Food Waste Disposal Repair Section

Always remember Electricity is dangerous and should be treated with respect.

Please pick a topic by Make and or problem...hope you find this helpful :-)

  1. A great link for, how can I install my own food waste disposal
  2. Disposal Tips and Common Problems
  3. Food waste disposal seems to be dead or jammed
  4. I just installed my disposal and now my dishwasher will not drain
  5. Important disclaimer
  6. KitchenAid Garbage Disposer Disassembly
  7. My food waste disposal smells....HELP!
  8. Some foods that could make your disposal not work properly
  9. Parts for Garbage Disposal/Food Waste Disposal

My food waste disposal smells....HELP!

For common every day food odours from a disposal, try....to make your disposal smell better & to clean the blades, put in some ice cubes with either bleach, or lemon, lime or orange peels. Then grind for 30 seconds. Smells great!

OR:

For really bad problems, try Affresh disposal cleaner from Whirlpool or Disposal Care cleaner from GE. Scrubs away food, grease and odours. Safe for septic tanks and drain pipes.

Food waste disposal:

This is often called a garberator, it is really not for garbage but is more for food waste control. Sometimes the disposal unit can all of a sudden quit - dead. Check turn on switch ( if yours has one ) make sure the house fuse did not open circuit. A common problem is if something got stuck or momentarily jammed the unit the safety breaker on the bottom of the unit may have tripped. Find the safety breaker on the bottom of the unit, push on the red button to reset the switch. If something hard like a small bone or something similar gets jammed in the cutting teeth, I disconnect the power, locate the bolt inside the food waste disposal. I use a couple of long socket extensions, with a socket and wrench....with the socket on the bolt in the middle, slowly turn it to help UN-jam the cutting teeth and plate. Reinstall the power and try the unit.

Many disposals have an Allen key bolt on the underneath part, in the middle. An Allen wrench, like this one, can be used to turn the unit manually to help un-jam what is caught inside. Reinstall power and try the unit.


Some foods that could make your disposal not work properly

Stringy things like corn husks, celery stalks, tea bag strings have a tenancy to "windup" around the beaters in the disposal and can stop them from working.

I just installed my disposal and now my dishwasher will not drain

New disposals have a "plug" in the connection stub for the dishwasher drain hose. This plug MUST be removed or the dishwasher will not be able to drain into the disposal.

Remove plug from connection stub of new garbage disposals

Food Waste/Garbage Disposer Repair & Maintenance Parts


Related Links:

  1. Waste King L-1001 Garbage Disposal with Power Cord, 1/2 HP
  2. InSinkErator Garbage Disposal with Cord, Badger 1, 1/3 HP Continuous Feed
  3. Waste King Legend Series 1 HP Continuous Feed Garbage Disposal with Power Cord
  4. InSinkErator Garbage Disposal, Badger 5XP, 3/4 HP Continuous Feed