Garbage disposal woes

[Sabine]

Help clear up a disagreement between dh and I for me, will you please?

We just moved into a house we're renting, and this is our first time in a house instead of an apartment, so our first time taking care of a lot of things on our own instead of having a maintenance guy to do it.

We've been here 3 days, and I've already clogged the garbage disposal and we have a plumber coming tomorrow to fix it.

Dh thinks it's my fault, I think it was wonky when we got here.

Yesterday we tested it out and it sounded rough, like it was crunching ice cubes or something even though there was nothing in it.
After dinner, I rinsed our plates with a few food scraps on it, and it seemed ok, but still didn't sound great.

Today, I was cutting up strawberries and I threw all the tops in, plus one or two whole strawberries that were overripe (so very mushy). I went to turn it on, and it made a slight buzzing sound, but nothing happened. Then it stopped all together. We tried resetting it, and it will buzz for a bit, then stop.

Dh thinks putting a few whole strawberries in with all the tops was too much and it's my fault. I think a properly working disposal should be able to handle strawberry tops and a few whole berries.

Who's right?

 

[yssie]

I've put cinnamon sticks down ours (accidentally, but it's happened more than a few times) and it chomps away no problem, so either we have an unusually monstrous system or yours is a bit persnickety

 

[4ever]

It sounds like it was sick before you moved in, they can chomp through strawberries no problems.

We don't put onion peel, banana skins, bones, corn cobs or egg shells down there but almost every other food scarp is fine.

 

[Kaleigh]

It sounds to me that it needed some maintenence before you moved in. So not your fault. I hope it gets fixed quickly.

 

[mary poppins]

I just put a bunch of strawberry tops and two large, mushy strawberries in my disposal this afternoon and it worked fine. Based on the sounds you described your disposal making since you moved in, I think there was a problem before you even moved in.

 

[EugeneC]

Hello,
Try not switching it on too much when it seems "stuck". Besides resetting it, have you tried using an allen key to help it start moving? I've run into a similar problem myself a couple years ago, but the allen key did the trick for me.

Check out this link. I hope it helps you from a costly visit!

http://www.masterplumber.net/garbage_disposal_page.htm



Sincerely,
EugeneC

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Yea, it definitely sounds like it was sick before you used it. It should easily chomp ice cubes, so strawberries would not be a problem normally. I wouldn't mess with it myself, garbage disposals scare me a bit. They're electric, water is involved and they have sharp blades in them. Best leave it to a pro. Also, if you're renting a house your landlord should still be covering issues like this. Just because it's a house and not an apartment doesn't mean you're responsible for maintenance, etc unless specified in your lease agreement.

Also, don't put meat down it, ice cubes are great for cleaning it and lemons are good for deodorizing it.

 

[rhbgirl24]

I agree. Something is up with it. I've put strawberries down ours, celery, cucumber.... all chomps away just fine!

 

[laine]

Definitely try the allen key thing. That fixed ours a few times when it got stuck!

 

[Clairitek]

Strawberries should not be a problem at all. For us, potato peels normally clogs it up. All of the starch gets gummy I think and binds things up. Never strawberries though. I think you are right, here. Good luck getting it fixed.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

I agree w/ HH. The landlord should take care of this.

The same thing happened to us just a couple of months ago: garbage disposal sounded "rough" (at first I thought a piece of metal was down there), then it stopped altogether and we just got a hum. I called the landlord and the handyman came that afternoon and fixed it in 10 minutes. I think the motor had burnt out.

 

[Sabine]

Turns out there was a NAIL down there...definitely had to have happened before we moved in!

I hope the landlord will reimburse us for the plumber, especially since it was clearly the last tenant's fault, but I'm guessing we did not follow protocol in not bothering to contact her first. She's been a bit of a pain to deal with so far, so we didn't even want to try asking her to set up the plumber, but we'll at least ask about it!

 

[amyholder]

It sounds like it was sick before you moved in, they can chomp through strawberries no problems.

We don't put onion peel, banana skins, bones, corn cobs or egg shells down there but almost every other food scarp is fine.

Oops! I put egg shells down mine. You're not supposed to do that???