Scraped my knuckles raw trying to fix a garbage disposal that just needed a reset button

Last Saturday I was under my sink in Denver with a hex wrench trying to unjam the disposal after it made this horrible grinding sound. I spent like 45 minutes sticking my hand in there pulling out what I thought was a stuck bottle cap, cut my knuckles on the metal flange, and was about to call a plumber. Turns out my neighbor came over to borrow a drill and asked if I hit the little red button on the bottom. I felt like an idiot but also kind of mad that nobody tells you about that thing. I mean I have replaced three garbage disposals in houses I've owned and never once had some explain the overload reset. Has anyone else spent an afternoon fighting with something that had a simple fix hidden on it?

2 comments

2 Comments

jordan1843d ago

Honestly, did you try pushing the reset button? I spent three hours trying to fix a toaster once before realizing it was unplugged.

beth_mitchell3d ago

Right, but what if the reset button is just a bandaid fix? Half the time those resets don't actually solve the root problem, they just clear the error code and let it break again two days later. And that toaster story is exactly what I mean, you were lucky the fix was that dumb. I've spent way more time than that digging into settings only to find out the hardware itself is junk. Sometimes a three hour troubleshooting session just means the product is poorly designed, not that you're the one who missed something obvious.