Repairing a Broken Garbage Disposal

Though a broken garbage disposal may not seem to warrant an urgent plumbing service in Cleveland, it can still be frustrating. There are a few things that can constitute a broken disposal: it can fail to drain, fail to spin up, or simply start leaking. Either way, there are certain things that an individual can try before they calling professional services.

Disposals That Leak

A leaking disposal is often an issue with the pipes beneath the disposal rather than the disposal itself. In order to determine the source of the leak, an individual can place a bucket beneath the disposal and then run their water. They should be able to see an area where the water is coming from. Thoroughly drying the area and then applying caulking will usually be enough to address this issue.

Disposals That Don’t Turn On

A disposal that won't turn on is often one that has had its safety tripped somehow. Sometimes this can happen if an individual has put unusual items down the disposal. Most disposals have a small red button either on their side or at the very bottom. An individual can depress this switch to reset the disposal.

They should then turn the disposal on for just a few seconds to see whether it runs smoothly.If it does run smoothly, then the switch simply needed to be reset and everything should be fine. If there's a grinding noise or the disposal turns off again, there's likely something lodged in the device—a professional should be called in to remove it. If an individual truly wants to remove a block within their disposal, they should take the disposal out entirely in addition to unplugging it.

Disposals That Won’t Drain

Usually a disposal that will not drain can be fixed by removing the pipes beneath the disposal and emptying them. This problem is normally due to something being stuck within the pipes itself. A clog may also originate from an attached dishwasher, which often has pipes that lead to the disposal itself. Once an individual has cleared all the pipes and replaced them, they should run warm water down the disposal while turning it on.

When dealing with plumbing, it’s absolutely vital that nothing be put into the garbage disposal itself—even if the disposal is turned off or unplugged. Garbage disposals are exceptionally dangerous, and the blades can potentially cut a person even if they aren’t moving.