As a homeowner, you have a lot of responsibilities. One extremely important one is ensuring that your plumbing system stays in good condition. One common question that many homeowners have is whether or not they can rinse their used coffee grounds down the drain.
A General Rule of Thumb
As a general rule of thumb, you shouldn’t be rinsing anything other than water down your sink drains. Leftover food, coffee grounds, grease, and oil should all be disposed of in another manner. Solid substances like coffee grounds should be disposed of in the trash can, while liquid substances like grease and oil should be disposed of in a break-proof container.
A Common Misconception
Many homeowners falsely believe that it’s okay to put substances like coffee grounds down the drain as long as they continue to run water to flush it through. While the action of water going down the pipe can help to move the majority of the coffee grounds out into your septic tank or city sewer, it can’t always carry all of the coffee grounds.
If you have other debris inside your piping, such as grease in a solid form, it creates the perfect net for items like coffee grounds to attach to. While coffee grounds don’t usually initially cause the start of a clog, they can greatly add to it. For this reason, it’s highly recommended that you do not flush coffee grounds down your sink drain.
Properly Maintain Your Drains to Prevent Clogs
While your best defense against a clogged drain is ensuring that only water goes down the drain, life isn’t always that simple. For this reason, it’s imperative that you practice proper drain maintenance techniques to ensure that you remove any stuck-on debris that could be starting to clog up your piping.
A great habit to get into to keep your drains and piping in good condition is to flush them regularly. You’ll want to heat up a few quarts of water to just below a boiling temperature. Go ahead and pour all the quarts down the drain to help melt away the stuck-on debris like grease or oil that is on the inside of your piping.
You should make time every week to whip up a quick mixture of natural substances to help remove any stuck-on debris in your pipe. A great mixture is to include baking soda, white vinegar, and warm water. Typically, a half of a cup of baking soda and a half of a cup of white vinegar are enough to create a chemical reaction that breaks down any stuck-on material. It’s best to start with the baking soda and vinegar mixture. Pour it down the drain and let it sit for about an hour. Then, go ahead and flush that down with some warm water.
At least once a year, you’re going to want to call in a professional to inspect and clean your drains. Professionals have the right training, experience, and equipment to get the job done correctly. With video inspection equipment, you can be alerted of any potential clogs in your piping system and be able to have them removed before they create chaos in your home.
Coffee Grounds Don’t Break Down
One unique attribute of coffee grounds is that they don’t break down in water. Rather, the grounds will simply get stuck together and create a rock-hard block. Unfortunately, when you get coffee grounds stuck together and forming a block, it can be much harder to break up that partial clog without professional assistance.
It’s become a misconception that you can dispose of your coffee grounds by flushing them down the toilet. While the piping for your toilet is going to be much bigger than the piping for your sink, it’s still not going to change the fact that the coffee grounds won’t break down. Apart from creating clogs in your drain system, the coffee grounds that reach your septic system will add to the layer of non-disposed solids. This can end up causing your septic tank to need to be pumped more often, which means more money out the door for you.
Useful Ways to Dispose of Coffee Grounds
Just because you can’t wash your coffee grounds down the sink doesn’t mean that they can’t be useful. While you always have the option of putting them into your garbage can, there are many other options that you can take advantage of. Coffee grounds are great for compost bins as they attract worms. They can also be utilized as a fertilizer or mulch for certain house plants or outdoor plants.
If you drink coffee on a regular basis, it’s a good idea to come up with a plan of what you’re going to do with your coffee grounds. When you have a usual plan that you can stick to, it will help you to better avoid rinsing those coffee grounds down the drain. This holds especially true when you’re in your morning rush and you need something quick to do with them.
Signs You May Have a Partial Clog in Your Drain
If you have regularly disposed of your coffee grounds down your sink up until this point in time, then there’s a high possibility that there may already be a partial clog starting in your drains. There are many different common signs that will alert you to the presence of a partial clog in one of your drains. These include:
- Slow draining water
- Gurgling noises
- Foul odor from your drain
- Visible particles in the sink after you run your dishwasher
As soon as you notice some of these common indicators of a partial clog, it’s important that you fix the issue before it gets worse. You can try a mixture of baking soda and vinegar to see if it can bust up the partial clog. If that doesn’t solve the problem, it’s best to call in a plumbing professional to help remove the clog before it completely blocks your pipe.
Other No-Nos For Your Kitchen Sink
Apart from coffee grounds going down your kitchen sink, there are many other common household substances that should not be put down your drain. Probably the most important substance that you always want to avoid putting down your drain is grease. Just because it is in a liquid form when it’s hot, that doesn’t mean that it’s going to make it the whole way to your septic tank or sewer before it changes back into a gel-like status. Some other common no-nos when it comes to the sink drain include cooking oil, margarine, butter, sauces, dairy products, eggs shells, food scraps, and fat from cooked meat.
Professional Plumbing Services
Green Energy Mechanical offers professional plumbing services for the Canton, MA area. We’re also available for all of your heating, cooling, ductless, indoor air quality, duct cleaning, duct sealing, programmable thermostat, and commercial HVAC needs. Simply contact our office today to schedule your next service appointment.
Do you require an emergency plumber in Canton? Contact Green Energy Mechanical Inc right away and our highly trained plumbers will take care of the situation. Call us at 781-236-3421 or email at info@greenenergymech.com.
Author Bio:
Jonathan Neves
Worked in the HVAC industry since he was 17. He started as an HVAC service technician for commercial buildings and eventually came into the residential market because of his love of working with people. He believes that what really sets Green Energy Mechanical apart is how long they stand behind their work and how compassionate his employees are for their clients.
