Hi! I need a referral on a trusted repairman who can fix my garbage disposal. It's a Sears Kenmore brand but I'm sure the warranty has long passed. This home was built in 1980, not sure if/when a new disposal was put in. It looks older. I guess I need to know if I need to repair this one or just buy a new one from Sears and have it installed. Have you had this happen in your home yet? What did you do?
Thanks!
A., just checking to make sure you tried the button, usually red, on side or bottom of the disposal? This usually works but not everyone knows about button. Good luck
Okay, this may scare you to death, but it is really easy to replace it yourself. You can buy one from Sears either online or go to the store. Its about $90. Believe me, I did it a few years ago and I was terrified, but it turned out to be really easy. The instructions are for easy for even us "Soft Paws" (thats what I call myself, because I'm not really "handy"). Go for it!
Our home was built in 1990, and replacing the disposal was one of the very first repairs we had to make when we bought it (2004).
We bought a replacement disposal at Lowe's. After pricing plumbers, my husband and I installed it ourselves because we were cash poor after buying our house. It was not too tough, but if I'd had the money, I would have gladly paid for someone else to do it. Lowe's or Home Depot can refer you to someone who can install the disposal for you. I have found that the installation services offered through Lowe's or Home Depot are usually less expensive than calling an independent plumber.
Depending on what model you get (horsepower and years warranty) and who you hire to do the installation, the whole project could range from $60 (self install of basic model) to $300 (plumber install of fancier disposal).
Hope you find this information helpful!
This may sound like a no-brainer, but you may want to check under your sink to make sure the disposal didn't somehow get unplugged and check to see if yours has a reset button before you get a new one (It happened to us and we felt pretty dumb).
A. - You can buy a new one and install it yourself for way cheaper than repairing the old one.
A repair call will be approx. $75 - trip charge, time, etc. That doesn't include the cost of a new disposal / parts to repair old one.
After paying to fix ours twice in one year, we finally just replaced our disposal ourselves about 3 months ago. Bought a new one at Home Depot, took my husband about 15 minutes to figure out how / what to do, and about 30 minutes to install it. Wish we would have done that in the first place! It was way easier than we thought it would be.
Good luck -
S.
Hi A.:
before you go and hire a repair person, try home depot. The same thing just happened to us (what did people without disposals who had toddlers!!). My dad said you can go to Home Depot and there is actually a tool that will help you fix the disposal yourself. You might want to try that before you spend lots of $$ on a repair person.
A.,
Underneath your disposal is a small hole where you can insert an Allen Wrench and turn it. Your disposal will get stuck from time to time and thats usually all you need to do.
IF you cannot find an Allen Wrench, then you can always stick a broom stick in the disposal (from the top of the sink) and turn in clockwise and then try to turn it on. Sometimes that helps it to get unstuck.
Another thing to look at is that there is a button to push under the sink on the disposal that will reset it.
Hope this helps!
Go to Home Depot and buy one and install it yourself. It is easy and they are cheap. The repairman will cost you more than the disposal. It will come will directions in the box.
