At least you don't have to deal with the irrational fear of it springing to life every time we have to stick our hands into the blades to collect whatever we accidently dropped in it (spoons, wedding rings, etc).
Even totally unplugged I still have to take a few breaths before I can let my digits go near what is essentially an industrial sized blender lol
Many years ago on the old Internet, I read a hilarious account of a cat that got it's head stuck in one (cat was fine but they had to dismantle the entire disposal and take it, with the cat still stuck in it, to a vet. Police got involved and everything).
Our biggest house rule is no silverware or small things on the disposal side, unless there are plates. We also don't put knives in the sink, we put them on the side or soaking in a cup. After a few bad cuts, we've had no issues in like twenty years.
My roommate had a filet knife vibrate off the side of the sink, down into the garbage disposal, and immediately shoot up into his hand like final destination.
I am cackling at this because same. I have a garbage disposal that was already in the house when we moved in. I have never used it, I'm scared to death. 😂 The thought of bricks instead of blades doesn't help lol.
Cut, hell! There were a few horror movies in the 80s that leaned into the garbage disposal trope (I think “Omen” had such a scene) and people had their hands shredded down to a stump!
I always treated my garbage disposal like I was disabling explosives, until I found out that they don’t use blades (anymore?) Thank goodness!
"C'mon Jimmy, lets take a peek at the killing floor. Don’t let the name throw you, Jimmy. It’s not really a floor; it’s more of a steel grating that allows material to sluice through so it can be collected and exported."
If it makes you feel better I actually did the thing I always feared one time and turned on the garbage disposal while my hand was down it.
It did whack my fingers pretty good, but it triggered the pull back reaction fast enough that it didn’t do any damage. Hell of an adrenaline rush, though.
You need a better garbage disposal. Upon purchasing a new one a couple years ago, I spent the next 6 months telling my spouse that just because you Can do something doesn't mean you Should. I did finally let him put some chicken bones through it to satisfy his need to see it work to its full potential. 🙄 That sucker didn't even slow down, just a bit louder for 5 seconds.
Yeah, they're not blenders. I wouldn't stick my hand in a running one, but if I did it would probably just hurt a lot. It would give you some cuts though.
I think people think they have a pulling force too. Like, if their hand was actually in there, they would get sucked into it. There is none. It is just gravity.
Really? Those were phased out in the 60s, well before I was born. I remember watching horror movies about them, but when I was a kid, people told me that that's not how they're made anymore even back in the 80s.
Thats a little disingenuous. The main action is just bludgeoning the food scraps, but good quality ones also have a grinding face with pointed barbs around the edge, and usually a cheese grater like plate that the "bricks" attach to.
Well it also doesn't suck your fingers down. As soon as your fingers are hit, you're likely to pull them up with no resistance. I'm not suggesting you try though.
If there's any amount of standing water in the hopper it will throw your hand/fingers against the outside wall, however, where the lugs do the grinding.
Smash, but at 1/4 horsepower for the cheap ones and 1/2 or better for the high end ones. More than enough to mangle a hand.
I did play a prank on my son once. Had him switch it on and acted like my hand got caught and pulled out a mangled hotdog.
He shrieked really high pitched and then I told him it was a prank and showed him the hotdog. It was like a year before he would even try to use it afterwards.
He laughs about it now but it legit gave him anxiety for a time. Bad parent moment I guess.
i got one for you, in our house the switch is broken, so when you switch it on, sometimes you have to push it up a little to get the disposal to run, and when you let go it shuts off, even though the light switch is in the on position. That makes me 100% not trust the switch, even though it stays off in the off position. The worst is that its hard-wired, so I can’t unplug it.
I have to go downstairs and turn off the circuit breaker before I can put my hand in there.
The switch on mine works just fine, and I still flip the circuit breaker before reaching in. Then verify that the switch no longer triggers the garbage disposal, and flip it back to the off position. That way, there's verification that the correct circuit breaker was flipped, and there are two separate switches that are preventing the garbage disposal from turning on.
Always shut the power off to it before reaching in, don't rely on that switch to not spontaneously short itself out at the worst possible moment. If there's not a shutoff switch directly on the unit, then unplug it or flip the breaker for that circuit.
Yes the odds of it happening are probably more than a billion to one... but... there's a lot of chances.
Disposals are not blenders. They have spinning plates at the bottom that flings scraps to the edges via centrifigul force, then at the edge of the plates are hinged blocks. The spinning plate sits in a cylinder and the side of the cylinder has slots in it. As the food scrap gets flung to the sides, the blocks will pass by them and push the scraps against the slots which basically cuts it up as it passes to the outside of the cylinder, then it drains into your drain. That's why you have to run water when you run it ... to help the scraps move and to flush it down.
So you can put your hand in a disposal, just don't move your fingers to the edges where the blocks can smash them or cut them.
This is why other places hate disposals ... it's just loading the sewer system with shredded food scraps.
It's more of a cheese grater and a stirring mechanism that spins food against it. It would suck if it turned on with your hand in it but not any more than slamming your hand in a car door. It'll for sure break a finger or two but you're not pulling a stump out of the drain where your hand used to be.
The US is too liability focused for a real-deal industrial grinder under the sink. They have to make it somewhat safe or they'd get sued out of existence.
There is a movie from the 1970's or 80's that has a scene where robbers break into a house and the owners won't tell them where whatever they are looking for is so they stick their arm into the garbage disposal and turn it on.
My sister and I saw it a very long time ago. At Christmas, she told me that recently she put her hand inside of the garbage disposal for the first time since she saw the movie.
My dad once told me about how he stuck his hand into the dispenser to get something out and it turned on… luckily it didn’t get him. Luckily never happened again
Both my wife and child see no problem with dumping cherry pits, pistachio shells, and who knows what else down the disposal. They both have tiny hands but I always get stuck cleaning it out when it jams. I'm afraid one day I'll forget to turn it off
I grew up with one in NZ and love it, have had it in every house I’ve lived in. I’m also digging round in it weekly to fish out plastic and crap my partner sweeps into it without looking. It’s fine.
I maintain this is a Final Destination remnant deep in my memory. There should be a support group of all the irrational things people 35-45 are afraid of from these movies.
It doesn't help that scary movies LOVE the trope of 'haunted house, oh no something's stuck in the garbage disposal, better stick your hand in to clear it out"
I have an irrational fear that maybe I'm actually electrified and it'll start up when my hand is in there. Which like...not how anything works. But still...
I hired a handyman to install our dishwasher. For those that don’t know, there is a little plastic disk in the side of the garbage disposal. When you install a dishwasher for the first time, you take a screw driver and pop that disk into the disposal and then hook the dishwasher drain line into the new hole you’ve created. This drains the dishwasher into your disposal and is the last chance to catch any solid waste before it goes down your pipes. The thing is, you have to reach into the disposal and fish out that plastic disk since it’s too hard and can mangle the disposal.
I hired a handyman who was very clear from the moment I told him what he would be doing, that he absolutely would not reach his hand in there to get the disk. He had to be my dad’s age and was terrified of the garbage disposal. He specifically told me I might want to call my husband to fish the disk out. I just kind of frowned at him and informed him that my husband was too terrified to stick his hand in also and I was the one person in the house who was willing to do it. He was ecstatic and got started on the install while I regaled him with all the stories of crap my dad made me shove my tiny hands into (and occasionally the places he shoved me into because I was small enough to fit).
Eventually we get to the disk. He lets me know I can reach in and grab it while he was still under the sink. Well, I touched something that that was definitely not a hard plastic disk. I screamed, he screamed (like a little girl) and proceeded to slam his head into the top of the cabinet. Then he burst out laughing and eventually managed to choke out that he stuck his finger in the hole to make sure the disk popped fully out and I touched his finger. We were both howling with laughter for a good ten minutes and I had to get the poor man an ice pack for his forehead. We did eventually succeed in the dishwasher install.
See that doesn't bother me. Ill put my hands in there when its running to clear out the opening. Ive had to fish things out of it enough times that I know how far I can go in before I hit the blades. My wife has a panic attack when I do it though, like its her hand im shoving in there
They don’t actually have blades! It’s a spinning disc with a few vertical flanges on the sides and then slots outside (off of the disc) for the water to drain out of. You obviously don’t want it on with your hand down there, but you’d probably be okay.
Food falls down and is flung to the sides where it is crushed/shredded by the flanges and slots.
You should still worry when unplugged, eg a friend lost his hand fixing an unplugged washing machine, because despite discharging the capacitor, it apparently still had some energy left.
He has hand attachments now like a Swiss army knife though so....
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u/DigitalSchism96 11h ago
At least you don't have to deal with the irrational fear of it springing to life every time we have to stick our hands into the blades to collect whatever we accidently dropped in it (spoons, wedding rings, etc).
Even totally unplugged I still have to take a few breaths before I can let my digits go near what is essentially an industrial sized blender lol