Garbage disposals are one of the most convenient home appliances available and, when maintained in the right way, they are also the least troublesome. It grinds up all the food waste in your house safely, making sure that your house does not smell of decomposing food waste. However, lack of maintenance can sometimes cause problems with your disposal that need to be fixed right away. Fixing them is simple enough; all you need is the right knowledge to deal with them. Here are five common disposal problems that you can easily fix.
1. Jamming in the disposal
One of the most common problems that can happen to disposals is that some external factor causes the blades to stop rotating. A jam can be caused by a number of reasons, and you will need to find out what that is. If there is any non-food item that has fallen into the disposal, like a metal object, the disposal blades will not be able to rotate because metal cannot be grinded by a disposal. You will have to carefully pick it out with a pair of needle nose pliers. Jamming can also happen if your disposal has not been cleaned for a while and there is food stuck in your disposal. For this, running cold or soapy water through the disposal will be of immense help.
2. Blades not rotating
If the blades of your disposal are not working in spite of the absence of a jam, you might want to check your unit for any other problems. Start by checking the flywheel in case you have noticed any leakages. Remove the flywheel and then clean out the debris that might have accumulated over the course of its use. Check your manual for any instructions on sharpening the blades. If there are no such instructions, buy sharper blades to prevent clogging in the future.
3. Clogging in the drain
Sometimes, the garbage disposal drain can clog up from usage, but again, this is not an end-all for your disposal. With a few easy steps, your disposal can be as good as new again. Start by disconnecting the drain trap and then remove it from the discharge drain. Doing this can let you see where the problem really is and fix it accordingly. If the clogs are in the trap, a good cleaning will fix your problem. If not, the problem might be in the pipe that connects to the wall; you might be able to remove clogs with water and pressure. The next option if even that does not work, is to get professional help from someone with experience in handling garbage disposal units.
4. Leakages in the drain
A leaking disposal can be caused by several reasons depending on the location of the leakage. A loose sink flange could cause leakages from the top. Drain lines leak if they are not connected right. A bottom leak means that your unit is broken entirely. Each one of these different scenarios has a separate solution. Most solutions are easy for DIY enthusiasts to work on, so do not lose heart!
5. No power in the disposal
If your disposal is not working at all, you need to lookout for any buzzing or humming sounds coming from your unit to check whether there really is no power in your unit or there is some other problem. Once you’re sure it’s a power problem, check the reset button (we all need one of these) to see if it is popped out. Press the reset button and check whether your disposal is working again. If it isn’t, you might need to check the circuit breaker and reset. Otherwise, you may have a problem with a switch, and you may wish to call and electrician to fix that problem.
These little tips can help you fix the common issues that happens to garbage disposal units every day. It seems like more and more people in the United States are proud owners of garbage disposal units in their kitchen sinks, and that means getting educated on the proper use of disposals is becoming important. Luckily, disposals are easy to use and fix.
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