ORLANDO, Fla. – Tamara in Winter Springs asked us to look at her disposal.
It stopped one day and her husband was out of town, so we came to her rescue!
Turns out, it wasn’t broken, it was just clogged and needed to be cleaned and reset. Do this first before you call a plumber!
We purchased:
Nothing
We brought with us:
Needle-nose pliers
Flashlight
We recommend:
Rubber gloves
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Step 1
Turn off the power! Make sure your disposal is off. Then, if you can, unplug it. If you can’t, flip the breaker cutting off power.
Step 2
Look around inside the disposal. Look for a clog. A flashlight definitely helps here. Look for anything that shouldn’t be there – usually it’s food. There might be so much food piled up along the sides that the disposal couldn’t chop it up and then tripped its internal circuit breaker (more on that in Step 5) before it could overheat. Sometimes, a fork or bottle cap or something else metal might’ve fallen down into the disposal.
Step 3
Try and fish it out. This is where gloves come in handy. Use the needle-nose pliers to try and pull out whatever shouldn’t be in the disposal.
Step 4
Free the motor. Almost all disposals come with a large hex key (Allen wrench). Most of the time you’ll find it stored under your sink (that’s what that’s for!). Look for a hole underneath the disposal motor right in the center. Put the hex key into the hole and then twist the key right and left to see if the motor is stuck. Twisting the key should clear the clog and allow the motor to spin freely again.
Step 5
Reset the motor. The disposal circuit breaker reset button is also on the bottom of the motor. Reach your hand down there and feel for a button (it’s red and about the size of a finger). Push the button all the way in and that should reset the internal circuit breaker.
Step 6
Turn on the power, turn on the disposal and listen. If yout disposal spins easily like it did before it shut off, you’ve fixed the problem! If you’re still hearing a jingling sound, turn off the power again and look for whatever else is still left inside the disposal. Try and fish it out again. Then, turn the power back on again, turn on the disposal again, and listen again. If none of that works, then maybe it’s time to call a plumber.
If you have a project you’d like Erik to tackle, send us an email at GettingResultsAtHome@wkmg.com and next week Erik might just show up at your door!
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