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JUST A SIMPLE Q...

Does it hurt or harm a kitchen sink disposal, if you use hot water when running it? Or should it always be cold water? And why? Please...t/y

Reply to
Papa Pat
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I never knew there would be a difference. I use hot water all the time and never had a problem for many years.

Reply to
SBH

Water is used to cool the motor. Using hot water will shorten the life of the motor. Always use cold water while the motor is running. After, hot water can be used to flush out any grease, if that's your worry.

Reply to
krw

Cold water would help cool the motor.

Reply to
Mark Lloyd

But that begs the question of whether the motor needs cooling.

And even if it did, it's not a WATER-COOLED motor anyway.

I just ran my disposal for two minutes with NO water and the motor didn't even get warm to the touch.

Reply to
HeyBub

You took the words out of my fingers. I was thinking along the same lines since the motor doesn't even near contact with the water.

I don't buy the water cooler theory. As I've stated, I always use hot water and have never had a disposal go out.

Reply to
SBH

Yes.

But it is!

Empty, no doubt.

Reply to
krw

  1. "Use cold water when grinding food (hot water can melt fats and clog the mechanism and the pipes)"
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  2. "Run cold water while the disposal is on. Cold water keeps the motor, bearings and shredder assembly from overheating. It also lets the waste go down easier because the water is pushing it down."
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  3. "Flushing with cold water is recommended when running the disposal unit to prevent damage to the blades and wash away the chopped waste without allowing it to build up and clog the drains."
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  4. "Always use cold water when operating the disposer to solidify fatty & greasy waste so they will be chopped up & flushed down the drain.
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    to be all over the place. Evidently it makes littledifference.As a modification on the above experiment, I ran my disposal for threeminutes with HOT water. The motor still didn't even warm up.
Reply to
HeyBub

ote:

The motor has a top bearing which would go bad faster with heat.

I use hot all the time to wash down any grease.

greg

Reply to
zek

Wrong, as usual. Water does cool the motor so it can be made *cheaper*.

Irrelevant, also as usual.

Reply to
krw

e:

rote:

I don't see how water can cool the motor, as the water is not around the parts of the motor that get hot, ie the coils or armature. The grinding mechanism and water are well above that. You'd get some heat transfer down the shaft, etc. but doesn't seem like it would be that big of a deal. Also, I don't know how others use their disposal, but I use mine for a minute or two at a time. Hard to picture someone running it long enough with hot water, to amount to a heating issue with the motor.

I'd go more with the case that cold water tends to keep things like fat solid so they get ground up and sent down in bits, rather than liquid which then solidifies again in the pipes. Plus, how long does one run the typical disposal? I run mine for a minute at a time. And for me, it doesn't much matter because I'm not going to use hot water and pay to heat it when I can use cold. On the other hand, if the sink happend to have 3 inches of hot water in it and some vegetable debris, etc, I wouldn't wait for it to cool down before running it either.

Reply to
trader4

Why do you assume that it needs to?

Reply to
krw

This from Waste King's owner's guide: " It is not recommended to use hot water while running disposer. Cold water will keep waste and fats solid so disposer can flush away particles."

Waste King has the highest rated disposer on consumersearch.com, a review aggregation site, so that's why I chose that one.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

You really don't think there is a difference in 20C water on the shaft and common surfaces and 60C water on those surfaces when the motor is running? Moron.

Reply to
krw

The Insinkerator I installed moons ago warned about overheating the motor. The motor *is* cooled by the water.

What do consumer ratings have to do with physics?

Reply to
krw

Did the manual say that the motor was cooled by the water, or are you just guessing.

Did the manual, in fact, say, "always run cool water so the motor won't overheat," or something similar.

Point is, my table saw motor will get hot, but the manual says nothing about water - hot OR cold - having any bearing on the motor's temperature.

Reply to
HeyBub

Yes.

Yes. It said the motor was cooled by the water and that it would overheat, shortening its life, if it was run with hot water.

Your table saw is not designed to run with water flowing through it. I hope.

Reply to
krw

Okay, I'll play. How long does it take for the heat from a 60C motor to transfer to the shaft such that the shaft is, oh, say 50C?

Thirty minutes? Ten minutes?

Then tabulate how long a disposal runs in a typical application.

Ten seconds? One minute?

Reply to
HeyBub

Seconds. Metal is a *very* good conductor of heat.

Long enough.

Reply to
krw

e:

That sentence drips with weaseling. Shortening it's life if run with hot water means that the fat and grease gum up the works, thus shortening the life. Which is keeping with what I posted earlier: This from Waste King's owner's guide: " It is not recommended to use hot water while running disposer. Cold water will keep waste and fats solid so disposer can flush away particles."

All manuals are online for all manufacturers of pretty much everything. Post the link to a/any manual and point out the section where it says that the disposer is water cooled. Publish or perish.

Reply to
RicodJour

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