Garbage disposer repair

Garbage disposers have been banned in some communities because it is believed that they complicate the sewage systems. But in most places, they continue to be essential and legal. For a time in the olden days, every new house or kitchen had one. Though it’s no longer true, garbage disposers are considered still a popular appliance. This is because they are a really useful tool, which comes to use almost daily. Garbage accumulates on a daily basis and disposal of the same has to be done daily.  Garbage disposer, also known as the food waste disposer, is normally placed under the sink in the kitchen. This helps in trapping the big food particles and churns them into bits and pieces and then passes them through the sewage system.

Garbage disposers were initially invented and used with the intention of reducing the garbage disposal in the public places on account of household waste. But technology has been evolving on a daily basis. There are newer evolutions in the field of science and technology now. So, even the modern day garbage disposers have undergone a change. There are now many high tech garbage disposers that effectively process organic solid food scraps into fertilizer products. These are also known as bio-solids. One can even get a garbage disposer unit that, with the help of advanced facilities also help in capturing methane for further energy production. It can thereby be said that, garbage disposers are eco friendly and nature centric.

Garbage disposers do their duty by centrifugal force. That’s where their core competence lies in. When you turn on a disposer, the motor turns a flywheel very rapidly about 1,700 revolutions per minute. This forces the garbage against the container and the whirling shredder, reducing it to particles small enough to be washed down the drain. So long as you use cold water, and don't put metal, wood, glass, or other hard materials into the device, it will work most of the time. Sometimes it can clog and restart only with a push from a broom handle or something similar. You push the flywheel in reverse of normal clockwise direction. Some deluxe models have an automatic reverse feature which doesn't require the broomstick when a clog occurs.

If you mistakenly used hot water, you can cause a clog deep in the drainage system. This is because the hot water liquefies grease, which then cools off and solidifies into a hardened mass as it proceeds through the sewage system. This hardened mass can cause a clog in the drainage system and pull down the whole system to a stop. Also, cold water helps cool the motor; whereas hot water can so raise the temperature that it can cause the motor to burn out. So beware of hot water and make sure you never use it again. You don’t want to ruin the garbage disposer motor, because replacing it can turn out to be a lot expensive than you can think.

Garbage disposers may develop leaks around the sink flange or the drain line. The drain line can clog. Sometimes you may grind up a spoon, which improves neither the spoon nor the grinder. If you catch it in time, you ruin only the spoon. Electrical problems can arise, but like any machine the disposer will wear out—motor, bearings, bushings, flywheel and grinder, gaskets, and other parts serve their time. In theory, it is possible to replace one or two defective parts, thus restoring operation perfectly. It doesn't always happen that way though; one or two parts break and if one of them is a key gasket, for example, it can ruin everything else.

Garbage disposers are powered by typical appliance motors which are either a third or half horsepower, depending on price. The more power, the more service you can expect. The more powerful units are usually found with more insulation (hence less noise), larger capacity for garbage, and some electrical refinements and features. Because the typical garbage disposer is under heavy load when it starts, the motor usually has a capacitor, a starting relay switch, and a starting winding as well. All these starting devices can cause trouble, but only the relay and capacitor can be replaced by you. So getting a garbage disposer repair man or keeping him handy is a good idea.

A switch box containing the relay switch, and the motor overload, will be found either on the side of the unit under the sink, or at the bottom, concealed by a plate with a fastener. Look for the power cable as a clue. Switches may be away from the sink on the wall, or they may be underneath the sink, or may be part of a switch assembly that is turned on when you turn a control handle in the sink. That switch may also be part of an automatic unit that turns on when the water is on at a certain flow rate. A trip lever device of some sort activates the switch of an automatic unit. An automatic unit may have a control handle in the sink over the top of the disposer. The simplest type is the unit that has a wall switch with no switch at the top of the disposer; you turn on the water and wall switch, and the motor turns on. It doesn't need the water to turn on, but don't run such a unit without the cold water.

To what extent are garbage disposers serviceable? Many people who sell them often claim that garbage disposer repair is more expensive than the unit is worth. This is undoubtedly the case if yours is a bottom line unit. Such devices are not worth repairing, since it is as difficult to fix them as to fix the best, and the chances of lasting service after a major repair are slight. Also, most repairs are "major" if you have to remove the unit. The labor involved is considerable; you have to remove the disposer from the sink at the top by unbolting the flange with its various supporting rings, and then you have to remove the drain system and the electrical connections. You combine plumbing with electrical skills and procedures. Also, you lose the use of the sink, temporarily.

Electrical testing and repairs can, in some cases, be done without such radical surgery, if all that is wrong is a defective relay or motor overload switch. These come out from the switchbox. If they are mounted on the motor, the entire unit will have to be removed to get at them. At that point, you have to decide how much work you are willing to invest. In troubleshooting a garbage disposer that doesn't work, look first at the red reset button, which is a circuit breaker to protect against motor overload. Then, if that doesn't work, remove the cover from the switchbox here the other switching components will be—for the most part. The main switch should be there; in many models it is operated by a trip lever from above, which can wear and lose enough metal so that it no longer pushes the switch far enough to turn it on. (The trip lever is moved by the control handle on the sink flange.) The relay switch, the reversing switch (if any), and possibly the capacitor, will also be found here. If your sink is arranged in a way to allow easy access to the switchbox, it is probable that any failure to turn on will be located here. But if you can't actually work on it in its installed position, the unit will have to come out.

In dealing with an electrical system whose proper functioning depends to some extent on an entirely different system and technology; it is always a problem to determine how far you are willing to go. With the disposer, you deal as much in plumbing as in electricity. If the disposer drain clogs, it is worthless and worse. If you decide to install a disposer in a sink not previously containing one, or decide to replace an early model with a more recent, deluxe model, you will face plumbing problems. Thus, you should not install a disposer that sends its ground waste through a grease trap. A grease trap in the disposer drain line will cause certain stoppage, unless you clean it out periodically. One sink in a twin-sink installation can have a grease trap. To install a disposer in a new situation, you will require at least a 12-inch-square by 19-inch-high space.

To remove a disposer requires that you first turn off the electrical system at the circuit breaker or fuse box. Disconnect the drain pipe and electrical leads—though it may be necessary to unbolt the disposer from the sink at the top simultaneously with its removal from the drain pipe. To unbolt the disposer will require a socket wrench and extension. Plumbing work requires different tools. But any jawed wrench that opens wide enough will do. Drain connections can be fairly fragile, so be careful with them. Also, you must always use some kind of plumbing gasket cement in replacing these joints.

In opening plumbing joints, two wrenches should be used — one to turn open the locking nut itself, the other to hold the pipe in place. If that pipe is a fragile aluminum drain, it may not be necessary or possible to use a second wrench on it, since the aluminum joint is usually a flared end that will come loose at the first turn of the retaining nut. The pipe out of the disposer is usually a soft, aluminum, curving joint which angles into the heavy drain pipe of the system. If you are removing the garbage disposer for service, it should only be necessary to open the joint at the disposer. But because the disposer is fairly heavy, when you unbolt it at the top sink flange, it is probable that you will disturb the drain joint at the heavy drain pipe. Just remember to use a lot of pipe compound when you replace these joints. Otherwise they will leak.

Some garbage disposers are so constructed that they come apart only with special tools, or they don't, come apart at all. In that case, repairs will be limited to electrical components in the switchbox, at the wall switch, and at the switch handle in the sink flange, and to the plumbing connections. If yours is that type, forget any major motor or other mechanical repairs by yourself. You would have to call up an appliance repair company that has experienced technicians who are certified to repair an electric appliance. Never take a chance with a local service man, because you want your electronic appliance repaired from the inside out and one which gives a long lasting durability. This can only be achieved, when you employ the services of a technician who knows his job well.

Mostly, garbage disposers can be serviced for motor faults. You can get a garbage disposer repair done for a nice little fee too, if the repairs are major. By far the most common problem is the jammed motor, caused by something sticking in the flywheel at the top. You can tell instantly if that is the case when you turn on the unit and it hums but doesn't move. If you use a broom or other stick on it, reversing its direction and forcing it around, then freeing it sufficiently to turn in a clockwise direction, and it still doesn't work, you probably have insufficient line voltage. That's an increasingly common problem in big cities and small ones too, during peak voltage use.

You could, of course, also have a basic motor problem — bearings, windings, shorted capacitor, etc. Since the disposer has its own private electrical line, a refusal to work even when it is not jammed by debris should not be attributed to the presence of another appliance on the line, drawing current away from it. But if that is the case—if someone has tapped into the line with another appliance, its presence should be obvious enough. Remove it or put it somewhere else. And make it a protocol that never to use two or three appliances together.

Motor repairs to a unit that allows them should only be undertaken on a top line model, or one that fits uniquely into a special situation and cannot be replaced by any other. This is apt to be almost a null class. If you indeed undertake garbage disposer repairs, you must first test out the motor. Check out its overload, capacitor, relay, and the motor itself. Overload, capacitor, and relay should be tested for continuity. Testing the motor must also involve testing for resistance, since a shorted winding will test as having continuity in some cases. You can, of course, always take the motor to a shop for both tests and repairs.

The largest class of malfunctions in a garbage disposer, obviously relates to drainage, including leaks; the next largest, as in any electrical appliance, relates to switches. Leaks are caused by water seals wearing out, by clogged drains, by aluminum or other drain pipes getting dislodged because of vibration. To free a clogged drain requires the usual plumbing "snake" or suction cup if the clog isn't too deeply rooted. Repairing a seal is possible at the flange by removing the flange, then installing a new gasket and new pipe compound. Repairing that may need an expert professional outlook, because one has to actually determine the root cause of the leak, where it originated from, etc. And that has to be fixed first. A layman can never make such estimations by himself.

To repair a seal in the interior of the disposer requires taking it off the sink and taking it apart. Inner seals and gaskets come in various shapes, sizes, and materials. Getting at them is something else, and if the leak has been allowed to get into the motor, it is probable that you will have more to replace than the gaskets and seals. To fix a leak at the disposer drain connection usually requires nothing more than opening the connection and repacking it with an appropriate pipe compound. This may sound easy but it is not at all easy to implement. You need to have a strong hand when opening and repacking the pipe compound.

A good garbage disposer with proper drainage should last 15 years minimum. This is not an exact estimate, but with regular and timely garbage disposer repairs, you would be able to fully recover the disposer’s worth that you had spent on it initially. You could always take the help of the many repair technicians available at All America smart appliance Repair Company. Just make a call and book your appointment today. Never delay solving a problem with your electronic appliance, no matter how big or small they seem to you. Bring in a professional technician for guidance.