Garbage Disposer - Loud Noise

[philip]

Hi Folks,

I recently bought a new In Sink Erator Badger 5 Garbage Disposer (.5 hp). I had a plumber install it, and an electrician hooked it up a few days ago. It works well, spins and grinds, but makes a very loud noise (almost like a jack hammer). I don't think its supposed to do that? Any sugesstions, perhaps the plumber forgot to tighten a few screws in it?

Thanks,
- Philip.

[leone184]

Disposal

The noise you are describing does sound way too loud. Most only make a "whirring" sound unless they are grinding something they are not supposed to. You may have a defective disposal, or there might be a loose screw or something that fell inside the unit during installation. There may even be some kind of shipping material that should have been removed before installing it. There is probably a customer service number in the directions or printed on the box. Call them, you can have them listen to the noise over the phone and tell you if it sounds normal. I have a feeling they won't think it does.

I hope this helps

[philip]

Thanks Leone.

The issue was due to the fact that the original plumber (who wasn't really a plumber as it turns out) punched out the hole (piece of plastic) for the dishwasher drain pipe, and never bothered to clear the debris out from inside the disposer. I had a professional plumber investigate and he discovered the issue. It cost more than the disposer itself :-(

Thanks,
- Phil.

[luvr29]

irst thing you want to notice is if you turn the switch on, if you hear any noise at all. If you hear humming, but not turning, then you need to use your little wrench to go right up under the center of the garbage disposal and turn this a few times this way to loosen up whatever has jammed the garbage disposal unit on the inside. These come with every garbage disposal unit. If you don't have one, you can pick one up at the home center and it's for a couple of bucks and it will save you a lot of money. But you want to make sure that you have the switch off when you do all this because you don't want to dislodge it and have it suddenly start turning.

So once you've done that and you've loosened up some, turn the switch. If it still doesn't work- if you don't hear any humming at all, then you probably need to hit the reset button, which on every garbage disposal is at the very center. It's a very small red button. All you need to do is press it and that will reset the unit so that it will work.

Most often what has gotten lodged in the garbage disposal is a lot of starchy material like rice- you don't want to put a whole pot of rice down the garbage disposal. Also, anything really hard like broccoli stems or celery- the strings in the celery will tie up the unit and you don't want that.

You may want to remove the color around the opening around the opening of the drain, and reach in there with the power off and have to remove some of the material because the garbage disposal is simply not equipped to handle a large amount of starchy material.

[casscarr2002]

This is an old thread but I believe I have the same issue above. The unit worked great until the builder (new house build) came back to do the dishwasher install attaching the unit to the garberator. It now sounds like a tank or better yet as the above poster mentioned like a jack hammer. I suspect the same thing happened and the garberator dishwasher hookup was punched through and ended up under the plate inside the unit.
Is this something maybe I can fix myself? I'm glad I found this thread as this seems to be yet another thing the builder has screwed up royally here, what a nightmare !

[HayZee518]

the plug everybody's speaking of is the round plastic piece that is in the bottom of the dishwasher connection pipe. no dishwasher leave the knockout there - dishwasher knock out the KO with a screwdriver and invert the diaposal until the platic piece comes out. what happened is the plastic piece wedges itself between the grinding chamber teeth and the grinder disk. eventually it will reduce itself, but there will always be plastic pieces under the grinding disk. your "plumber" should have known that in the first place. if I were you, I'd call him back and have him install a new disposal at HIS expense and/or take him to small claims court to explain his boo - boo, and demand a new disposal.