So for the past week or so, we’ve been having problems with our kitchen plumbing:

• The garbage disposal stopped working
• The dishwasher’s dirty water overflows back into the main sink

I was pretty certain that the two symptoms were probably related, but had no idea how to fix it. I checked the breakers (at the electrical panel), swapped power outlets (to make sure it wasn’t a switching problem). The only thing I didn’t do was stick my hand in the garbage disposal unit, because I’ve seen too many horror films

I finally called Roto-Rooter. I was pretty amazed that they were able to respond immediately, and got to my house in less than an hour. Anyway, the 10 minute fix by Roto-Rooter cost me $249! So I figure I might as well save others that money by posting the “how-to” that I learnt.

Anyway, it turns out to be a really simple problem: apparently the garbage disposal units get stuck quite easily, which was causing the pipe to back up (so that when the dishwasher drained, it wasn’t able to get rid of the water quick enough).

The solution was even simpler:

• Right on the bottom of the unit is a little button (it’s like an “internal-breaker”) which you can push to reset the system. That’s why the unit wasn’t turning on.
• Similarly at the bottom is a hole that you can insert a large allen-key into. Once inserted, it will let you crank the flywheel to dislodge anything that is stuck. Make sure you crank it both ways. Keep cranking until everything is dislodged and the flywheel moves freely. That’s why the dishwasher water was back flowing into my sink.

Here’s a picture I found on the Internet…