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Looking for help with clogged kitchen sink with disposal

purbeast0

purbeast0

No Lifer
Randomly today my wife was doing dishes and she went to use the disposal and water went down but then came right back up.

I messed with the disposal underr the sink and used the alan wrench and it turns fine. So the thing isn't actually jammed up.

I took off the disposal and looked at the plastic "J" pipe thing that goes from the disposal to the pipe in the wall and it was fine, nothing was stuck in it.

I am trying to plunge it right now to no luck at all.

When I let water sit it SLOWLY goes down, like REALLY slowly.

Any ideas? Is there something else inside the disposal that could be jammed up or something like that? Or is it most likely after the disposal?
 
NutBucket said:
So that implies the problem is further downstream. Pull the j-pipe and snake the sucker.
Click to expand...
I tried using my fish wire behind the j-pipe and it kept getting stuck. I took off this other pipe so I could get a direct line into it and I think it was just a 90 degree turn and the fish wire I have wasn't flexible enough.

If the stuff I put down it overnight didn't work I may grab one of those plumbing auger things at HD for like $35 and try it out.

And now my garbage disposal is leaking from the bottom so I don't know if I cracked it somehow pulling it on/off. It came with the house we bought in 2012 and I was reading they typically last 5-10 years so I guess it had a good run anyways.
 
NutBucket said:
I'd agree the disposal had a good run. Hopefully the $35 snake does the job.
Click to expand...
It didn't.

I got the $40 husky one at HD and the stupid ass lock button keeps popping off at some point that I'm hitting and turning it, assuming it is the block too.

So I'll be returning it and probably getting another one.
 
I'm guessing single sink?

If you turn the disposal on, it tends to also pump water down the drain. I know this because with a double sink it merely pumps the water from one side to the other. However, that has cleared mine up a couple of times.

I have double sinks, so I have to put the stopper in the other side and hold it down when I do this.
 
MtnMan said:
I'm guessing single sink?

If you turn the disposal on, it tends to also pump water down the drain. I know this because with a double sink it merely pumps the water from one side to the other. However, that has cleared mine up a couple of times.

I have double sinks, so I have to put the stopper in the other side and hold it down when I do this.
Click to expand...
Yeah single sink.

When I would put the disposal on it would suck the water down then it would come back up.

I installed a new disposal yesterday but it isn't powering on and I don't know why. I've reconnected the wires multiple times too and still no power. So I'm getting one of those voltage pens today when HD opens up so I can test out where the issue lies.
 
purbeast0 said:
Yeah single sink.

When I would put the disposal on it would suck the water down then it would come back up.

I installed a new disposal yesterday but it isn't powering on and I don't know why. I've reconnected the wires multiple times too and still no power. So I'm getting one of those voltage pens today when HD opens up so I can test out where the issue lies.
Click to expand...
The new disposal will fix the leak in the old one, but your drain line is still clogged.
 
purbeast0 said:
Yeah single sink.

When I would put the disposal on it would suck the water down then it would come back up.

I installed a new disposal yesterday but it isn't powering on and I don't know why. I've reconnected the wires multiple times too and still no power. So I'm getting one of those voltage pens today when HD opens up so I can test out where the issue lies.
Click to expand...

There are only three wires Black - Hot, White - Neutral and Bare Copper - Ground. It should be pretty simple to connect it.

Hard wired or plug in? If plugged in did the GFCI Outlet trip?

I assume you checked the circuit breaker in the panel. Did you check the circuit breaker built in to the garbage disposal?

1641056496001.png
 
So I got the disposal working. Pretty much PEBCAK on my part.

I got one of those klein voltage non contact tools and this morning checked the wire going into my disposal and it was not hot when the switch was on or off.

So I then went to the switch itself and took the wall plate off and tested the wires back there when it was on and off, and again, nothing was hot.

So I took another look at my electrical panel looking for any breaker that may have been tripped, and low and behold there is one alone by itself away from the kitchen one that was tripped. I looked at the label mapping and yep, it was labeled 'disposal'. So the disposal has it's own circuit and I had no clue.

Turns out that literally the last time I turned my old disposal on must have tripped it and it happen to trip it RIGHT as I was turning it off on the switch. Then after I did that, I went downstairs and turned the kitchen breaker, came upstairs and the disposal wasn't working so I assumed it was on that same breaker. But apparently not.

So disposal is working just fine now and it seems that water, while still backing up, is moving a bit faster so I'm going to try some more baking soda and boiling water and see if I can't break it down since that auger didn't work for me.
 
NutBucket said:
So that implies the problem is further downstream. Pull the j-pipe and snake the sucker.
Click to expand...
I had this problem on my apartment many months ago. Sink backed up, turned disposal on and it drained, but then came right back up when disposal got turned off. Maintenance person for my apartment complex had to break out the 50' drain auger to bust some clog further down the line.
 
OMG I hate when a seemingly 10 minute job turns into a week-long nightmare.........well....which is pretty much every time lol
 
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