On Which Side of the Sink Do You Place the Garbage Disposal?

The two great mysteries of the kitchen are On which side of the sink does the garbage disposal go, and What should you not put down the disposal?

In this article, we will address which side the garbage disposal goes.

Which side the disposal goes is a strictly personal preference but like religion and politics, there are those on both sides who insist their way is the only way.

If you have a double equal sink, then there is little difference because the bowls are the same size and the depth of the sinks are the same. With an uneven offset bowl such and the Cygnet BD-822  Rio, know to the trade as a 70/30 sink, or the Cygnet BD-813 Allante, which is known as a 60/40 bowl, the smaller bowl is usually shallower and if the shallower bowl plugs you can get back up into the larger lower bowl. With double bowl sinks, either two equal bowls or one larger and one smaller bowl, you could fill one side with soapy water and scrape and rinse in the other.

If you wash dishes by filling the larger of the sinks with soapy water and scrape to the small bowl, then that is where the disposal belongs. However, if you rinse only and leave the washing for the dishwasher, you may want it in the large bowl. If you rinse and wash many large pots, you will likely do so in the larger sink and therefore want the disposal in the larger sink to catch the runoff from rinsing. Today this is far less important because rarely does either sink get filled and used to actually wash dishes because of the dishwasher. Most often the disposal is placed in the smaller bowl so you can wash in the larger and scrape to the smaller.

Because the need for two bowls is less important, we see more orders for single bowl kitchen sinks such as the Cygnet BS-800 Horizon. With this arrangement, there is only one drain so it gets the disposal.

Another consideration is the placement of the Dishwasher. There are some who believe the disposal should be placed in the sink closest to the dishwasher to reduce the amount of plumbing. However, in counterpoint to this arrangement, it might be marginally more efficient to scrape the plate then rinse in the other sink, then place it in the dishwasher. The most efficient layout it this case is to place the disposal in the sinks away from the disposal.