Garbage Disposal Repair
 

When I turn on the garbage disposal it sounds like the motor is trying to work (barely), but it is not spinning the blade at all. I've cleared out everything in the sink, and tried spinning the blade around to see if it needed to loosen up, but that did not help any.

What should my next trouble shooting step be?

If the blade spins freely, and there are no obstructions in the sink. Sounds like it's time to pull it out where you can get to it easily and figure out what is wrong. If it is the motor, might be time for a new garbage disposal.

Re: Garbage Disposal Repair
 

WAIT! Before you pull the whole thing out... did you try the reset button on the bottom of the disposer? Most models have one... Belive me! I know first-hand.

Yeah, fiddled with the blade some more. And pressed the reset button, didn't work right away, but tried it 10 minutes later and it worked. Thanks for the help.

Glad it worked. For future reference, most disposals have a little hole on the bottom for a torx head wrench(wrong name I'm sure). Stick the wrench in there and turn it back and forth and around a few times. It will free up anything that is stuck in those places you can't reach. My old one used to get stuck and act like yours did all the time. So I got a stronger model. More power!!

Re: Garbage disposal repair
 

First thing you want to notice is if you turn the switch on, if you hear any noise at all. If you hear humming, but not turning, then you need to use your little wrench to go right up under the center of the garbage disposal and turn this a few times this way to loosen up whatever has jammed the garbage disposal unit on the inside. These come with every garbage disposal unit. If you don't have one, you can pick one up at the home center and it's for a couple of bucks and it will save you a lot of money. But you want to make sure that you have the switch off when you do all this because you don't want to dislodge it and have it suddenly start turning.

So once you've done that and you've loosened up some, turn the switch. If it still doesn't work- if you don't hear any humming at all, then you probably need to hit the reset button, which on every garbage disposal is at the very center. It's a very small red button. All you need to do is press it and that will reset the unit so that it will work.

Most often what has gotten lodged in the garbage disposal is a lot of starchy material like rice- you don't want to put a whole pot of rice down the garbage disposal. Also, anything really hard like broccoli stems or celery- the strings in the celery will tie up the unit and you don't want that.

You may want to remove the color around the opening around the opening of the drain, and reach in there with the power off and have to remove some of the material because the garbage disposal is simply not equipped to handle a large amount of starchy material.

Garbage disposal repair video

Hey, this is all great stuff to know!! Thanks!

Most times, sticking a broom handle into the unit with the power off and using the end of the broom handle to spin the unit around both directions, wioll dislodge anything that is caught. Press the reset button, and turn it on. Also make sure you use cold water while it is running as this will help cool the unit, and make it last longer.

Gr8 Info
 

Thanks for all of the great info. I prefer to DIY because it's cheaper and contractors are not alays reliable. Check out this great How To site with plenty of articles on how to do just about anything.

Is there some reason why a three year old thread was resurrected? :clueless smiley:

i can tell you this first hand...
courtesy of my daughter... DO NOT put banana peels in the growler!!!

and never ever try to free the drum with the power plugged in!!!

Wasn't there a "revival" of Rocky lately? I think there was, so I think it woke erockybalboa up and he had to post about the "garbage disturber" ...my grandma called it that.