trouble in darlaville

Well, there was trouble, but it's taken care of now.

Sunday evening, I noticed my garbage disposer wasn't working...just humming - and not a pretty tune!  I tried the reset button, but still just a hum.

It's an older disposal. The workers who did my kitchen remodel (eight years ago) were reluctant to hook it back up even then , telling me that the uninstall and reinstall would usually make it quit working.  But it did work. All together, I think it's probably at least 13 years old.

 After looking things over I figured I could replace it myself - instead of calling a plumber.

It's probably not something I would have attempted except for the fact that my drain and trap are all held together with screw on plastic nuts/connectors. They allow the pipes to be disassembled without using hacksaws and replacing the parts.

So, you just take the dishwasher drain hose off...then unscrew the drain pipe and trap and remove it.

Twist the disposer and it comes right off.

Make sure the breaker is off and check wiring with an electrical tester.  Then disconnect the old disposer wires.

Take the nasty old thing and pitch it in the trash!

Not many parts in the new disposer box! I will take that as a good sign!

Here's a step that's important not to forget. The new disposer has a plastic piece covering the drain hole for the dishwasher - in case someone wants to use it without hooking to a dishwasher.

That plastic piece has to be punched out and removed or all that water will back up into your dishwasher.

It pays to read the directions! 

Oops...someone didn't follow her own advice. I had the wires all connected when I realized this little round thingy (below) was supposed to be screwed into that round hole to the left of my thumbnail...before the wires were pushed through.  So there was a do-over for that step.

Everything else went together smoothly.

Nnngggnnngggggg.   Hear that? It works! Yippee!

I meant to order the disposer from Amazon early in the week, but I totally forgot about it for days. By then, I figured I'd better go ahead and get one at Lowes.

It was $13 higher there. I asked about price matching...but they only do that with actual sale ads...no internet price matching. 

Still saved a bundle by not hiring a plumber!