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Fix broken kitchen sink disposal
- Thread starter Rgarner
- Start date
Humming sound = bad.
You can see it, but not reach it? Do you have any wooden chopsticks on hand? Or some other thing long enough to reach, and press, it?
Have it replaced [or do it yourself if you're so inclined]. In my experience, once a garbage disposal starts humming...it's all over.
Nope, not broken at all:
You just have to make the image's size small enough to be accepted.
You will find a hex sided inset at the very bottom of the motor running the disposal. You might even find the hex key that fits it somewhere under the sink. If not, you will want to find a hex key that fit that inset and turn the motor by hand. Your disposal is obviously hung up on something and the motor can't rotate. Turning it by hand a few times until it's free of the stalling culprit, you should be able to then turn on the disposal and it will run. Do not attempt to free the snagging agent while the disposal is on.
Ok, believe it or not, I got 3 sets of hex keys or else it's 2, depending on whether STARS count. I guess it was kind of a bargain, less than 8 bucks at Harbor Freight. I'm lucky they were open. I cleaned a bunch of gunk outta there and then tried the 2nd biggest metric. Actually it was the 3rd biggest 1st, but it didn't fit very well. The 2nd didn't do much. It's still humming. At least it's almost running clear now.
I would have guessed it to be a SAE hex key around a 1/4 inch. Twisting the motor back and forth should free whatever has it hung up. It will freely rotate once the offending article is cleared and the motor should then run on its own.
As noted, in my experience, once it's humming, its [useful] life is over. Neither time was there anything stuck in my garbage disposals; they had simply broken and needed replacing.
In the first case, my good friend and neighbor--who happened to be a contractor, and an amazing handyman--came over and put it through its paces. He completely removed it, made sure neither it nor the drain was clogged, tried turning it manually, the whole works--but it was dead. He said they usually don't last very long.
The second time (different house, different state, no good friend handyman to call for help), knowing unequivocally that nothing COULD be stuck in it, I simply bought a new one and had it installed. After it was out, the guy who installed it verified that it was dead, not stuck.
I hope you're lucky enough to just have something stuck. But if yours is actually dead, as I recall they're really not very expensive. If you can do the installation yourself, so much the better!
^ This! That's basically what my contractor/handyman/friend/neighbor said--and he had 40 years of experience in the field to back him up!
Trying to fix or repair something is never a waste of time. Sometimes there is success but gained knowledge is always achieved.
Yes, of course. I totally agree.
I also believe strongly that when we try something new, and fail at it, that's not a sign of defeat but, rather, the impetus to learn from it and try again, maybe with a completely different approach, or maybe better armed this time with knowledge to try the first way again. I can't tell you how much I learned about UNIX by trial and error! Lots of errors...but not one failure.
When it comes to garbage disposals, for me, at my point in life/circumstance, and knowing what I know about them now, when my current one starts humming, I'll buy a new one and pay someone to install it!
Hallelujah, it worked! The SAE 1/4" did the trick. It still sounds a little grindy but the water is flowing right through it. Now I just have to figure out the heater. It was really windy the other day and that might have somehow blown out the pilot light. It's in a sort of closet but I guess it has to have an exhaust vent or something that way. The trouble is that there's a front panel that's held on with nonscrews. It's a real pain to open.
I'm very happy to hear that you freed your stalled disposal. The furnace is not something to mess around with or second guess my friend. A number of things need to be working well to produce heat and be safe. Most importantly is that it is vented. Carbon monoxide is a bi-product of the burning action of the gas and it is odorless and is a killer. Most all modern forced air gas heaters will not run until a positive forced exhaust is running and they have a piezo striker ignition vs a pilot light. If your unit lacks these things it's likely older and should be checked by a professional. If it's just a matter of relighting the pilot light and it's off and running... do us the favor of buying a CO sensor to mount in the furnace closet. We don't want to lose you due to a faulty furnace.