The Last Costume You Want to See on Halloween

By Bill Aldridge

You can’t help but smile as the neighborhood tykes parade around in this season’s costumes.  But there is one costume you can do without this holiday season and that’s the guy who comes to your door dressed as a plumber.  Be it Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas, the holidays bring with them a veritable cornucopia of holiday dishes that have been passed down from generation to generation.  The problem with many holiday cooks is that they also try to pass down the remnants of these dishes through the garbage disposal, which is where they guy in the plumber costume usually makes an appearance.  Below I have created a list of holiday no-no’s that are designed to keep you from making your local plumber

The Perils of Pumpkin

Believe it or not, more than a billion pounds of pumpkin are produced every year in the US, many to be made into jack-o-lanterns and pumpkin pies galore.  While these tasty treats are designed to brighten up the holidays, one thing that won’t is paying the plumber overtime to unstop your drain during the holidays.  The problem with pumpkin pulp is that it is a gooey mess that once down the drain will quickly harden into a mass that is a chore for even a seasoned professional to clear.  And don’t think that flushing it down the toilet is a better solution.  All that will do is make sure the clog gets lodged deep down the drain.  The only solution to the perils of pumpkin is to make like Lucy and Linus, by scooping out the pulp onto newspaper and then bagging it to take out with the trash.  (You didn’t say you were gonna kill it!”)

Don’t be a Turkey this Thanksgiving

The reason that most plumbers never get to sit down to a Thanksgiving dinner is due to the fact that they are invariably called out to unstop drains year in and year out.  In fact, Thanksgiving is the busiest of all holiday seasons for plumbing professionals.  Why?  Simply because it is a foregone conclusion that any number of holiday guests and/or chefs are going to

The Ghost of Christmas Dinner Past

Being home for the holidays also means preparing Christmas dinner for family and friends.  It can also mean that clearing the dishes can easily wind up overwhelming your garbage disposal resulting in a call to yours truly.  If you don’t want to add another mouth to feed during the holidays, here are some things you need to beware:

*   Fat is not your friend – While gravy helps make the turkey go down better in people, when it comes to plumbing the opposite is generally the case.  Anything containing fat, such as gravy boats, plates and serving platters need to be wiped clean with a paper towel before being washed in the sink.  Even then you want to use plenty of hot water before, during and after doing the holiday dishes.  That’s because any fat left in the pipes can quickly congeal into a blockage that requires a snake to clear.  One of the remedial steps is to fill your sink with hot water and a few drops of  liquid detergent, then pull the stopper to flush out the pipes after the dishes are done.

* Don’t give your disposal indigestion – While the modern garbage disposal is a wonderful invention, it was never designed to eat everything.  While most people know to avoid putting bones, gristle or other hard to grind substances into the disposal, they may not be aware that these devices also do not like to be fed a diet of celery, poultry skins, potato and onion peels, all of which can be hard to break down.  Disposals also need an occasional deep cleaning in order to eliminate odor.  (Below is a video that shows you how to eliminate “Stinky Disposal Syndrome” from your home.)

* Is stuffing going to stuff your pipes? – As a rule anything that is pulpy, such as stuffing, pumpkin flesh and squash can form a paste that can quickly gum up the works.  Just like pancake batter (another substance you should never pour down the drain), once past the disposal, these substances can quickly swell up and clog any drain.  Again, the solution is not to put these substances into the disposal.

* The extended family can also prove to be a strain on your plumbing.  While you can’t exactly read relatives the riot act, you can make sure that in their effort to help you clear the holiday dishes that they don’t inadvertently break any of the rules set above.  (That is if you can get them to help with the dishes.)

Bill Aldridge is one of the Doctor’s of Plumbology at Aldridge and Sons Plumbing, a residential and commercial plumbing contractor located in Jacksonville, Florida.  For more information and helpful how-to videos visit their site at http://plumbers-jacksonville-fl.com