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I installed a new garbage disposal today. Here is a photo of the plumbing:

enter image description here

It seems like there is some sewage/sewer smell coming from the garbage disposal, as though the P-trap were missing (which it is not).

Is the plumbing suitable?

I did notice that the dishwasher drain hose smelled pretty bad when I took it off the old garbage disposal. I do think the foul smell could be coming from that, so I plan on changing the hose tomorrow. But, I wanted to ask the pros here if the other plumbing was okay. (And yes, I do have a stopper on top of the garbage disposal strainer for the time being.)

Edit: My sink has an air gap, and the hoses are connected to it properly (one from dishwasher to air gap, and another from air gap to garbage disposal).

Edit: So, I did three things: (1) slowly ran water faucet to fill the P-trap, as perhaps the P-trap was not absolutely full for some reason (I ran the water a lot since replacing garbage disposal, so not sure why it would not have been full); (2) poured some bleach down air gap; I made sure it went to the hole that goes to the garbage disposal; and (3) ran dishwasher on sani clean cycle.

Smell seems to have gone away now.

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    You could try running some bleach through the system and then rinse it several times. See if that kills off the stench.
    – ArchonOSX
    Commented Oct 2, 2017 at 11:33

3 Answers 3

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The plumbing appears to be fine. A simple method you can do is to first remove, clean, reinstall the gooseneck then pour a box of baking soda down the disposal and run it that through.

On another note, I noticed the water hoses in the background. If those haven't been replaced in the last 8-10 years, consider doing so.

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  • Do the hoses look bad, or are they naturally prone to leaking after about 10 years? I'll put that on my to-do list.
    – user56530
    Commented Oct 2, 2017 at 19:00
  • Hose life is about 8-10 years. After that, they can burst and spray water all over and you end up with a flood. I can post pictures of the aftermath if you like.
    – TWS
    Commented Oct 2, 2017 at 22:40
  • I will definitely take your word for it. I guess I will need to do every single hose in the hose (bathrooms, kitchen, etc.).
    – user56530
    Commented Oct 3, 2017 at 7:00
  • Rather than ask a new question, perhaps you can answer for me. How do you remove the water supply line connection at the ACCOR water valve? Does it unscrew from the water valve?
    – user56530
    Commented Oct 3, 2017 at 7:25
  • I don't know the acronym "ACCOR" but the hoses unthread from the valves. I noticed from the photo that you have the newer ball valves which is very good. Much easier to turn off and tell when they're off. Use teflon tape when you reinstall the valves if the connection is metal to metal. I also do this for metal to plastic. On another note, I did replace all the hoses and valves in the house after the one hose blew.
    – TWS
    Commented Oct 3, 2017 at 13:58
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Your question has been answered by TWS and the comment by ArchonOSX, but let me supplement that.

The food you grind up in the disposal decomposes and stinks, and some kinds of food residue are sticky or easily snagged along the way. There are a number of places in the path where food can get lodged before it gets past the trap. There are some things you can do to minimize the problem:

  • Don't put any and all kinds of food waste down the disposal. The food doesn't get cut into tiny pieces like a blender, it gets pounded into a pulp. Stringy foods (especially certain vegetables like celery and leafy vegetables), don't get broken down well and can get snagged along the way.

    Grease and really greasy foods can stick to the pipe walls. Even worse is hot, melted fat that will coagulate. If the food is greasy, squirt some dish soap into it before you start the disposal, and run cold water full blast during the process.

    Pasta, bread, and other flour-based foods can become sticky when pulverized with water (flour and water is used as an adhesive). So those aren't good foods to put down a disposal.

    Things that break down into a gritty powder are ideal. Even make a point to include them as often as possible because they will help to clean up and break up other foods. These are things like egg shells, coffee grounds, and steak bones. I've also heard of people adding ice cubes.

  • Don't be stingy with the water. Run cold water full blast. Let the disposal continue to run for a short time after it sounds like it's done. Then keep the water running for another 15 seconds or so.

  • Periodically put baking soda down the disposal for odor control.

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The drain pipe on disposal is tilted towards disposal needs to be raised at disposal and lowered at trap solids stay behind in drain pipe rotting away I always throw ice in disposal after grinding nasty food also you can reverse the drain pipes put the trap at disposal and t the other drain to it also make a loop on the dishwasher hose to create a trap smell might be from the dishwasher if smell comes back u can take hose off and make your wife smell it lol

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    – virtualxtc
    Commented Feb 15, 2018 at 18:12

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