It's cold spaghetti from now on

Okay, this blows my mind. Back in October, as part of our renovation, we installed a new kitchen sink. As part of that, we of course had to buy a couple of those rings that go in the hole of the kitchen sink, which for some reason are referred to as "strainers" even though they don't strain anything. The ring that goes in the left side of the sink connects to the disposer and holds the disposer to the sink.

Last night, that ring failed, causing a leak in the sink. This ring had a white lacquer finish to it to match the color of the sink, and the lacquer had chipped off like old paint, exposing the metal beneath it. The metal separated from the sink.

Home Depot recommended I contact Watts, the manufacturer, about it. The nice customer service representative asked me a few questions, one of them being, "did you pour boiling water down the sink?"

I of course said, "yes. It's a kitchen sink. How else am I going to drain my spaghetti? "

"Oh, you shouldn't have done that. these things are only rated up to 80 degrees. They aren't like the ones made in the old days, made of cast iron." You should always let the water cool before pouring down the sink. These days even the PVC pipes your sink drains into aren't rated for boiling water.

You've got to be freaking kidding me! I can't pour boiling water down my kitchen sink????

So, the guy is sending me a replacement, which I plan on using as my return to Home Depot. But first, I'm going to look in the instructions to see if it happens to mention this. If not, I'll be calling them back looking for restitution for my bill to the plumber tonight.

I then decided to do two things. First, I called the manufacturer of my sink (which is acrylic, like a shower). They said pouring boiling water down it is no problem. Then, I googled "don't pour boiling water down your kitchen sink" and found a long list of sites listing plumbing hints and tips, all of which suggested pouring boiling water down your kitchen sink to help unclog drains.

Again. You've got to be freaking kidding me.