A smelly garbage disposal is one of those problems that people deal with in their kitchens every day. The smell could be sour, like eggs or it could be more, like sewage; often it has a special smell so its easy to know whats happening. Either way it’s usually not a deal; most of the time all you need to do is remove some old rotten pieces of food that stuck to the garbage disposal.
We fix kitchen appliances in the East Bay. Have seen our fair share of bad things taken out of garbage disposals over the years so here are the causes of the smells how to clean a garbage disposal using things you probably already have and how to tell when there might be a bigger issue.
Why Does My Garbage Disposal Smell?
Here are some of the things that garbage disposals do to help us. They shred the food, and they rinse the food down the drain. It seems easy enough. But in the process little bits of food escape and cling to the inside walls. Other pieces of food lodge themselves behind the rubber splash guard on top of the disposal. No one looks there to remove the gunk that has gotten lodged in there. Bacteria can then thrive in these warm, moist areas.
The other culprit is grease. This also sticks to the inside walls and keeps the odors trapped in the disposal. Think about how strong the smell from a pan of fried food can be when it is sitting on your stove. Now imagine that you have had that same smell clinging to the inside of your disposal for weeks. The worst time for this is around holidays when you are getting rid of extra food.
Common Causes of Garbage Disposal Smell
Not all smells start in the same place. These are the ones we see the most:
- Food stuck on the walls and blades: Bits of meat, rice and veggies dry out and rot.
- A gross splash guard: It’s wet all the time and gets slimy. Most people don’t know it can be scrubbed, or even pulled out.
- Grease and oil: They cool down into a sticky film that traps odors.
- A clog in the drain pipe: Water sits there and starts to stink.
- The dishwasher drain hose: Lots of dishwashers drain into the disposal, so smells can travel.
- A vent problem: If the plumbing can’t get air, sewer gas can come up the drain.
- A tired old disposal: Dull blades or a weak motor don’t grind well, so food builds up faster.
What Your Garbage Disposal Smell Is Telling You
Different smells point to different problems. It’s not an exact science, but it gives you a head start.
| Smell | Likely Cause | What to Try First |
|---|---|---|
| Sour or rotten food | Food stuck in the chamber or under the splash guard | Scrub the splash guard, then do ice and salt |
| Rotten eggs | Food breaking down, or sewer gas from a drain or vent issue | Clean the disposal, then check how the sink drains |
| Sewage | Clogged drain line or blocked vent | Look for slow draining and call a pro if it stays |
| Musty or moldy | Mold on the splash guard | Scrub with dish soap and a brush |
| Burning | Motor overheating or something jammed in the blades | Turn it off and unplug it right away |
Stay Safe Before You Clean
Quick but important. There are blades in there, and they don’t care that it’s your hand. So:
- Switch the disposal off at the wall switch
- Unplug it under the sink. If it’s wired in, flip the breaker
- Don’t stick your bare hand in. Use tongs or pliers
- Get a flashlight. You’ll see more than you want to
- Put on rubber gloves.
How to Get Rid of Garbage Disposal Smell Step by Step
You don’t need to buy anything special. Here’s the order we’d do it in.
- Pull out anything big: Shine the light in. See a bottle cap, a lemon seed pile or a chicken bone? Grab it with tongs.
- Scrub the splash guard: Old toothbrush, dish soap, top and bottom. Honestly, this fixes the smell more often than anything else on the list.
- Run ice and salt: Put in about two cups of ice and half a cup of rock salt. Turn on cold water, then run the disposal for around 30 seconds. It sounds awful, but it works. The ice scrapes the walls clean.
- Do baking soda and vinegar: Pour in half a cup of baking soda, then a cup of white vinegar. It fizzes up. Let it sit about 10 minutes, then flush with hot water.
- Finish with citrus: Drop in a few lemon or orange peels and run it with cold water. Quick heads up, citrus doesn’t really clean anything. It just makes the sink smell better.
- Rinse it all out: Run cold water for another 30 seconds.
One more thing. Don’t mix bleach with vinegar or ammonia. The fumes are bad news. The simple stuff above is enough.
Why Does My Garbage Disposal Smell Even After Cleaning?
This one drives people nuts. You scrub, you grind ice, it smells fine for a day, and then boom, it’s back. If that’s you, the problem probably isn’t inside the disposal. A half clogged drain pipe can hold dirty water that keeps stinking, even when the disposal is spotless. A bad vent can do it too.
Check your dishwasher as well. If it drains through the disposal and the hose is full of gunk, the smell shows up in both places. If your dishwasher smells funny, our post on cleaning and maintaining your dishwasher can help. Fix one and the other often gets better.
What Not to Put Down the Garbage Disposal
A lot of smells start with what we toss in. Try to keep these out:
- Grease, oil and fat: They harden and coat everything
- Coffee grounds: They turn into thick sludge
- Pasta, rice and potato peels: They swell up and get pasty
- Bones and fruit pits: Too hard to grind well
- Stringy veggies like celery and corn husks: The strings wrap around the blades
- Chemical drain cleaners: They can hurt rubber parts and old pipes
How Often Should You Clean a Garbage Disposal?
Every week or two is plenty for most homes. If you cook a lot, go weekly. You don’t have to do the full routine every time, either. Some weeks ice and salt is all it needs. And a few small habits help in between:
- Run cold water while you use it, then keep it running for 15 to 30 seconds after
- Cut big scraps into smaller bits first
- Wipe the splash guard when you do the dishes
- Scrape greasy plates into the trash, not the sink
- Toss in citrus peels once in a while
When to Call a Professional
Sometimes it’s not a cleaning problem at all. If you’ve cleaned it twice and it still stinks, there’s likely something else going on. Other clues are slow draining, loud grinding, a leak under the sink, or a disposal that hums but won’t spin. Those usually mean a clog or a part that’s wearing out.
Fixing a jammed or leaking disposal on your own gets risky fast. There are sharp parts and electrical wiring in there. A tech who does garbage disposal repair can find the real cause and tell you if it’s worth fixing or time to replace it. And a bit of preventative maintenance on your kitchen appliances can catch small stuff before it turns into a smelly mess.
Time to Get Your Kitchen Smelling Normal Again
Most of the time, a stinky disposal is just old food, grease and water sitting where you can’t see it. Scrub the splash guard, run ice and salt, then do the baking soda and vinegar. That fixes it in most homes. After that, rinse well and be careful about what goes down the drain, and the smell shouldn’t come back.
If it does keep coming back, the problem is probably in the drain, the dishwasher hose or the disposal itself. We serve Berkeley, Oakland and the rest of the East Bay. You can call Zuta Appliance Repair at (415) 592-4633 or visit us online.
