Insinkerator - opinions good or bad

bensboys

Hello All,

We are in the process of putting in a new kitchen in the near future and a few people have told me about insinkerators.

Does anybody have one of these and if so what do you think of them?

We are in an urban area so we use the mains water so I think this makes it more viable.
We also have young children - are they safe?

-Corkie-

I have one and they are a great job. Make sure its the 1hp model you get. They cater for everything except a T-bone from a steak. The kids bit would be up to yourself because if a kid stuck there hand in it you would have a big problem.....

kizzyf

Have lived in houses that had them and, maybe through misuse, they never worked properly and were prone to emitting odours. I woudn't bother with them.

irishgrover

I have had one for over a year and found it to be great...although I would highlight some warnings....

• At one point I blocked it, rather stupidly due to over exuberance with potato peels!
• Also be aware that if you drink a lot of coffee and put the used grinds down the sink if is possible that overtime the grinds will solidify and block your sink either before or after the insinkerator..... if you google coffee and blocked sinks you will get plenty of info...

But overall for us it has been a good investment..

bensboys

irishgrover wrote: »

I have had one for over a year and found it to be great...although I would highlight some warnings....

• At one point I blocked it, rather stupidly due to over exuberance with potato peels!
• Also be aware that if you drink a lot of coffee and put the used grinds down the sink if is possible that overtime the grinds will solidify and block your sink either before or after the insinkerator..... if you google coffee and blocked sinks you will get plenty of info...

But overall for us it has been a good investment..

Thankkfully - neither myself or hubby are coffee drinkers and both our children are probably a bit young 4 & 1:D

Are they safe with children in the house?

irishgrover

bensboys wrote: »

Thankkfully - neither myself or hubby are coffee drinkers and both our children are probably a bit young 4 & 1:D

Are they safe with children in the house?

Re safe - I suppose it's all relative...
I've four kinds under 8, and there are all but one are too small to reach the bottom of the sink. In theory they could climb up on sink, turn on system, and place hand down sink, with horrific results, however on the general scale of things that I worry about them doing that is fairly low down on the list...

personally I'd consider putting an appropriate guard on the hob any other safety issues much higher on the list of things to worry about....

Also, have never had an issues with odor etc. I tend to turn it on and let it run with tap every now and again. Also I've occasionally put a cut up lemon down there.

If you've any more kitchen questions feel free to ask - as we did a major job on ours recently

Carlow52

They are a bad idea for 3 reasons:


unnecessary use of potable water.

unnecessary use of additional electricity.

unnecessary increase in the BOD required at the local treatment plant.

For a discussion on BOD see
http://www.k12science.org/curriculum/dipproj2/en/fieldbook/bod.shtml

and not
http://www.brianodriscoll.ie/

irishgrover

Carlow52 wrote: »

They are a bad idea for 3 reasons:


unnecessary use of potable water.

unnecessary use of additional electricity.

unnecessary increase in the BOD required at the local treatment plant.

For a discussion on BOD see
http://www.k12science.org/curriculum/dipproj2/en/fieldbook/bod.shtml

and not
http://www.brianodriscoll.ie/

Hi Carlow52,
I've debated a lot (with myself!) of the green issues which you have highlighted and have not been able to figure out whether or not usage of such devices is really a bad idea, based on the simplistic but common and possibly valid points you raise.
For example, in my own circumstance, lets look at the facts, if I add up the total carbon footprint (or whatever eco indicator/calculator) you want to use, I am not sure what is the best solution.
For example, the vast majority of items that go into the insinkerator would otherwise be going to landfill, so if you calculate the wastage involved in a.) power b.) BOD and C)potable water I'm not sure that it would compare unfavorably with the effort required in the transport of said content to a landfill site.

In more realistic terms
a.) wastage of potable water is negligible compared to what my RO water filter does - however given my Co Co. water dept's love affair with cryptosporidium and e-coli, I put the safety of my family above that of water conservation.

b.) re BOD - my waste water, along with that of my 1000+ neighbours wastewater and sewage enters the harbour about 60 meters past the pier at the bottom of the road - so there is no additional BOD overhead. :eek:

Carlow52

Garden compost or brown bin versus landfill.

The BOD is there, regardless, the sea is not immune to this material.


I suppose the most salient feature of your reply is that your action is self-validated by virtue of the fact that just because your LA/CoCo cant be orsed to do the right thing, why should you.

What is fascinating about this is that if you were to go down to the pier and chuck out a bucket of slops 60m from pier you would be prosecuted by the LA

irishgrover

Carlow52 wrote: »

Garden compost or brown bin versus landfill.

The BOD is there, regardless, the sea is not immune to this material.


I suppose the most salient feature of your reply is that your action is self-validated by virtue of the fact that just because your LA/CoCo cant be orsed to do the right thing, why should you.

What is fascinating about this is that if you were to go down to the pier and chuck out a bucket of slops 60m from pier you would be prosecuted by the LA

Sorry Carlow52, I don't mean to be rude, but are you taking the piss or is that a genuine reply?

curiousb

We have one for the past 4-5 years and have had no trouble with it. It has saved a fortune on waste collection fees.

Occasionally, after heavy use, I fill the sink and run it letting all the water out to flush the pipes and this seems to keep them clear.

Once, they did block, but it was an easy job to get under the sink and clear the blockage. This hasn't happened since flushing them with a sinkful of water.

No problems re safety and kids. Our 5 year old girl has never gone near it, she knows it is dangerous. No different to the hob, I suppose. Kids just need to be taught whats not safe.

Environmental consequences? No idea...

KevArno

The Insinkerator models don't use blades to cut food, they grind the food up instead, just a little point regarding the safety. They do claim that this makes it safer just in case of small hands. The food is pushed against the wall of the machine and then grinded up.

One thing about them is the noise is actually quite aggressive. If you have open plan kitchen/living room it may not be a great idea. I have seen people using them in Utility rooms and it was a better option if you have it. I wouldn't look at anything under the 65 model. (Distributor recommended this to us as minimum for domestic use... the other two models seem pretty useless)

curiousb

KevArno wrote: »

One thing about them is the noise is actually quite aggressive.

Agreed! Very noisy. We use a small bin to collect the food to insinkerating, and do it one every day or two, so it doesn't really interfere with anything (open plan here).

One thing for me to point out, we don't have the Insinkerator brand model, it's another brand (can't think of the name at the moment, but can get it this evening), but we got it here in Dublin and it is the recommended size for restaurant use, rather than domestic and maybe this is why it is trouble free.