Broken garbage disposal
I have a Kenmore garbage disposal that seems to be broken. When I turn on the switch it makes a humming sound. But I know what you are thinking and it is not jammed. I took an Allen wrench to the bottom and the blades move freely. I even went as far as sticking my hand down the drain and I could easily turn them, it’s just that they don’t turn on their own. Any idea what’s wrong? I searched the web and all that came up was the jammed blade fix.
Sounds like the motor’s start winding is shot - it just can’t develop the torque needed to start spinning. The solution is to replace the disposer - it’s not practical to do any repairs to those things other than unjam them with that allen wrench in the bottom (or a broomstick from above).
ETA: Happily, most Kenmore disposers use the nearly world-standard In-Sink-Erator or ISE mount. Once you get the drain pipe and dishwasher connection off, the flange at the top of the disposer unscrews with the help of the allen wrench, and the disposer pops off.
Motor seems to be toasted or a gear is stripped. i.e., Motor isn’t turning or it is turning but the drive between the motor and impellers is shot = get a new garbage disposal.
Fourth what the others said, though without all the useful information they’ve provided. We had much the same thing happen about a year ago (interestingly, about an hour after we booked an appointment for the plumber to come and install a new sink faucet… I think the disposal heard us making the phone call).
As we replaced the then-11-YO machine with a much more powerful one, we were perfectly happy with the result.