What to do with a clogged sink, garbage disposal not working and dishwasher flooding
Help! l have a dual kitchen sink with a garbage disposal. Recently the
garbage disposal stopped working and now the sink wo not drain on the
disposal side. The other side drains fine but the dishwasher will not
drain either! The garbage disposal wo not even turn on anymore. We stuck
our hands in there and pulled out broken glass (grrrr at whoever put
broken glass in my sink and let it go down the drain!). l really can not
afford a plumber and needless to say, l have no idea what to do and where to start. Is there a simple troubleshooting way to begin to figure out the problem that can be used by someone as clueless as me? By the way, l really do not know if l would be able to manage taking anything apart...maybe there is an easy way that someone can let me know about? Thanks in advance!
Here is the first thing you should try. Get a piece of wood
about 1 1/2'' wide & put it down ur disposal & try to work the disposal
head back & forth to break it free of the jamb caused by the glass. If you
get it to rotate, take the wood out & try running the disposal. Repeat this
until you no longer jamb the disposal. Hopefully this will clear ur
problem. If it doesn't, then to fix ur problem, ur going to have to take
ur garbage disposal off. This is not really as hard as it sounds, but you will also need to detach the drain pipe from the dish washer, & the sewer connection. Be sure to have a bucket to catch any water you have left in the sink/disposal & washer. When you have it apart, you can take the disposal to the trash can & empty as much glass out of it as possible. Snake ur drain line to be sure it is clear before you put things back together. Repeat the wood trick described above if necessary. If this fails, I'd call a plumber.
my mom just had this problem and i watched hubby fix it.if your
dish washer runs into the sink then what you need to do is.unscrew all the
pips make sure to put a bowl down..and the pipe that is in the wall you
need to take a plumbers snake or a not sure what its called but you hook
it up to the water hose and blow water threw your pips to clean them
out.this did the trick for moms pipes.her dishwasher and garbage disposal
didn't empty and the dishwasher would over flow.
The reason the dishwasher is flooding is because it drains into
the disposal.
If you have a wet/dry vac, you can use the nozzle to suck the debris out
of the disposal. If not, UNPLUG THE DISPOSAL underneath the sink, cover ur
hand with dish soap so it doesn't get stuck, reach in & CAREFULLY remove
any debris. More than likely, the disposal breaker has been tripped. This is a small red square button on the bottom that needs to be pushed in. If it still doesn't work, there is a hex drive (looks like a pentagon) on the very bottom of the disposal that needs to be turned to help remove any additional debris. Plumbers usually leave one somewhere under the sink. If there is not one, use a broom or plunger handle to turn the disposal from the TOP. Simply insert the handle, move it to the edge & try to turn the cutters. If you reach in the disposal with broken glass, please be careful. A hospital bill will be MUCH more than a plumber. Good Luck!
Kos is right,
I would only add that glass can be a real pain in a disposal.
One time I had a customer who had a basket with glass beads in it and a
couple got in the disposal and crunched up pretty good.
It may take a few tries to get all of it out.
You might have two problems. A plugged line & a broken garbage
disposal. Unplug the garbage disposal under the sink. Now make sure you
can freely move the teeth on the garbage disposal. It will not move if
something is jammed in there, removing the rubber thingy in the drain
helps to see better. I think on the disposal itself there is a re-set
button, you can press this & plug it back in & see what happens. It may
have burned up after being jammed, in which case you need a new one. Installing one isn't real difficult, but still a challenge. If the dishwasher won't drain & the garbage disposa side won't either you have a clog somewhere. Do you have a clean-out drain? it should be outside near the kitchen outside walls . It would be a 3 or 4 '': pipe with a cap on it & a square thing to put a wrench on it. Turn it counter clockwise & remove it. be aware that it may gush whatever is in there out. If the water is standing in there you need to put a snake down there & loosen up the clog. If this clean-out has nothing in it then ur clog is somewhere between the disposal, the dishwasher & the cleanout. You can also try & put the snake in the already draining side I hope this helps.
VERY EASY TO FIX
Pending on ur unit ( more then likely its a ISE disposal )
Under then unit in the middle there is a hole for a alan wrench (you
ahould have recived 1 with the unit)
1st Unplug unit
2nd insert alan wrench & turn back & forth (counter clock wise & so on)
this makes the motor & blades move to free the jam up. 3rd plug unit in & see if it works. 4th If unit seems to have no power under the unit there is a reset switch RED BUTTON push it in to reset the power. The reason ur water is stopped up is the unit is blocked up with glass & food & the dishwasher is hooked to the unit so it wont drain either. (( You can try this be carefull )) unplug unit!!!!!! get a flashlight & a wet/dry vac Look in unit & try to pull glass out with pliers or a long needel nose ply- then use vac to suck up food & small bits of glass. BUT if the glass is wedged between the blades & wall of the unit you will need to use a alan wrench (2bucks at local hardware store) If you have any problems e-mail me or add me to messenger And I would be glad to help you out. This would take me 5min to fix But I have been doing plumbing for yrs & yrs. But dont fear this is something you can do yourself also!! kos101.com E-Mail kos101 Mesenger
You don't need to trouble shoot this thing. You have a bad
disposal. You need to replace it, not fix it.
You have basically two choices.
You can get a new disposal. They don't cost that much & replacing them is
fairly straightforward. I would not try to fix the old one. Or you can simply replace the disposal with a straight pipe. Your dishwasher drains into the disposal. You will need to have a pipe that has an access for the dishwasher drain. Both are things that can be done by a halfway mechanically-minded homeowner. It sounds like ur disposal is toast. I would not bother trying to fix it, as a new one will probably be cheaper. You don't say if you have a husband or boyfriend, but anyone who can use simple tools & follow directions should be able to do this, even someone who describes herself as clueless.
Underneath the garbage disposal, there should be a hole for an
allen wrench to fit it. You may have one already because it should have
come with the disposal. If not, you can buy a set at a local hardware
store. The allen wrench should fit nicely into the hole, once you do that
turn it manually. Remove the allen wrench & then try the disposal like you
normally would.
Sounds like you have a clog in the disposal. My dishwasher dispenses through the disposal. I imagine you might be set up the same.
I,m not a plumber I,m an auto mechanic by trade but I would
have to think that you have a clog on the side of the sink with the
disposal. Remove the drain pipe on that side if you can and clean out
whatever is obstructing it probably the broken glass and whatever has
lodged around it. Or maybe just lower the disposal unit and look inside
there and see if you can clean it out that way. Someones gonna come along
that knows a lot more about this than me so good luck.
Go to Diy.com they can give you some suggestions on trouble
shooting and maybe clearing your clog.
Call a plumber right now.
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