My garbage disposal is running but not draining.
Why is that?
Do the blades spin?
I think so.
How would I know without looking down into
a scene better suited to a horror movie?
If the garbage disposal makes that awful loud
grinding but not gurgling, it’s probably
clogged.
If it only hums, the motor is dead or the
blades are jammed.
It’s louder than a hum.
If the water is spinning in there or the sink
water is agitated, you know the blades are
going.
That means the drain is clogged, and that
the motor is running.
I know you shouldn’t put your fingers down
there to clear it if you want to keep them.
First, turn off the power to the disposal.
Then you need to clear the drain.
I think my mother used wooden spoons.
Dad considered the broom handle safer.
You can actually use a plunger to try to clear
it.
It feels weird using a toilet plunger in a
sink.
What’s stuck in the garbage disposal is
no worse than what’s stuck in the kitchen
sink.
Oh, and if you have a dual sink, you need
to plunge both sides.
What do I do next?
Run cold water through the sink to wash down
what you’ve tried to loosen up.
Then run the disposal.
I have a feeling that might not work.
Plunging should push the gunk back and forth,
breaking some of it up.
You may need to plunge it more while the water
runs to clear it all.
This sounds like a lot of work.
In the future, don’t put stuff like egg
shells, large chunks of food and grease down
the drain.
That's a lot of work.
Is it harder than unclogging a garbage disposal?