Wife denies all. Claims total innocence. (Must have been the dog)
GD just hummed when switched on. Locked up. Stuck hand in and pulled out some fibrous material. Looked like hemp rope. Turned with hex tool from bottom of unit. Could hardly turn it. Finally, after manually turning it many times, it loosed up enough for it to run.
Turned it off. Turned it on again. Same thing. Wouldn’t run. Went thru same process two or three times. The last time I let it run a long time and put a bunch of ice cubes down it. Turned it off. Still have problem.
It appears to have this fibrous material has gotten under the cutter wheel and/or wrapped around the shaft.
Is there any kind of cleaner safe to use in a GD that might dissolve what ever it is that is binding it. Anyone have any ideas. Could really use some help here. Thanks
Replies
is it celery?
hmmmmm...................bad memories..................
I don't really don't know. I can't tell. It is both light and dark strands. It seems a little course to be celery. It could have been it there a while and is just now doing it's dirty work.
My wife now thinks that she could have put the wrappings from some tamales (corn husk) in it, but not recently. If so, it could have taken this long for them to work there way in under the grinder plate. It does appear to be vegetable what ever it is.
I've gotten to dam old the crawl in and out from under a sink to change it out. You know it's a, "I'm down and can't get up thing. That's why I would like to solve the problem from the top side if possible.
i think your up for a 80.00 gd from lowes.
all i would know is get it turning and keep water going through it,for maybe a 1/2 hour and see what happens.good time to clean out the ice trays and all the 3 week leftovers.
and make the dog stay outside tonite for punishment for running his chew toy down the gd.
YOU ONLY NEED TWO TOOLS IN LIFE - WD-40 AND DUCT TAPE. IF IT DOESN'T
MOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE WD-40. IF IT SHOULDN'T MOVE AND DOES, USE THE
DUCT TAPE.
That brings up a bit of weirdness. My BIL just built a house, and he mentioned how the kitchen supplier was actively trying to talk him out of buying a GD larger than 3/4HP. Seemed silly to both of us, it's not like they are making less money. As far as we are concerned, a garbage disposal should be able to grind up a human body if need be! Not that I'd ever need to do that again.
The other day I was looking at faucets at a kitchen supplier - again, a salesperson saying "You don't need anything larger than 3/4HP"
What's the deal?
Tu stultus esRebuilding my home in Cypress, CAAlso a CRX fanatic!
Look, just send me to my drawer. This whole talking-to-you thing is like double punishment.
Not that I'd ever need to do that again.
Good one! I didn't just LOL, I literally LOL'ed.
It's the " heh, you can never tell, I might need it some day", syndrome. Like, if we didn't need it and it wasn't better why did they make/build it in the first place. We Americans tend to feel that if it is bigger it's better. Look at our autos we (at least most of us) drive. The houses we live in. Shoot, it's the American way.
And if as you say you are not going to be grinding up anymore human bodies, you really don't need anything bigger than 3/4 hp. That would be OVERKILL. He He he.
Seriously, I think that the sales folks were trying to be honest and helpful. I had rather put extra bucks into noise reduction. That was the advice a friend of mine that owns a builder appliance store gave me.
Oh, and by the way. For anyone else reading this, I got my problem solved. After getting running, I let it run for about 15 min. with full water flow. It seem ok now. We'll see. Thanks all.
Helpful is one thing, but with my BIL they were just about obstructionist!
I hear what you are saying about noise reduction. For me, my main concern was all SS construction inside. I actually watched a hammer eject from a disposal and come within inches of hitting my wife in the face. The inside had corroded metal and the hammer broke loose.
Tu stultus esRebuilding my home in Cypress, CAAlso a CRX fanatic!
Look, just send me to my drawer. This whole talking-to-you thing is like double punishment.
If it's really hemp you could try straight lye or a drain opener solution. If it's poly rope though you're stuck (bad pun, I know)...
Scott.
Edited 6/17/2009 11:54 pm by Scott
If it's dark and light like you say, it could be corn silk. Had any corn on the cob just before this started? Did you used to have a black and white cat? Look the dog right in the face when you ask what happened to the cat; dogs don't lie very well. If he looks away and wags his tail down instead of up then you've got your answer.
Take some of the strand material to the crazy lab girl on the Navy CSI show. She'll tell you what your dealing with.
I need to get more sleep and leave you alone.
I've installed disposers but never had to repair one. Can't you take it out and dismantle it?
Send dog under sink, have him shut off the water to the sink.
Next have him disconnect the drain; then tell him to loosen the locking ring with the hex wrench, and let the disposer drop out into a bucket.
Give screwdriver to dog and have him disconnect the electrical wiring.
Tell dog to fetch the disposer up onto a handy work surface. Peer down into the grinder basket and see what wrench you will need to turn the nut in the center - have dog get the appropriate wrench. Send dog back under sink to fetch the hex wrench to hold the other end of the shaft while you turn the nut.........
Well, you get the idea - everything comes apart one way or another. Sounds like you have got some unknown fibrous material wrapped around the motor shaft and jammed between the grinder basket and the shaft seal seal --- it's origin is still unknown.
Google the make and model of GD, bet you find an exploded view in the parts list which will give you more info and hints as to disassembly.
Or, skip the disassembly routine with your dog -- jack the disposer up and put a new one under it.
I bet junkhound could have it running like new in under an hour.
Jim
junkhound could have it running like new in under an hour
Me mamma lives 1780 miles away, but always has sumtin' to fix when I visit.
Brother ran off with most tools (except for a few basics like small pipe wrenchs, hand tools etc) after Pop died, so rework there is sometimes a little problematic, and can never find any tools at brothers house (he has more shed areas than I do, and even more cluttered <G>).
Anyway, moms GD failed and created a horrible racket. Took about 10 minutes to pull and dissassemble it, most of that time was getting other stuff out from under the sink. DIL's GD 'failed once also, that was, as others have mentioned, due to a drain blockage of corn silk - big ball of it in the trap.
At Moms, one of the hammers had sheared off a rolled in pin, would have had to buy at least $50 worth of tools at HF (that would have disappeared to brothers house the next week) to repair, so did spring for an $80 Menard's replacement.
Thus, if OP has not already gotten it dis-assembled and fixed before asking here, maybe he does not have the mechanical tools or ambition to do so?
<G> From the original thread, if it is a SS GD and not on septic, blocking the output and pouring in a cup of MEK will dissolve away poly rope (and any abs pipe in the system if one lets it thru to the trap, which is a different problem?) <G>; straight OH will go beyond mercerizing and break down most organic cell fibers, H2SO4 will do an even faster job on organic fabrics as anyone who has spilled battery acid on jeans can tell you; a mix of hyrochloric and nitric acids will even dissolve that gold ring lost in the GD.
>>a mix of hyrochloric and nitric acids will even dissolve that gold ring lost in the GD. <<
Now that you mention it, I was wunnerin' how to solve that problem!
;^)
Jim
Never underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
Maybe you're just the guy who can tell me where I might get a can of that acid that will dissolve any known material? ;o)
> It appears to have this fibrous material has gotten under the cutter wheel and/or wrapped around the shaft.
Cat gut. That's why the dog is looking guilty.
(Depending on what the "fibrous material" is you may be able to "denature" it to make is fall apart. Try chlorine bleach, a drain cleaner containing some sort of peroxide, a lye-based drain cleaner. (Be sure to flush thoroughly between chemicals so that you don't mix them together.)
Deja Vu all over, again!! - lol
A few years SWMBO told me that the disposal wasn't working, so I went thru all of the standard fixes to no avail. Slightly pizzed (it had worked fine an hour earlier when I had used it), I grabbed some tools and took the sucker out so I could see WTF was going on.
The sucker was COMPLETELY CHOKED WITH FLOWER STEMS!!!
SWMBO had cut a bunch of flowers to make an arrangement for a party we were having and she just ran the stems down the disposal!
After I got it cleaned out and replaced, we had a little "come-to-Jesus" discussion about running fiberous stuff thru the disposal. It hasn't happened again. - lol
Edited 6/20/2009 11:23 pm by Dave45