Learning how to unjam your own garbage disposal will save you money and hopefully keep you from having to call a plumber. Plumbing repairs for a garbage disposal can cost over $100. It’s also something that isn’t very hard to do.
One call we hate getting is when people say, “My garbage disposal is jammed.” There are things you can do to determine if you need a new garbage disposal or not.
This blog explains a few things you can do yourself if there’s a problem with your garbage disposal. You can also learn more by watching this video:
The first thing you can do is turn on the power. When you have the power on, check to see if you can hear it humming.
If you hear humming while the power is on, there’s nothing wrong with it. There’s something jammed on the inside.
There’s a tool you can use that’ll save you money by not having to call a plumber out to your house. Watch how to use the tool in this video:
If you look on the bottom of the garbage disposal, there’s a small hole for the self service wrench tool. All you have to do is plug it in and turn it back and forth.
At first you might think the wrench isn’t going to move. All you have to do is keep pushing it and eventually it will move.
Once you get the tool to move, it spins the bottom of the inside around where you can see the gears and cogs which slide out. There are no sharp blades.
That’s the false thing about a garbage disposal, everyone thinks there’s sharp blades in there. It spins around and forces the food to the outside where it grinds up whatever is in there. Then it makes it rinse out down the drain.
This little tool can save you a lot of money. Another thing we tell people is there is a red reset button on the bottom.
If the garbage disposal is clogged up and you keep running it trying to get it to stop, eventually the reset button will stop working. So, if your garbage disposal is humming and making noise or making no noise at all you may be able to take care of it by doing one of those two things.