Your garbage disposal is in place to grind up food particles that you wash down the drain. It makes cleaning up a breeze, but when it stops working, you're left with an appliance that you can't do anything with. If your garbage disposal stops working, there may be a few reasons why. Read on for repair tips to get your appliance working properly.
Sharpen the Blades
If the food isn't being ground down enough, it will cause the disposal to clog instead. If this happens, it may have been because the blades aren't sharp enough. To help sharpen the blades and to keep them sharp, you can run the disposal with pieces of ice. The ice helps to sharpen the blades and it can be done once per month to keep the blades sharp so they don't get dull with time.
Clear a Clog
If the disposal is clogged, it isn't going to work until you remove the clog. Remove the clog by turning the appliance off and making sure there is no power to the unit. Then either put your hand into the disposal to remove whatever is lodged inside, or you will have to get into the appliance itself underneath your sink and open it up to get into it and remove the clog. Once the clog is removed, turn the power back on to the appliance and check to see if it's working properly. If the clog was further down the drain, you'll need to snake the drain.
Check for Power
When you turn on your garbage disposal and you don't have any power, or you don't hear any type of noises coming from the appliance, you may not have any power to it at all. If you hear a humming noise, the motor may be stuck, or there is a clog, but no noise at all means no power either. Check to see if the outlet the appliance is plugged into has power, and if it does, check that the plug to the appliance power. If nothing is coming from the appliance, there may be an issue with the motor. You can take apart the motor and inspect it yourself if you have some knowledge about motors and are handy, but if not, leave this to the pros.
If your garbage disposal stops working, you're left with a broken appliance. Hire companies like D-3/A-OK Appliance Service Inc. to help repair this appliance to get it working again.
