A household food waste grinder (or disposer) is a simple device whose only task is to grind and dispose (through the sewer) of food leftovers: cleanings, small bones and everything else that remains after we have finished cooking food. Such a chopper is installed under the sink (where we are used to seeing a siphon), so that the crushed food residues are sent straight to the sewer.

Such devices have long become the standard for many countries. So, for example, investigators in American TV shows often check the contents of shredders, because they know that it is there that they often need to look for traces of destroyed evidence. This is not surprising: back in the 1950s, the US Department of Health recommended the installation of grinders in all houses under construction, and today in the United States the device is installed in about every second house.

In our country, shredders have not yet taken root too much: apparently, these devices in the minds of our fellow citizens are somewhere at the end of the list of appliances needed in the house, so the purchase of a shredder is constantly shelved. The second possible reason is the non-obviousness of the benefits of such a device. The need to take out the garbage is not perceived as any serious hindrance or difficulty in everyday life, and therefore, the shredder does not seem to be a very useful device.

However, as operating experience shows, the real situation in this case repeats the story of automatic dishwashers: the vast majority of those who recently spoke from the position “I wash dishes with my hands without any problems”, after buying a dishwasher, they stop washing dishes with their hands. Especially if we are not talking about a lonely person, but about someone who cooks and washes dishes for the whole family at once.

The main advantages of using a disposer are the prospect of once and for all getting rid of the smell from the bin and the need to throw away organic waste. As additional bonuses, the sewer will not become clogged with large pieces of food and cleaning, and you will have to go to the garbage dump much less often.

The main disadvantages of the grinder are a slight increase in water and electricity consumption and a high level of noise during operation of the device.

Chopper device

According to the principle of operation, the food waste grinder most of all resembles a centrifugal juicer. Inside the chamber there is a crushing disc with “cams”, and the walls of the chamber are made in the form of a fixed grater. During the operation of the disposer, the waste is ground and crushed, after which it is washed off with running water into the sewer.

Separately, we mention that mechanical shredders were previously popular, which were powered not by electricity, but by a stream of water. However, in our time it is not possible to find such devices for sale, and therefore there is no point in discussing them.

Another “outdated” option that sometimes comes up for sale is a batch-loaded shredder: waste must be loaded into it in small portions and only then the device should be started. The standard today are grinders with continuous loading – such devices “devour” food waste as they enter the chamber of the device.

Connection Features

Installing a dispenser does not require specific knowledge or a special level of skill; almost everyone can do it. Washing old models can cause some difficulty, since almost all grinders are designed for modern sinks with a European drain with a diameter of 89-90 mm. Some models can be installed on a sink with a 50mm drain hole (assuming the sink is made of stainless steel), but we would recommend simply replacing the sink with a new one if you still have a sink with a small drain hole.

Before choosing a grinder (and before starting installation), you should make sure that there is enough space for it: the barrel of the working chamber of the device may be too “pot-bellied”, so it will not be superfluous to check all possible sizes:

• height and width of the installed device
• distance from the bottom of the sink to the center line of the outlet
• distance from the center of the drain hole to the end of the nozzle
• distance from the center line of the instrument to the center line of the instrument connection

You also need to make sure that the level of the drain pipe is at a suitable height (i.e. below the dispenser outlet).

By the way, the bin, traditionally placed under the sink, will have to be moved to another place after installing the chopper! Get ready for this twist!

The grinder will require an electrical outlet located in a location where water cannot enter. Preferably with an appropriate degree of water protection.

During the installation of the grinder, as a rule, you will have to drill a hole for the pneumatic button in the countertop, turn off the water supply, dismantle the water seal, dismantle the sink outlet and install the top part of the grinder with rubber gaskets instead, fix the disposer, then connect the siphon and install the switch-button by connecting the air hose.

This description may look intimidating, but in practice there are not so many potential difficulties: just watch the training video on Youtube to make sure that, provided that communications are properly made, there should not be any problems even for not very experienced users who have minimal experience with tools.

Control method

The standard control method for household shredders is an air button (actually a small hand-held air pump) that is displayed on the countertop. A hose is connected to this button, which transmits the created air pressure to the chopper body, where a similar response device presses the electric button. This design allows you not to be afraid of a short circuit or electric shock due to the fact that the button was flooded with water.

The most modern shredders, in addition to the standard button, allow remote control: some manufacturers supply their shredders with a remote control, while other users prefer to manually set up a smart outlet controlled by a remote switch or even via a smartphone.

It is clear that the choice of how to control the device is at the discretion of the user: on the one hand, not everyone is happy with the prospect of having an additional remote control in the house, on the other hand, some categorically do not want to drill an extra hole in an expensive countertop.

Device case material

When choosing a grinder, you should pay attention to the body of the device. More expensive and “serious” shredders have a metal case, more budgetary and low-power models are often made in a plastic case. We will not consider the presence of a plastic case as a serious disadvantage (as well as the presence of a metal one as a serious advantage). Rather, the presence of a metal case is an indication that the device belongs to a more “professional” category, while a plastic case often indicates that we have a more “household” shredder.

One way or another, the inner chamber will still be made of stainless steel, so the case material, in our opinion, does not play a significant role.

Chamber volume and device dimensions

Not only the weight of the device depends on the dimensions of the grinder, but also the volume of the working chamber, and therefore the amount of waste that can be chopped at a time, which in practice can become especially important for those who cook a lot.

The easiest way to get an idea of the volume of the chamber is to count the family members, and then estimate the size of the chamber based on the assumption that a 0.6 liter chopper will be enough for 1-2 people, and the largest devices with a chamber of up to 1.5 liters are designed for families from 4-6 people.

Motor power and disk rotation speed

The speed of waste processing depends on the power of the electric motor, as well as what kind of waste a particular device can process.

It is traditionally believed that for a small family, a device with a power of up to 500 or even up to 400 watts may be enough. Such devices will be more compact, and they will consume a little less electricity than their more powerful counterparts. For a large family, as well as for those for whom the “omnivorous” nature of the device is important, it makes sense to pay attention to more powerful dispensers. In case doubts prevail, you can use the rule “100-150 W of power per family member.”

The speed of operation of the device depends on the speed of rotation of the disk, and therefore the grinding time and the associated water consumption and the time during which the device will make noise.

The current minimum is just under 1000 rpm, with most shredders having disc speeds of 1400 rpm or more, with the most advanced shredders capable of spinning the disc at 2600 rpm or even higher. As an “average” benchmark, we would call 1400-1800 rpm. Some models have several modes with different rotation speeds, so that, for example, when grinding soft waste, you do not use too many revolutions and do not increase electricity bills.

Noise level

It depends on the noise level how comfortable it will be to use the grinder, and also whether it will be possible to use it at night without waking the family. Despite the fact that many manufacturers are actively working on noise reduction and some shredders will be noticeably quieter (or louder) than others, we would caution against unnecessary illusions. Choppers are noisy, and quite noisy. Especially in the process of grinding bones and other solid waste. As for the indicated noise level “at idle” (which can often be found in the instructions or the product card in the store), in practice we are of little interest in it. If you have never heard the noise of a running chopper and you need a clear and simple reference point, you can assume that this is noise of about the same order as from a working corded vacuum cleaner.

Our conclusion: when choosing a grinder, it makes sense to pay attention to the noise level only in a situation where you cannot decide between two (or several) very similar models. In this case, the choice of a less noisy device will be justified. In other cases, we consider this criterion to be secondary.

Additional options

Modern shredders can have a number of options and features that significantly affect the user experience of the device. Let’s highlight the most important ones:

• the reverse function is useful in case something gets stuck inside
• overload protection will stop the device if the load exceeds the allowable values (for example, if solid objects – spoons or forks get into the dispenser)
• well, so that the forks with spoons get inside the working chamber as rarely as possible, a special magnetic catcher will come in handy
• some grinders boast an antibacterial coating that is designed to fight bacteria and, as a result, unpleasant odors
• a special pusher will be an additional plus, but will not significantly affect the experience of daily operation

findings

Food waste disposers have proven to be simple and reliable devices. As a rule, subject to the installation rules and operating conditions, they serve for many years and break extremely rarely: there are by no means isolated cases when a well-installed shredder of one of the brands known in this field without any maintenance worked without a single breakdown for 10-15 years. After examining a number of shredders, we noticed design elements in some models that may have “planned obsolescence”. However, even taking into account these nuances, the actual service life of the shredders is at least five years.

What conclusions should a potential buyer draw from this? It must be realized that the grinder is acquired for a long time (five, ten years, or even more). Therefore, excessive savings in this case is inappropriate. It is better to slightly exceed the budget allocated for the purchase of the device than to find that the device was not as powerful or convenient as we would like.

Note that major manufacturers provide a 5-year warranty and claim that the service life of the device is at least 10 years. This often includes a lifetime warranty against corrosion.

Thus, you need to approach the choice of a chopper responsibly: this device will be with you for a long time. Fortunately, with the help of the simple rules described above, it will not be too difficult to choose a device with the necessary characteristics.