Insinkerator ...... Waste disposal unit ...any good or pointless gadget?

[CharlieBoo]

Just wandering whether to have one of these in our new kitchen. Our fitter doesn't think much of them (he has one himself). Whatdo you guys think?

We have one and disconnected it.

It's no more effort to chuck things in the bin. But the decider was when I was at school, a friend's brother dropped a Star Wars figurine down one and turned it on. Bad news for the Storm Trooper, would have been catastrophic for a child's hand.

Also makes the sink very slow to drain if you are not using it.

Never really understood point - as ninedragons says, don't we all have bins? Having worked as a washer-upper in my dad's restaurant as a teenager, I can testify to how easy it is to get bits of clothing caught in them with potentially terrifying results.

I think they are excellent, but need to be treated with respect.

Most important of all, young children do not go near them. For this reason I'm not keen on the newer sort with 'air switches', as I understand that they operate automatically. I prefer ones with a switch you have to operate deliberately.

Best to have the wdu in a separate sink, to minimise the chance of teaspoons (or Star Troopers) accidentally going down, but not essential.

Most of our green waste goes into the compost, but if it doesn't then at least it doesn't go into landfill. Similarly, only things that dont grind well, like large bones or raw chicken skin, go to landfill.

Our sink drains perfectly well for normal use. The only time that The wdu has any effect on the draining is when both taps are on at full flow with the edu not operating. But the only time that happens is for the second between switching the wdu off, and turning the taps off.

They used to be made in my hometown in the USA! (not sure if they still are)

We had one when I was growing up and they were in most of the houses/flats I rented before I moved to the UK. I still miss it. Kept the drain running clear and meant no more picking out bits of food that were clogging it up.

Yes, you occasionally got a mangled teaspoon, but never had any worse problems than that. And you could keep your sink smelling fresh by chucking a lemon through it.

We used to have one in a previous house and we liked it a lot. No smelly rubbish in bin. And this was in the days before all the recycling that is now done.

We are currently planning a new kitchen and will definitely have one. I hate the food waste bin thing. We will compost what we can and anything else will go in waste disposal.

Oh - DH is very excited. Our last one took bones. If I disappear check the waste disposal!

We have one in a separate half sink and it's great. We don't have a compost bin so it gets rid of all sorts of smelly stuff. The only thing I don't put down it are banana skins as they tend to get shredded rather than chopped up and the fibrous bits can get caught in the mechanism. Other than that, it all goes down there.

We have one and I love it. Much easier than using a bin, just rinse your plates/chopping boards/pans with all the food on them, press a switch and it's all gone.

When we moved here I couldn't see the point of it and didn't use it for a long time. I use it all the time now and rarely put anything in the green food waste bin. If you compost too then even better.

Ours is in a separate half sink and when I'm prepping food I chuck everything in that sink then switch it on once all the food waste is in it.

I wouldn't be happy about one that operated automatically. You have to switch ours on at a fused spur and it would be very difficult to switch it on accidentally. There is also an override switch on the motor under the sink so you could swith if off there too.

I've not had any problems with smells. Ours has a removable rubber sort of cuff around it and it needs to be cleaned regularly. If you take that off then you can see clearly into the unit and I scrub it with a long handled washing up brush. I do the lemon thing too and it degreases it.

I would always want to put one in a kitchen given my experiences, unless space was really tight and I needed the storage space under the sink.

I have one. It is great for cooked food waste that would otherwise make the bins maggoty in the summer. Mostly I just love it because I never have to fish gruesome grot out of the plughole with my fingers.

Just got our first one....given we have had to call out a well-known drain clearing company out already we wish we'd have spent the money on a water softerner instead.

We can only dispose if little bits at a time as well as leaving the hot tap running for 30 seconds after each go. It's very disappointing....

It happens due to the small pipes apparently - the drains can/have & will continue to become blocked.

What did you get, brightandcheery?

I can peel vegetables for, say, roast dinner for five people (ie 2 big trays of root veg, plus greens) and then pass all the peelings and trimmings through the wdu in one continuous session.

All our waste food - both raw and cooked goes in our green bin - our kitchen bin never has an odour and only needs to be emptied once a week.
The waste food is taken outside every day or two with the rest of the recycling - works well for us.

Got Insinkerater - Can look up specifics if you like....The kitchen installer & drain company both said since we first experienced the problem that our drains are too narrow to cope with "the usual amount of wastage" in one go.

I cannot even contemplate putting the peelings of 3 potatoes down in one go.

The insinkerater is fab but if I'd have known the pipes meant we couldn't use it to full ability, I wouldn't have purchased it.

we had one and it was fab. could chuck all food waste down it except corn on the cob and bones (although it could do chicken carcasses)
we don't have one in this house and we have to have separate food bins for everything - when I redo the kitchen I will put another one in

love my inskinkerator.

it did block up the drain on christmas day tho. very expensive visit from plumber yielded this gem of advice:

don't put anything down that you can't cut with a butter knife.

you will not have any problems.

I was just wondering whether you had a very basic spec, low-powered one, or a make to avoid. But Insinkerator are AFAIK a perfectly good make.

A bit off for the installers only to tell you that your pipes aren't suitable after the installation! Shouldn't they have checked suitability before installing it? Insinkerator claim their wdus fit standard plumbing.

As for only ever grinding things soft enough to be cut with a butter knife, . (about halfway down). I follow these rules, and have no problems.

prettycandles - the butter knife rule is for smaller exit pipes which the insinkerator has no control over, as per brightandcheery. it's not to do with what the insinkerator can or can't handle.

i filleted a fish in about october, and stuck the fish bones down it. the insinkerator was fine, but when the plumber unblocked the drain 2 months later he found fish bones and scales.

Does anyone know if Insinkerator is the only brand? Mine is a WasteKing and I don't think they are made anymore. (Hopefully getting a new kitchen later in the year.)

I just found out that Waste King is launching their products in the UK and The Hunter Fan Company Ltd has been appointed exclusive UK and EC distributors for their product line.There is a site that you can get them on www.waste-disposal-unit.com

I have just bought a waste disposal unit and was looking at how to install it and wondered if you had to put your washing machine waste pipe onto the waste disposal unit or is that just for the dishwasher waste pipe? Any idea would be helpful!

I've got one - had it for years - and it's been the best thing in my kitchen. No rotting food in the bin, no smells of leftovers (curry etc), no flies!

Mine can take potato peelings, apple cores, carrot tops, things like that, and they aren't soft enough to cut with a butter knife

Pulverised food waste shouldn't go down the drains. These things are vile.

We have one but rarely use it since the council started collecting food waste. Was v useful for years before that, esp. since our garden is very small and we have no compost heap.

Of course you have to be careful with it, but the switch for ours has always been well out of reach of young children. The worst thing to happen once or twice was teaspoons going down by mistake - and not the cheap ones, either.

Having said that, they are not considered environmentally friendly now, presumably because of the water and electricity they use. However if your council doesn't collect food waste, I'd think it's better than having to chuck stuff in the bin to fester and attract flies in summer.

Have had one for years and use it everyday. It keeps the sink clear and the food waste doesn't sit about for ages.