I have a garbage disposal that just hums when activated. I turned the blades with an allen wrench (from the bottom), but it doesn’t make a difference. How can I fix this?
(Seems to me this has happened before, and maybe pouring a bucket of soapy water down the drain has helped free whatever is jammed?)
If you moved the blades it’s not jammed. Were the blades difficult to turn?
If you moved the blades with the allen wrench, and they turn easily, then you probably need to reset the circuit breaker… not the one in your breaker box…the one on the bottom of the disposal.
If it hums, it is energized.
Yeah, could be a bad start capacitor (if it has one) or possibly bad brushes.
Yes, it turns easily. Do you think there is damage to the motor?
Generally when an electric motor is bad it won’t turn easily. Not sure if that’s the case with a garbage disposal…my experience lies with more industrialized applications, like three phase motors.
For others who occasionally have stuck disposal:
I don’t use mine, with the potential result that it could seize up just from accumulation of mineral deposits over time. To prevent this, I run it for a few seconds once a week.
Except when I don’t. I’ve occasionally forgotten for long enough, to have it freeze like this. To solve this, I run hot water over it for a while (with the power off), then turn the switch on. This has always worked for me.
Note, this clearly seems NOT to be the OP’s situation though. I mention it here for the benefit of anyone else who might find it helpful.
Ditto to this. I had one that was on the fritz a lot and had to hit the reset button occassionally (it would hum but not spin). It’s a 2 second operation once you know where the button is, so it doesn’t really cost you anything to try.