful and reliable. Is it overkill to put a commercial unit in a home, or do some of you chefs out there go commercial in your own home kitchens?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

-- Jordan Samuels


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

Power is the big deal. Buy the biggest reasonable horses, probably 3/4 horsepower unit. But they pretty much die about the time the warranty is up so don't stress over it too much. 

While they are convenient, they run up your costs in subtle ways. The sewage treatment costs go up a lot for food waste put down the drain. Those wastes haven't been broken down yet and so they take a lot more time and energy in the digesters to be treated. This adds to your bill in the long run.

Really, you should be composting the fresh wastes you produce in the kitchen and very little should be going down your drain. This is best for your garden, your pipes and your public effluent. 

Grease should never go down the drain nor into you compost pile.

Phil


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## ed buchanan (May 29, 2006)

I believe all you have to do is buy one with a large horsepower motor. Commercial ones I believe would be overkill. They last me on average 10 years. Just try and get one with a stainless steel insides, they last longer. Stay away from Sears as they do not sell a lot of the parts you need to fix their own brand and tell you they have to fix it.


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## amazingrace (Jul 28, 2006)

We have had the same garbage disposal for more than 14 years, and it shows no signs of slowing down. We've never even had to push the reset button. I don't know what brand it is, but I doubt it's anything close to high end, as the builder put it in, and he was about cutting corners any place he could. I think the key with disposals is to run small loads more often, so it won't have to work so hard. I run a couple of handfulls of ice cubes every now and then, to knock off any crud that might have accumulated. However, since August we have not been using it nearly as much as we used to. My brother moved close to us and I save all our vegetable waste to use in his compost pile. This has lowered our water bill considerably too. And since we live in a high desert region, water conservation is a major priority with us. But back to the disposal question: if all you are going to use it for is grinding home veggie waste, any mid-price, mid-power disposal should be just fine. Just be sure to get one with all metal body. I know from my neighbor's bad experience that the plastic ones do not hold up.

By the way, in case you didn't know, the only thing you should ever feed the grinder is vegetable products. Never bones or animal by products. These are bad for the disposal, bad for the pipes and not exactly welcome in the sewer system.


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