Garbage Disposal Repair in Sacramento County

Most disposal failures announce themselves in one of a few ways. What you hear and where you find water usually points to the part that failed.

It hums but nothing turns

The motor is getting power and the flywheel is stuck. Something hard is wedged against the impellers, or the unit has been sitting unused long enough to seize.

It will not start and the reset keeps popping

The overload protection is doing its job. A reset button that pops again within a minute of being pushed means the motor is drawing more current than it should.

Water collects in the cabinet

Where the water appears matters. A drip at the top of the unit usually traces back to the sink flange or the splash guard. A drip from the bottom of the housing is a different problem and a more serious one.

A metallic rattle every time it runs

Something is loose inside the grinding chamber, or a mounting bolt has backed out. Running it in that state wears the impellers and the motor bearings.

A smell that comes back the next day

Food is trapped somewhere it cannot flush out, often under the splash guard or in a gap left by a worn seal.

If the sink drains slowly even when the disposal is empty, the problem is in the line and not in the unit.

A disposal has a small number of parts that fail. Some of them are replaceable without touching the motor, and we check those first, because when one of them is the problem the fix is quick.

Usually a repair

• Clearing a jam and freeing the flywheel
• Replacing a worn splash guard
• Resealing the sink flange and remounting the unit
• Replacing the dishwasher inlet connection
• Replacing a failed wall switch or a loose outlet connection
• Replacing mounting hardware that has corroded or backed out

Usually a replacement

• The motor is seized or burned out
• The housing is cracked
• Water is leaking from the bottom of the unit

That last one is worth explaining. A leak from the bottom of the housing means the internal seal between the motor and the grinding chamber has failed. That seal is not a serviceable part. When we find it, we will tell you the unit needs replacing rather than selling you a repair that will not hold.

In practice, most of the disposals we are called out for end up replaced rather than repaired. That is not because repair is difficult. It is because the parts that fail most often, the motor and the internal seal, cannot be serviced, and a unit old enough to fail there is usually old enough for a second failure to be close behind. If a new unit is the better value, we say so and quote both ways.

If you have already bought a replacement disposal, we install it. We check that the mounting assembly and the dishwasher connection match your sink setup, then fit the unit you supplied.

A disposal grinds soft waste into particles small enough to flush away. It is not a trash can, and the things that kill it are predictable.

• Grease and cooking oil, which cool and coat the chamber and the line
• Coffee grounds, which pack together instead of flushing
• Fibrous peels such as celery, artichoke, and corn husk, which wrap around the impellers
• Rice and pasta, which keep swelling after they go down
• Bones and fruit pits, which chip the impellers
• Anything that is not food

Two habits do more than anything else to extend the life of a unit. Run cold water before, during, and for about fifteen seconds after each use. Feed waste in gradually instead of loading the chamber and then switching it on.