Pumpkins and Your Plumbing

Fall is official here that means PUMPKIN EVERYTHING! You have pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin spice coffee creamers, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice cheesecake, pumpkin spice dog treats, there’s even pumpkin pizza. As much as we enjoy pumpkins, there are some thing pumpkins shouldn’t go with and one of those things is your plumbing.

Whether you get your pumpkin at a pumpkin patch or the grocery store, carving pumpkins with our family is incredibly fun and also messy. Often times we are tempted to throw the “guts” down the garbage disposal. This isn’t a good idea.

Why?

The pumpkin “guts” are slimy and have gooey fibers making it a challenge to pull the guts out by hand. Most people turn to a spoon to help get it all out. Just imagine your garbage disposal blades trying to break all of that down. Those fibers get wrapped around your disposal’s blades causing damage that may not be repairable. The seeds and fibers that manage to make it past the garbage disposal can cause a whole other problem. Guts of the pumpkin can harden and stick to the sides of your kitchen’s drain. This can attract other waste matter causing a buildup clogging the pipe. Even if you don’t place anything down the drain, washing your hands with the smallest amount stuck to you could be enough to send an already slightly clogged pipe over the edge.

Worst case scenario, you’ll need a new garbage disposal and drain cleaning. But it’s always better to help prevent the need of calling a plumber. You want to carve pumpkins away from your sink area on old newspaper and make sure there are no fibers on your hands off before washing them in the sink.

What can I do with those “GUTS”

Everything you take out of the pumpkin is usable. Here are a couple of websites to give you some ideas for those guts.

Here are 29 creative ideas after carving!

10 Best pumpkin seed recipes

If you run into plumbing problems this pumpkin season, call Duncan Plumbing Solutions, we’ve got you covered.