Garbage disposal repair and replacement for Salem kitchens

A disposal is a motor under the sink that spins a flywheel with two swinging lugs. The lugs throw food against a stationary grind ring, and water carries the bits down the drain. There are no sharp blades, so most jams come from something hard wedged between the flywheel and the ring.

We see disposals that only need a jam cleared, and others rusted through at the bottom after years of service. Our plumbers can tell which is which in minutes. When a unit is past saving, we can install a new one on the same visit, sized to how your kitchen is used.

Humming, jams and the reset button

A hum with no grinding means the motor is getting power but the flywheel cannot turn. A fruit pit, bottle cap, bone or bit of glass is wedged against the grind ring. Leaving the switch on while it hums overheats the motor, and the thermal overload trips. That is the red reset button on the bottom of the unit.

Turn the switch off first. Most disposals have a hex socket in the center of the bottom, and a small hex key turned back and forth there frees the flywheel. Remove the object with tongs, never fingers, wait a few minutes for the motor to cool, press the reset button, and run cold water before switching it on.

• Switch off and unplug or turn off the breaker before working on it
• Rock the hex key in both directions until the flywheel turns freely
• Pull out the object with tongs or pliers, not your hand

Where disposal leaks start under the sink

Water in the cabinet can come from three spots. A leak at the top usually means the plumber's putty under the sink flange has dried out or the mounting ring has loosened. A leak at the side comes from the dishwasher inlet hose or the discharge tube gasket. A leak from the bottom means the unit itself is cracked inside.

The first two are repairs. We reseat the flange, replace gaskets and tighten the mount. A leak from the body or the reset button area cannot be fixed, because water has gotten past the internal seals and is reaching the motor. At that point the honest answer is a new disposal.

What a disposal should and should not grind

Disposals handle soft scraps and small food bits with plenty of cold water. They struggle with stringy and starchy waste. Celery, corn husks, potato peels and onion skins wrap around the flywheel or turn into paste. Coffee grounds and eggshells settle in the trap arm and the line beyond it like wet sand.

Grease is the bigger problem, because it passes through the disposal as liquid and hardens farther down the kitchen line. Many slow kitchen drains we clear in Salem trace back to years of grease and ground food packed into the horizontal pipe in the crawlspace. Scrape plates into the trash and run the disposal only for the leftovers.

• Run cold water before, during and for several seconds after grinding
• Feed scraps a handful at a time instead of all at once
• Keep fats, oils, coffee grounds and fibrous peels out of the disposal

Installing a new disposal the right way

A new disposal is sized for your kitchen. A light-duty motor works for occasional rinsing, while a family that cooks daily is better served by a stronger motor that jams less. We check that the unit fits under the sink with room for the trap and does not crowd the cabinet floor.

We set a fresh sink flange, connect the dishwasher inlet and knock out its plug, and rebuild the trap so the discharge drops cleanly into the trap arm. A disposal mounted too low forces water uphill and leaves standing water in the sink. We test with the dishwasher draining as well as the faucet running.