Broken Garbage Disposal?

Lisa,

There are four things you should try before calling a plumber.

1) Make sure the disposal is OFF. When you are sure, use a wooden dowel, spoon, fork - anything but your hand - to make sure the drain is clear of debris. If you find some debris, remove it. Try turning on your disposal once you have removed the wooden dowel, spoon, fork, etc.

2) Go under your sink and find the garbage disposal. Under the disposal there should be a little button. This little button is the RESET button. Go ahead and press that, let the unit sit for a moment, and then try your disposal.

3) While you're under the sink looking at the bottom of the disposal, you will see a small hole. Take an allen wrench that will fit in the hole and insert it. Once inserted you're going to turn the wrench until you can keep turning it somewhat easily. This is manually moving the piece that breaks up debris inside the disposal. Try turning on the disposal after you have removed the allen wrench.

4) Take a wooden dowel and stick it into the drain. Once you move it around you will be able to feel a mechanism that moves around. This is the piece that breaks up the material being disposed. Try to move it using the dowel to see if you can loosen up the arms. Try turning on the disposal after you have removed the wooden dowel.

The only thing to try short of removing the disposal is take the allen wrench that came with the disposal and insert it into the hole at the very bottom of the unit.Turn the wrench in a counterclock manner.This should free up the unit.If you have lost the wrench go to a hardwre store.They should help you get the correct size wrench.

Thank you for the posts! Got my disposal working again! Thank you!