What do you use to get the smell out of a garbage disposal?

Answer 1

I put some orange or lemon peels in my disposal and grind them up. It works every time!

Answer 2

Dump about 1/2 cup of baking soda in, let set about 30 minutes without running any water in it. Then pour in white vinegar. Warning, it will foam fantastically! (Great for the kids to watch!) After the foam dissipates, pour in more white vinegar. Let set about a half hour, then run hot water through it and turn it on for a moment. I also like to drop some citrus rinds with ice into it and grind away. Usually the smell is from gunk that has collected at the top of the garbage disposal and foaming it with some baking soda and vinegar can remove some of that. You can also use a bottle brush and try to loosen some of the collected debris then reapply the baking soda and vinegar technique.

Answer 3

The proper way to run a garbage disposal, in my opinion, is to put the garbage in it and grind it up with a strong stream of water running from the faucet. Once you have finished grinding all of the garbage, immediately place the stopper in the large hole at the bottom of the sink and fill the sink with water. As the water is filling the sink, add a generous squirt of liquid dish soap. Fill the sink at least 2/3 the way with water.

Once the sink is filled with this soapy water, immediately remove the stopper from the sink and quickly turn the disposer back on. If you could see inside your disposal, you would see a wild vortex of action.

Because the sink was filled with water, the inside of the disposal fills with water the instant you remove the stopper. The spinning blades of the disposal agitate this soapy water inside the disposal and this completely washes the sides and all parts of the disposal.

There is another bonus benefit to this rinsing operation. The actual drain pipe leaving the disposal and all downstream pipes get thoroughly flushed. Often kitchen drain pipes and the plumbing branch line that connects the sink to the main plumbing drain line leaving your home get clogged with the slurry produced by a garbage disposal. People simply do not let water run long enough after the garbage is ground up.

If you don't let perhaps a gallon of water run in the sink after the garbage disposal makes that high-pitched noise telling you the garbage is gone, the slurry of organic debris is not carried completely out of your house. It can take 30 or 40 seconds of running water to fill a gallon container. My guess is you rarely run the water that long.

To remove any hardened food slurry deposits from the inside of your garbage disposal, you are now going to have to do a small amount of plumbing work. Go to a real plumbing supply house and purchase a rubber test cap that has a stainless steel tightening band on it. This clamp is just like a muffler band clamp. Plumbers use these temporary test caps to close off the ends of pipes for either water or air pressure testing required by a plumbing inspector.You should be able to find one made for 1 and 1/4 inch diameter PVC schedule 40 pipe that will fit perfectly on the 1 and 1/2 inch diameter tubular pipe leaving the disposal.

Disconnect the pipe that leaves the disposal from the drain system piping under your sink or from the p-trap under the sink. Attach the rubber test cap to the end of the tubular pipe leaving the garbage disposal and tighten the clamp. Place an empty five-gallon bucket under the end of this pipe in case the clamp leaks or slips.

With the rubber test cap in place, start to fill the disposal with very warm water. If you purchased the right clamp and you have the clamp tightened just right, the disposal will act as if it is clogged and the water will begin to back up into the sink. Stop running the water as soon as the level reaches the top of the chrome strainer basket in the bottom of the sink that connects to the disposal.

Now add one-half cup of powdered oxygen bleach to the garbage disposal filled with water. Oxygen bleach is non-toxic and will not harm you, the garbage disposal, the plumbing system or septic tank should your home be connected to one.

Once the powder is added to water it begins to create millions of tiny oxygen ions that start to soften and attack the rotten, hardened garbage on the sides of the disposal and any slurry on the side walls of the drain pipe leaving the disposal. The oxygen bleach solution, if left in the disposal for up to an hour, does a fantastic job of sanitizing the unit.

After letting the oxygen bleach solution work inside the disposal for an hour, loosen the clamp on the rubber test cap and let the water rush into the bucket. Reconnect the disposer to the plumbing drain system and perform the same operation as described above as if you had just ground up some garbage. In other words, insert the stopper into the sink, fill the sink with warm, soapy water, remove the stopper and turn on the disposer.

Once you have done this, the disposer should be as clean as the day it was installed. It should also smell as good as the day it was installed!

Some people have tried placing ice cubes in a smelly disposal to clean it. The problem is you can't be sure the chips of ice will clean off all of the hardened slurry.

If the disposal is smelly, you are going to have to clean it the right way just once. After that, if you rinse it thoroughly after each use, it will never give you a problem. An odor problem that is!

http://www.askthebuilder.com/566_Garbage_Disposal_Smell.shtml

Answer 4

Okay, heres what you do. If your garbage disposal is funky, throw in some lemon and orange peels. It SHOULD get the smell out of there. If it's spread to your kitchen, try spraying some frebreeze. Nothing to overpowering though. That makes it smell bad when your cooking.

Answer 5

Hi Melissa,
What I do for my disposal is pour baking soda down the drain and then pour in white vinegar. It will bubble and foam and clean the disposal. It may take more than one cleaning but if you do this once a week it will help stop further problems. Hope this help you.

Answer 6

I'll sometimes take my morning coffee grounds and put them down the disposal that will get rid of any odor and usually about once a month I take a gallon of bleach and put some down all the drains in my house toilets,tub, sinks, etc...At night and let that sit. That helps keep things flowing properly and the toilets sparkle... Just remember to flush them before use.. Bleach+Urine= Ammonia fumes.... good luck

Answer 7

I grind up 1/2 lemons or oranges, leaves a nice clean smell.

Answer 8

Bleach

Answer 9

Lemon peels, lime peels, and orange peels.

Answer 10

lemon juice or vinegar and baking soda