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A Jammed Garbage Disposal, and What Not to Do About It

Most jams are recoverable. The damage usually comes from how they are tackled rather than from the jam itself.

The quick answer

A jam is cleared from beneath, power off, with the hex key that fits the socket in the base. Two things turn a jam into a larger repair: running the motor repeatedly against it, and reaching into the chamber instead of working from below.

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The safe sequence

Cut the power first. Switch the disposal off at the wall and at the breaker before anything goes into the chamber, and never put a hand in it. Use tongs or pliers.

Power off at the switch and the breaker. Look into the chamber with a flashlight. Remove what you can see with tongs or pliers. Free the flywheel with the hex key from underneath. Press the reset. Restore power and test with cold water running.

What turns a jam into a repair

Two things, mostly. Running the motor repeatedly while it is stuck, which burns it out. And chemical drain cleaner, which does not shift a mechanical jam, sits in the chamber, and attacks the seals and the metal while it waits.

A disposal jam is mechanical. Nothing poured in will turn the flywheel.

If it will not free

An obstruction that will not move with the hex key is either metal wedged hard against the ring or a flywheel that has corroded onto its shaft. Both are worth a contractor rather than more force, because the next step after force is usually a broken mount.

After it is running again

Run cold water for a good while. A jam that has been sitting has usually pushed partly ground waste into the trap below, and that is the blockage people meet a day later.

Pushed the reset button already?Then it is worth a contractor rather than another ten minutes with a hex key. Tell us what it is doing — silent, humming, leaking or smelling — and we will route you. Free to you, always. Disposals are not the limit of what we take.

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