(Pleasant music playing)
(record scratch) What?
(garbage disposal switch being turned on and off)
Oh, you gotta be kidding me!
What time is it?
That woman is NEVER going to let me live this down.
So, it's Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or some other kind of family holiday or event.
And everybody's coming over to your house for dinner, including a couple
of particularly judgy family members.
And just when you're ready to get your
kitchen cleaned up and then go get yourself cleaned up,
Your garbage disposal decides, "Ohhhh no. No, we're not gonna do that."
If it sounds like the motor's running but the blades aren't spinning, or it's not letting any water
through, then probably what's happened is the blades have gotten jammed in some way.
And the first thing you need to do is clear out any kind of debris that might be in there.
There are going to be a lot of people who are gonna say,
"You should should never stick your fingers down into the disposal," but here's the thing:
it really does kind of depend on your model and you need to use your own discretion on that.
Mine actually has blades along the outer edges, and it's
more like a cheese grater than actual blades. So I'm not too scared to stick my
fingers down there, but if you are, you can always use a set of tongs,
or get some real heavy-duty gloves or something like that to clear it out.
Once you've done that, you can take maybe a wooden spoon or something like that, and
jam it down in there, and see if you can get it turning,
and see if you can get loose whatever might be jamming it up.
If that doesn't work I got an awesome trick for you!
(happy music)
All right now, come with me, and you're gonna need some Allen wrenches.
And this is why it's important to have a nice set of tools already at your disposal in your house.
This is the underside of the disposal, and there should be some sort
of a hex bolt right there in the middle. You're gonna pop the right size Allen
wrench in there, and then twist it back and forth.
And what you're doing is you're manually twisting the blades on the inside.
And you might actually be able to feel the moment when something dislodges.
And then, come back up and take a look on the inside -- maybe use a flashlight -- and see if you can figure out
what was jamming it up and try to get it out of there. And of course just be
careful! Don't hurt yourself.
It's really easy for small items to get caught down in your disposal.
I learned about this trick because I had a paperclip stuck down in there.
And it's really easy for bobby pins, or twist ties, anything small.
A piece of wire maybe can get caught down in there and that can jam the whole thing up.
If it seems like it's not even turning on, it could be that the motor
has gone bad and you're screwed. But it could also be that there's just an issue
with power getting to the motor. Something interesting about my house is
I have this kitchen island with this power outlet, that's actually controlled
by this GFCI outlet over here. So if power is suddenly not getting to my
disposal or to this kitchen island, I have to go hit that red button on the GFCI outlet.
GFCI stands for "ground fault circuit interrupter" outlet, and those are
a safety measure, especially in places where things can get wet like kitchens
and bathrooms, to make sure that you don't get electrocuted.
It could also be something as simple as you've just tripped the circuit breaker, because
you've had too many things going in your kitchen all at once. In which case you
just go back to the circuit breaker panel, and just flip it back on.
Let's go back down there shall we?
Somewhere on your garbage disposal,
there should be a "Reset" button. On mine it's on the bottom right here.
You could try pressing that, maybe hold it down for a few seconds, to see if you
can reset the power on the motor.
I really hope this video helps y'all out there,
because getting a new garbage disposal is not my idea
a good Christmas present.
Does Santa even make garbage disposals? I don't know.
Those elves are pretty clever.
My husband did get me a Ninja blender once for my birthday.
But in his defense...
I wanted it to make daiquiris.