Try Some of These Tricks for Getting Items from the Garbage Disposal
It is common to get some items stuck in the garbage disposal while doing dishes or washing your veggies, but this small and innocent situation can send people into full-blown panic attacks. Nobody likes losing their engagement ring or any other important item due to a temporary slip. If you don’t catch this immediately, you could also break the blades in your garbage disposal, making you lose money.
Therefore, we created this handy list with several tips and tricks to help you quickly retrieve any item that may have fallen into the garbage disposal. Still, please make sure to be careful when doing this. Don’t shove your hand or any other tool down there without turning the power off, as this could cause even more problems and a potential visit to the emergency room.
Once you make sure the power and the main water supply are off, you must follow one of these simple tricks.
1- Use a Magnet
This is the perfect trick to use when dealing with metallic items, but sadly, it is only helpful in those cases, as it won’t work with any other type of material.
In order to do it, you must tie a magnet to a long string and slowly shove it down your garbage disposal. After wiggling around a bit, you should feel something stick to it, and if you have enough luck, it may be the item you’ve been searching for. If you don’t catch it the first time, you must keep trying until you do.
2- Use Kitchen Utensils
The chances are that you won’t always be dealing with metal items, but you still need to find a way to get them out. In those cases, you must find a flashlight and try to locate the object down the disposal. If it is considerably close, you can fish it out with a spoon, tongs, or any other kitchen utensil that’s long and skinny enough to fit in there.
Please don’t stick your hand down the garbage disposal, as you will get hurt trying to get your items back.
3- Check the P-trap
If you can’t easily retrieve your missing item through the previously described methods, the chances are that it fell down the P-trap, which is a pipe located down the sink shaped like a P.
In order to get your item out of it, you must turn off your main water supply and find a bucket to place underneath the P trap, as many things will fall from it aside from your item. Therefore, it is easy to make a mess when doing this.
Then, you must unscrew the pipe and let the contents fall into the bucket, including your precious item.
Bottom Line
If all of this fails, or you don’t feel comfortable opening the P-trap by yourself, the only thing left to do is call a plumber who can help you find your missing item without making a mess.
