More than once something has gone down the
garbage disposal that shouldn't have. The scary thing is that people stick their hand down after that item without thinking, and that could end up with disastrous results. Unless you want to be one hand or body part less I suggest following these simple instructions.
First off, please make totally sure that the power to the garbage disposal is off. Sometimes people forget that the disposal is still on when they try to remove the cause of the jam, resulting in some serious bodily harm. You can try to remove the jam from above (inside the sink) by pressing the end of a short broomstick against one of the impellers and then jab in the other direction. After a few tries in each direction, the jam should come loose. Remove the debris with a long handled tongs or a long nose pliers.
You can remove the jam from the under side of the disposal by manually moving the motor shaft and flywheel so that you can dislodge the jam. Usually a 1/4 inch Allen wrench should do the trick. When the parts are moving freely, then you can remove the item(s) causing the jam.
Often times, you can reset the small red trip button on the bottom of the housing. If your disposal doesn't have one of these red buttons, try reseting the circuit breaker.
After the jam is safely removed, cover the opening of your garbage disposable with a rubber strainer when you aren't using it.
If you have any jam removal tips, please leave a comment.
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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)
Let me second the broomstick method. When I was younger and had just bought my first house, which belonged to my grandmother, we had frequent jams of the disposal. I would, foolishly, stick my hand down there and try to free it. Finally, it got so bad that we were going to buy a new one. Then one day my grandma was over and tried to use it. It was stuck, of course, so she grabbed a broom, jammed the end into the drain, and spun it free. She then told me that she had to do that every few years since she installed the disposal. I was pretty impressed. My wife was floored. Keep that broom handy!
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