My food waste disposer stopped working over the weekend. At first, I could hear the motor trying to turn. Then that stopped working. At this point I thought I’d have to go out and buy a replacement. I thought a new quieter unit might be worth the cost anyway. But then, I figure it must have tripped some breaker. Sure enough, underneath the disposer is a little red button much like the reset button you see on power strips.
I pushed the red button in and the motor started trying to spin again, but still no luck. After a few seconds, the motor stopped, and the red button popped out again. Something’s definitely stuck inside. So I decided to take the disposer out from underneath the sink to inspect the inside. Yep, there’s a piece of hard plastic that was lodged between the grinders. Looks like it use to be a plastic spoon. A hard one of course. I took that out, put the disposer back under the sink, and it was working fine again!
So what’s this about plumber’s putty? Before this weekend, I never knew how to install or uninstall a food waste disposer. I did a search online, and it was actually pretty easy. It said all I need to do was turn the bracket holding the disposer up counter-clockwise and it’ll come right off. But then there was some play-doh like stuff above the brackets. Some of it was coming off as I was moving the braket around. My search said it was plumber’s putty. Off I went to Home Depot to get myself a little cup’s worth of that, just enough to seal the drain. But then I was wondering…why not silicone caulk? Why putty? Another search said it’s probably because plumbers have been using putty for a long time, and they simply didn’t see the need to switch. It’s worked all these years, so why change? But seeing how silicone probably works better than putty, I should have simply used silicone. Although it doesn’t sound as nice as putty.