What we actually find when a disposal hums, trips, leaks or smells
Disposal calls in Mukilteo and Everett are rarely about a worn-out disposal. Far more often the unit is jammed, tripped or blamed for a problem that belongs to the drain or the faucet beside it, and the visit ends with a working sink and no new parts. Here are the questions we hear most, answered the way we would at your sink. For installation, air switches and septic, see our garbage disposal page.
My garbage disposal hums but won’t spin. What’s wrong?
A hum with no grinding means the motor has power but the grinding plate is jammed, usually by a bone, a fruit pit or a utensil. Cut the power at the switch or the breaker, fit the hex key into the socket on the underside of the unit, and work it back and forth until the plate turns freely again.
Lift the object out with tongs, never fingers, then press the reset button before you restore power. In March, Makoa and Logan freed a jammed disposal in a Mukilteo kitchen exactly this way, and the visit cost the homeowner nothing beyond the trip.
Where is the reset button on a garbage disposal, and when should I press it?
The reset button is a small red or black button on the underside of the disposal, near where the cord enters, and it pops out when the motor overheats or overloads. Press it back in once the unit has cooled and any jam is cleared. If it trips again immediately, something is still binding the plate.
In August, Logan, Chase and Willie found exactly that at an Old Town Mukilteo house: a disposer that had quit entirely, and a reset button that brought it straight back.
Something metal fell into the disposal. Can it be saved?
Usually, yes, as long as you stop before you run it. Cut the power, shine a light into the chamber and lift the object out with tongs or long pliers, then turn the plate with the hex key to be sure nothing is caught beneath it before you switch the unit back on.
A utensil that has already taken a few seconds of grinding may have bent the swivel lugs, and a unit that rattles afterward is telling you so.
Why does the disposal back up into the other side of the sink?
When running the disposal pushes water up into the other sink basin, the clog is downstream of both, in the shared tee, the trap or the drain line in the wall. The disposal is doing its job and simply has nowhere to send the water. Clearing that drain, not the disposal, is the fix.
Kitchen lines usually block on grease that has cooled and set somewhere past the wall, well beyond anything you can reach from the cabinet, which makes it a drain cleaning call rather than a disposal call.
Why does my garbage disposal smell, and do ice or lemon peels fix it?
The smell comes from food film on the underside of the splash guard and the walls of the grind chamber, not from the motor. Ice cubes knock some of it loose and citrus peel masks it, but neither cleans the rubber guard. Lift the guard out if it is removable, scrub both sides, and run cold water longer after grinding.
Why does the disposal trip the breaker or go dead?
A disposal that trips its breaker or dies every few weeks is usually telling you the motor is failing, especially if it also runs hot or slows under load. Before you blame the motor, though, make sure water is not reaching the cord or the switch, because a wet connection trips a breaker just as reliably.
Is a jammed disposal worth fixing, or should I replace it?
Fix it when the problem is a jam, a tripped reset or a leak at a connection, because those are short visits with few or no parts. Replace it when the leak comes from the body of the unit or the motor trips repeatedly, because neither can be repaired for less than a new disposal costs.
In July, Willie and Chase replaced a body-leaking unit in a south Everett kitchen and dump-tested the new one six times, with and without the motor running.
What should never go down a garbage disposal?
Grease, fibrous vegetables, coffee grounds, eggshells, pasta and rice, bones and fruit pits. Grease cools and sets in the drain line, fibers wrap the plate, grounds and shells settle in the trap, starches swell, and hard items jam the unit outright. A disposal handles small scraps rinsed off plates, not the compost bin.
When the Disposal Isn’t the Problem
Some of the best disposal calls end with the disposal untouched. Connor and Logan were called to an Everett auto dealership’s break room for a disposer that kept shorting out and a sink that would not drain. The faucet’s pull-out hose was spraying the disposer’s power cord every time the tap ran, and with the cord dried the unit ran perfectly; the backup was nothing more than a disposer that had been unplugged and left unused. The fix was a new faucet. When the symptoms point past the disposal, we follow them to the drain, the dishwasher hose or the faucet before we quote a new unit.
A disposal that hums, trips or leaks? Call the Mukilteo office and describe the sound it makes. Most of the time we can tell you whether it is a jam, a reset or a replacement before we arrive. Related: garbage disposal installation and repair · drain cleaning · faucet repair · plumbing in Mukilteo · plumbing in Everett