I think it’s called a “baffle”. The original one, which was probably between 12-15 years old, held up well but eventually started coming apart such that drops of crud could spray up and out of the disposal on occasions when the motor was on. I was expecting a tedious and potentially expensive repair that would involve removing the unit from the sink. But it turns out, at least with the brand I have (Insink–or), that the baffle is designed to be easily replaced. All you have to do is reach in and yank out the old one (nothing holds it in but friction), then plug the new one back in its place. Done.
The old baffle had all kind of nasty brown crud on the bottom of it and there are horrors inside the unit of course, but it’s working fine. I don’t often use the unit and that no doubt accounts for its longevity. The best part, apart from how easy the fix was, was how cheap it was - the baffles themselves cost me less than $10 each online.
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I bet this repair job was… baffling.
[looks at community name]
Oops, wrong community. What I meant I say was: veritably dull, good sir/madam.
“Genre mixing alert! BEW! BEW! BEW!”
Yeah I think most people don’t know you can just pull it out and clean it. And you should pull it out and clean it, because otherwise it’ll get nasty as fuck
TIL. Thanks.
I think I learned this after replacing the disposal which made it much less useful information in that moment
I learned by accident many years ago when I had to stick my hand in there to retrieve a metal object and the baffle came up with my hand. We had no one to teach us these things
For me it’s just the right size that I can’t get my hand in far enough to make me nervous, unless I take the baffle out
Non-American checking in with the obligatory: you yanks are weird AF sorry not sorry.
If you have a bowl with leftover soup, you just put it in the trash? Not criticizing, just trying to understand. I grew up without a disposal and everything went to the trash, but we lived in the country so trash went to your burn barrel, not the dump.
Liquids in the sink, solids in the trash. Decant liquids if necessary.
It hasn’t always been this way but our city does compost now so we have a special “trash bin” for food waste.
The whole concept of garbage disposals is weird. Just compost it instead of trying to mash shit down the drain.
Not everything can be composted. And it’s good for just the scaps off a dinner plate to rinse down the drain then to scape off into the garbage which makes it stink. I compost, but a disposal is quite convienent for everything else.
Anything that can go down a disposal can be composted.
should you a) periodically yank it to clean the sink, or b) never explore any part of your plumbing until it acts funny?
oops unintentional joke.
None of the homes I’ve lived in ever had one, and yet all homes I’ve visited have had one.
I think I must cause them to disappear when they know I’m moving in.
