Years ago, at 11 PM on Thanksgiving Eve as I finished washing the prep dishes I’d used for the next day’s feast, water began to gush onto my feet. A little investigation revealed a blocked pipe under my sink. The water overflowed from the dishwasher because it could not drain.
The culprit was the potato peels I’d shoved down the disposal after peeling about ten pounds of potatoes.
The next day, my sink was still out of commission, which made for an inconvenient day of kitchen preparation and clean-up. (I washed dishes in the laundry room sink feeling like a pioneer woman or like the kids who lived in a boxcar in the books I read as a kid.)
The day after Thanksgiving, I bought some Liquid Plumr and that did the trick. The water drained from the sink and we all lived happily ever after.
Ever since then, I’ve dutifully dumped my potato peels into the trash can instead of the garbage disposal. For some reason, though, the other night, I was peeling six potatoes and decided to push the peels into the garbage disposal, one potato’s worth of peels at a time.
IT WAS ONLY SIX POTATOES!
So, that clogged my pipes. I have a sink with three sections–the left, the middle (with the disposal) and the right. Every section was filled with murky, disgusting water with bits of gunky stuff.
The next day, I bought some Liquid Plumr. Just a small bottle because I was so confident I could solve this little problem.
It didn’t work.
The next day, I bought a big bottle of Liquid Plumr. I still had full confidence in my chemical solution. Now I had a sink full of chemicals and gunky stuff and stagnant water. And it still didn’t work.
The next day, the plumber came and unclogged the sink and charged me $85.00 and told me to stop using caustic chemicals and to stop putting potato peels in my disposal.
I noticed that the Liquid Plumr bottles said “Satisfaction Guaranteed” and included a 1-800 number, so I called the number and explained how not satisfied I was. The helpful customer service lady asked me a few questions (including the UPC code and another code on each bottle and the price I paid) and said they’d refund my money.
Today, the check arrived, less than two weeks after my phone call.
I was super impressed by the customer service at the Clorox Company (the parent company). So thanks, Clorox! You rock!
The moral of this story: Do not put potato peels into your garbage disposal. Do not try to solve your subsequent clog with chemicals. Just called the plumber. However, if you do use chemicals and find them unsatisfying, call the company and see what happens.
You’re welcome.
Actual Unretouched Photo 
We once had a device like this. I think we called it a garburetor for some reason. Anyway, we took it out.
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i was told to never put anything in the disposal that was not cooked…i put beet peelings down mine..oh my word…it was a mess.
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My mother once put corn shucks – with the silk – down her disposal. I do remember a Labor Day weekend which my dad spent drilling through cement floors in our basement. Fun times. Oh, yes. VIVID memories…
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Well, my husband cracked the toilet trying to fix it. It was running at night, keeping me awake. At least you didn’t do that! 😊
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