How to Fix a Jammed Garbage Disposal

A garbage disposal is a godsend when it comes to cleaning up the kitchen. There are a few easy things you can do to keep it in good working order. First, before you turn it on you have to run some cold water and let it continue running until after you have finished grinding the food. You should always use cold water when you are going to grind up the food since hot water melts fat. Never overfill or grind objects like bones, metal, rubber, glass, or banana peals. If you want to clean it, you should never use bleach drain cleaners or chemicals into the disposal. You can use some warm soapy water, and finish it off with a lemon or other citrus fruit for a nice fresh smell.

What would you do if it broke unexpectedly? You can hire a handy man, but first you can do a few easy things to see if you can fix it yourself. The most common problem with disposals is they get jammed with objects that cannot be processed in the machine. You can see that the blades are not rotating when you flip the switch.

Now you should take a flashlight to the circuit breaker and turn off the circuit that belongs to your disposal. This will protect you while you are working on the disposal. When the power is turned off it will not be able to turn on and if your fingers were in there you really would not want that to happen. Now the disposal is attached underneath the kitchen sink drain, so you will need to open up the cabinets below the sink to expose the entire appliance. Check for any leaking if you need to remove all the objects from underneath your sink. If there is water you will need to clean it up before moving on. When you are wiping up the water, you will need to try to find the source of the leak. If it is below the disposal, you may need to replace the washers and pipes, and if it is above the disposal, you will need to replace the putty around the top of the drain to seal up the leak.

You will need to get a hex shaped wrench in order to repair a jam. You will want to look on the underside of the disposal for a hexagon shaped place to put the wrench. If you cannot find the place for the wrench then there might be a button you can press in on the side. Move the wrench from one side and then back to the other to unjam it. If that did not unjam the disposal then you can try to loosen the object away from the blade by using a long flat object and press against the blade. If you use it to move the blade you have fixed your disposal.