The Kitchen Sink

[Mark W Pugh]

This probably isn't the place for this, so moderators please move to the appropriate forum.

So, I was at the sink the other day, and many other days in my lifetime, and a recurrent thought keeps coming up. In a two sink configuration, why is the garbage disposal always in the left sink? OK, I'm sure someone has seen something different, but "something different" is not the norm.

From very young, I, and everyone else I've known, always wash in the right sink and rinse/dry in left sink. After washing there always seems to be food residue remaining in the right sink. So, since the left sink is full of drying dishes, you can't grind it, you must trash it. Which to me, defeats the purpose of having the disposal in the first place.

So, is there a kitchen design reason for this? Just thinking of design reasons for a new kitchen. Are the dishwasher drain lines not long enough to reach across both sinks?

Hmmmm?

I know this sounds weird, but just think about it.

[James Baker SD]

My disposal is under the right half of a double sink.

[Robert Payne]

I have a Kohler "Efficiency" (http://www.us.kohler.com/us/Efficiency%E2%84%A2-33-x-22-x-7-5-8-top-mount-large-medium-double-bowl-kitchen-sink-with-3-faucet-holes/productDetail/KOHLER-Enameled-Cast-Iron-Kitchen-Sinks/418802.htm?brandId=651525&categoryId=651500) double porcelain sink that has an offset faucet position with disposal on the right and my daughter has a stock double stainless steel sink in her starter home with it's disposal mounted in the right sink by the builder.

[Mark W Pugh]

This is good to hear. I live in nowhere Ohio, after traveling all over for the last 37 years, and I can say that every house I have been in, the disposal was in the left sink.

So, no real reason, except it has always been that way, in most cases?

[Moses Yoder]

For right handed people (the majority) the dishes are normally stacked to the right, washed in the right sink, and rinsed with running water in the left sink, stacked to dry on the left. I think the mentality is that you can use the disposer while the right sink is filled with water.

If you want the disposer on the right it is actually not that hard to switch. Either $300 for a plumber or a days worth of labor and three trips to the hardware store.

[James Baker SD]

I think the openings in both side of my sink are pretty much identical so I could have installed the disposal on either side. But like you, I tend to make more mess on the right side so it made sense to me to put the disposal there.

[Bill Clifton]

I am remodeling the kitchen and new countertops and a sink are in the plan. "forever" my wife uses a dish drainer in the right hand half of the sink. We wash in the left, rinse into either sink and place the dishes in the dish drainer. The house we are in has the garbage disposal under the right hand half - the half where the dish drainer sits. The house plumbing is such that this is by far the correct location for our house. The problem is that we never used the garbage disposal and it froze up. I have gone through a couple of garbage disposal and they freeze up from lack of use.

I looked at the plumbing to see about moving the garbage disposal and it would be difficult. So I suggested to the wife unit that we put the drainer in the left half and wash in the right half. When we get done washing we can run the garbage disposal.

We have lived for ever washing on the left and drainer in the right. The wife agreed to try the other way - hard to teach old dogs new tricks. It was really difficult but I believe we have adjusted. It is humorous to me the years we have gone without implementing this simple change.

Part of our established lifestyle is to compost all vegetable matter. Meat and bones go directly into the trash so we really don't have a large need for a disposal.

Good question - we all have our own answers.

[Brian Elfert]

My previous house the disposal was on the right side of the double sink. My current house has no disposal as they are generally not recommended with septic systems.

[Kent A Bathurst]

For right handed people (the majority) the dishes are normally stacked to the right, washed in the right sink, and rinsed with running water in the left sink, stacked to dry on the left.

^^^ THis ^^^

From the standpoint of process efficiency, for right-handed people, this is the most efficient layout. Now - most people don't think about how to wash dishes more efficiently, but some of us cannot help ourselves. My coffee maker, coffee mugs, and milk in the fridge are all arranged such that I can pour my coffee and add milk much more efficiently that you guys. As if anyone actually cares.........

[Jerome Stanek]

we always put them in the right

[Jason Roehl]

My GD is in the right half of a double-basin sink. And we wash right-to-left as well, for items that don't go in the dishwasher, which is immediately to the right of the sink.

[Phil Thien]

LOL, mine is on the right, as well.

[roger wiegand]

How can you possibly wash dished in the right hand bowl of a sink? It makes my head hurt to even thing about it. I've always washed on the left, stacked in the right. (the bowl on the right is also much smaller than the one on the left). Every commercial kitchen I've ever worked in had a three bowl sink, wash on the left, rinse in the middle, hot/disinfect rinse on the left. Our sink came with a dish rack that fit into the right hand bowl, they don't make one for the left suggesting not everyone washes in the right!

Needless to say I put the disposal on the left, as it wouldn't be much use with dished piled on top of it.

[Brian Tymchak]

... I live in nowhere Ohio...

You're right. I grew up in Marietta, and I think the only place I've been smaller than Little Hocking, is Torch, just down Rt 7 from you guys... ;)

[Dan Hintz]

Ours is on the right-hand side. My guess (and this is only a guess, mind you) is they put the disposal on the same side as the dishwasher to make piping easier.

[julian abram]

My previous house the disposal was on the right side of the double sink. My current house has no disposal as they are generally not recommended with septic systems.

Hmm, never heard of this. We built our house in 1992 with sink disposal and on a septic system. In 23 years never had a single problem with the septic system.

[Ole Anderson]

My previous house the disposal was on the right side of the double sink. My current house has no disposal as they are generally not recommended with septic systems.

Not the problem you would think. I don't dump huge amounts down my disposer, which is on the right by the way. Been using a disposer in my home for 40 years, pumped my tank 3 times in that time period (plan in pumping again this year). Yes I am knocking on wood as I type this. Only time I had a problem with a disposer was clogging the interior plumbing early on when eggshells and corn husks got ground up. Folks freak out first time they are on a septic system, but they are really a good way to handle sewage.

[Peter Kelly]

Personally can't stand those double-bowl sinks, seems like a complete inefficient use of space. One large basin is much better for washing out pots and pans, cutting boards, salad bowls, etc.

Everything else except wooden stuff goes in the dishwasher.

[Garth Almgren]

My disposal is under the right half of a double sink.
My parents house - same.
My house only has a single sink. Wish it was a double!

Come to think of it, the only time I've noticed it being on the left is when it's one of those double sinks with the tiny bowl on the left like this:
314055

Maybe it's a regional thing?

[Kev Williams]

I've always been a wash-right-rinse-left person. I think mostly because of how the kitchen's have been laid out...

Couple of years ago I snagged one of these:



http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/sinkad.jpg


And installed:

http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/sinkin.jpg


What a sink! The left bowl will submerge a 27 pound turkey!

Now you're probably asking, why would I buy an under-counter sink and mount it on TOP?
Because (A) eventually we're going to upgrade the countertops, and (B) I got the sink, brand new in the box $700 sink for $75...!

Anyway, I have the disposal on the smaller right side. But those who make the protective grates for the sink bottoms must think it
should be on the left, because the left grate has a hole for disposal access, the right grate doesn't!

Now, I COULD mount the disposal on the left, but the bottom of the motor would only be about an inch from the bottom of the cabinet.
And worse, the disposal drain outlet would be lower than the horizontal section of my drain pipe!

Now, I COULD rebuild the drain pipe, but..... Phooey on that. Disposal works fine on the right. We just don't use the grate. ;)

[Brian Elfert]

Not the problem you would think. I don't dump huge amounts down my disposer, which is on the right by the way. Been using a disposer in my home for 40 years, pumped my tank 3 times in that time period (plan in pumping again this year). Yes I am knocking on wood as I type this. Only time I had a problem with a disposer was clogging the interior plumbing early on when eggshells and corn husks got ground up. Folks freak out first time they are on a septic system, but they are really a good way to handle sewage.

The house didn't have a disposal when I bought it and I wouldn't even want to add one to the current sink until it gets replaced some day. I talked to a couple of septic people and they all recommended against a disposal. We are supposed to by law pump our septic systems every three years. If I really thought I needed one I would probably get one, but I really don't miss it that much.

[Larry Edgerton]

I don't have one because they stink at times. And I am on a septic, and I have a garden, and.........

[Alan Rutherford]

You often can't put the unit under the large side of an asymmetrical sink, as Kev noted, so be sure you consider that before you get too far along.

We've been in a house with a septic tank for 5 years and a disposal is high on the priority list, septic tank or not. It's going to be expensive since she also wants a new kitchen including a dishwasher, which some people also think is a septic tank no-no. We'll do it anyway.

I could wash dishes in either direction but when there is only one logical place for the rack (the short end of the counter), that's the controlling factor.

[Ole Anderson]

It's going to be expensive since she also wants a new kitchen including a dishwasher, which some people also think is a septic tank no-no. We'll do it anyway.

A properly designed septic tank in good soils is fully capable of disposing the water from multi loads of wash per week as well as daily use of a dishwasher and disposal and doesn't need any special precautions for toilet use. The only different way I would use my plumbing system if I were on a city sewer might be to put all food waste down the disposal with the exception of corn cobs and husks and bones. Now those go in the trash as well as potato peelings, fat, large amounts of leftovers and vegetable waste like woody asparagus stalks.

[Myk Rian]

My previous house the disposal was on the right side of the double sink. My current house has no disposal as they are generally not recommended with septic systems.

Same here. I have no need for possible problems. It takes 2 seconds to scrape a plate into the trash, or compost container.

[Mark Blatter]

The house didn't have a disposal when I bought it and I wouldn't even want to add one to the current sink until it gets replaced some day. I talked to a couple of septic people and they all recommended against a disposal. We are supposed to by law pump our septic systems every three years. If I really thought I needed one I would probably get one, but I really don't miss it that much.

Same with us. We lived on septic for many years, the first was a house we built, and were told it is best not to have a disposal. We were told a story about a family that had moved into a new house on a septic system for the first and the drain field had to be torn up after about two years. The wife was dumping grease down the drain, which simply destroyed the drain field by clogging it up. After replacing the entire thing, meaning tearing up a big slice of the yard, the contractor was very clear, do not pour / dump grease from cooking down the drain. Two or three years later they had the same problem, and once again tore it all up. The contractor asked what they had been doing. The wife says, "Well you said not to pour grease down the drain so I didn't, not even once. I take it to the bathroom and pour it down the toilet."

We treated our septic system with kid gloves perhaps, and never had a problem. We always had a dishwasher though, and used it daily.

[Myk Rian]

I take it to the bathroom and pour it down the toilet."
There has got to be a blonde joke in there someplace.