How to Replace a Garbage Disposal

14 tips and tricks to avert leaks and mistakes.

Time

A full day

Complexity

Beginner

Cost

$101–250

Introduction

When you flip the switch to turn on the garbage disposal and all you go is a hum-or a loud, metal-on-metal grinding racket-you know something's wrong. Fortunately, replacing a disposal isn't hard, fifty-fifty if yous oasis't done much plumbing. Nosotros talked to veteran plumbers and collected their best tips for a smooth, trouble-free installation.

Tools Required

Materials Required

  • New garbage disposal
  • Plumber's putty
  • Silicone

Project stride-by-footstep (12)

Step 1

Know the inside of your garbage disposal

Effigy A: Figure it out start

When you purchase a new disposal, the box volition contain all the parts you need to install it. Before you leap into removing the sometime unit, have a few moments to familiarize yourself with all these parts. Put them together in the correct order and try out the locking machinery. Agreement how everything fits together ahead of time will brand the job a sure-fire.

Click hither to learn how to make clean a garbage disposal

Step 2

Make sure it's broken before starting garbage disposal installation

Replace a Garbage Disposal make sure it is broken

3 things to try before removing the garage disposal

A disposal that seems to exist dead might be revived with a unproblematic fix. Hither are three things to try:

  • Look for a jam. Something too tough to grind, such as a piece of glass, could be jamming the motor. Turn off the power and water, and then unplug the disposal. (If it's hardwired, turn off the breaker.) Remove the safety baffle inside the drain-most just lift out-and shine a flashlight into the pigsty. Fish out the obstruction with a pair of tongs or needle-olfactory organ pliers.
  • Turn the motor manually. You'll need a hex wrench. Some disposals come with one bent at a convenient angle, only if you lot don't have it, you lot tin can buy one at a hardware shop or use a standard Allen wrench. Rotate the wrench back and forth as shown above until the motor turns a total revolution, then remove the wrench and switch on the motor.
  • Press the reset button. If your motor has overheated by working too long, wait five minutes for information technology to cool down, and then push button the reset push (it's usually located on the underside of the disposal). The motor may likewise have overheated because of a jam. If the motor doesn't starting time after manually turning it, effort pushing the reset button.

Step 3

Disposal organisation anatomy

Replace a Garbage Disposal anatomy of the garbage disposal

How to install a garbage disposal and how it all works together

If you have a double sink, the best way to plumb a disposal is to run its discharge tube directly to a tee beneath the opposite sink. The tube must drop most 1/4 in. in lodge to bleed properly.

Knock out the knockout!

Everyone who's installed a few disposals is aware of this error: Forgetting to remove the dishwasher knockout before hanging the unit.

If y'all take a dishwasher, the first thing you should do later on removing the disposal from the box is to dial out the knockout with a hammer and a screwdriver. Fish out the knockout by reaching down inside the disposal. Yous don't want this plastic disc to be the commencement thing that the disposal tries to grind up!

This is also the best time to add together the string and plug to your disposal. It'southward really awkward to add these after y'all have completed this how to install a garbage disposal projection.

15 Things You lot Should Never Put Down Your Garbage Disposal

Footstep iv

Back up the weight

Replace a Garbage Disposal make a platform

Assemble a support to remove the garbage disposal

Garbage disposals can counterbalance 15 lbs. or more than. That'south a lot of weight to suddenly catch with one hand while you're turning the lower mounting bracket with the other hand.

Earlier you larn how to remove a garbage disposal, unhook anything, get together a support nether the unit using a paint can and scraps of wood. Leave a 1/4-in. to 1/2-in. gap under the unit so it can drop a bit. Use the aforementioned support to aid when you are installing a garbage disposal.

How to Unclog a Sink

Pace 5

Don't forget the cord

Replace a Garbage Disposal don't forget the cord

Buy new or reuse the garbage disposal cord

Surprise! Most new disposals don't come up with a cord and plug. If your old unit of measurement has a cord and plug, you can remove the whole assembly and reinstall information technology on the new unit of measurement. (Instructions are included with the new disposal.) Or y'all tin just buy a new cord and plug when you buy the disposal. They're usually located together in the store.

If y'all're not comfortable making electric connections for your garbage disposal installation, you can buy a disposal that already has a cord fastened. Ask at your home center or appliance store, or search online for 'garbage disposal with cord attached.

Footstep half-dozen

Prepare for a new belch tube

Replace a Garbage Disposal prepare for a new discharge tube

Save a trip to the shop past reusing the discharge tube

Your old discharge tube probably won't exist the correct length for your new disposal. If it'due south likewise long, just connect it to the disposal, marker it and cut it with a hacksaw for your garbage disposal installation. (Loosen the other pipe connections, if necessary, to insert the tube back into the tee.) If the old discharge tube is too short, you may take to brand a time-wasting trip to the store. To avoid this, make sure the new garbage disposal installation kit includes a tube, or buy one separately at the same time for nearly $three.

Shortcut: Keep the flange

If your old sink flange is undamaged and tight, with no signs of leakage, you can probably leave it in place. Chances are good that the mounting brackets on the new unit will fit just fine. To find out, remove the old disposal and install the new flange on it. If it fits, you tin can install the new disposal using the old flange.

Unclog a Kitchen Sink

Step 7

Don't struggle with the snap ring

Replace a Garbage Disposal Don't struggle with the snap ring

A pull a fast one on to remove it

The snap ring fits into a groove on the lower end of the sink flange. When you're working under the sink, it prevents the upper mounting bracket from falling off. Removing an old snap ring tin be frustrating-unless you know this fob: Starting at the break in the band, insert a thin-blade screwdriver between the ring and the flange. Pull downwards on the ring with the screwdriver's bract and walk the blade around the band. The ring will pop right off.

Kitchen Ideas: The proper care and feeding of your garbage disposer

Step viii

Weigh down the sink flange

Replace a Garbage Disposal Weigh down the sink flange

Prevent shifting

After you install the new sink flange, y'all don't desire information technology shifting around when you're assembling the parts underneath. Movement of the flange could pause the seal betwixt the flange and the sink, inviting a leak. Your best bet is to ask a helper to press down on the sink flange, or if you lot're working alone, find something to counterbalance it down, such as the erstwhile disposal. Place an old towel nether the weight so you don't scratch the sink. If the bottom of your sink is quite concave, the old disposal might not contact the flange. In that case, place a can on the flange, then counterbalance downwards the can.

Step 9

Tighten with pliers

Replace a Garbage Disposal tighten with pliers

Easier on the wrists

When y'all hang the new disposal, rotating the lower mounting ring tightens the seal betwixt the disposal and the sink flange. The lower band rides up a gear up of ramps on the upper band-pretty neat! Just the concluding inch or so of rotation requires a fair amount of strength.

The easiest manner to apply that strength is to squeeze them together using natural language-and-groove pliers, such as Channellocks. You lot'll need medium or large pliers to exercise this. Unlike prying on the lower ring with a screwdriver or hex wrench-the method recommended in nigh educational activity sheets-squeezing tin't disturb the position of the sink flange and cause information technology to leak. Plus, information technology'southward easier on the wrists.

Stride 10

Compare outlet heights

Replace a Garbage Disposal compare outlet heights

Measure out the distance

A disposal's discharge tube must slant about 1/4 in. downhill in order for it to drain properly (see Figure A). Creating that drop may exist a small problem if the outlet on your new disposal is lower than the outlet on your old one.

To be prepared, measure the distance from the outlet to the top of each disposal before you remove the one-time unit. If the new unit's outlet is lower, you must also lower the tee that the discharge pipage connects to. Loosen the 2 basics that connect the tee to the tailpiece above and the trap beneath. Try lowering the tee to come across if the tailpiece is long enough. If information technology'south not, you'll have to replace it with one that's slightly longer.

Garbage disposal replacement cost: Spend a little more

You can buy a 1/3-hp disposal for $80 or less, but our experts suggest that a more expensive unit with at least three/4 hp would be a better choice. The more powerful the motor, the less chance it will jam. In improver, college-priced disposals are generally quieter and take longer warranties. If yous need to replace the splash guard every bit function of your garbage disposal installation, take a wait at this guide.

How to Get Rid of Annihilation

Step xi

Silicone seals all-time

Replace a Garbage Disposal Mold Free Silicone

A more reliable seal

Plumber'south putty is typically recommended for sealing the sink flange to the sink itself, but silicone will provide a more reliable seal. With silicone, at that place'due south almost no gamble-now or subsequently-that the flange will leak.

However, when it's time to supersede the disposal and the sink flange again equally part of your garbage disposal installation, y'all should know that onetime silicone is much harder to remove than one-time plumber's putty. But that'due south why it works better!

Things You've Probably Never Cleaned (but Actually Should!)

Step 12

Audit the plumbing first

Replace a Garbage Disposal inspect the plumbing

Look for leakage

Look over all the pipes under your sink for any sign of leakage before heading to the store to purchase a new garbage disposal. Yous might want to supervene upon more than merely the disposal itself, so y'all may as well make a list and exist prepared earlier your garbage disposal installation!