Garbage disposal won't turn on in Fort Lauderdale, Wilton Manors

You flip the switch and nothing happens: no hum, no spin, no sound at all. A completely silent disposal is a different problem from one that hums, and it usually means power is not reaching the motor or the motor has shut itself off. Fix Garbage Disposal tracks down why a garbage disposal won't turn on in Fort Lauderdale, Wilton Manors and fixes it, or tells you plainly when the unit has reached the end of its life.

What silence usually means

Most dead disposals come down to one of a few causes. The disposal's own overload protector has tripped, which is the small reset button on the underside. The circuit breaker has tripped, or a GFCI outlet on the same circuit has cut the power. The plug under the sink has worked loose. Less often, the wall switch has failed, a wiring connection has come loose, or the motor itself has burned out. A hum with no spinning is a jam instead, which has its own page.

What is safe to check yourself

Whatever is wrong, keep your hand out of the sink opening. Switch the disposal off at the wall switch, unplug it or turn off its breaker, and only then look inside, using tongs or pliers rather than fingers. Check that the plug is pushed fully into its outlet, if your disposal has one, and that the wall switch or countertop button is the one that controls it. Look at the breaker panel for a tripped breaker and reset it once. If there is a GFCI outlet under the sink or on the counter nearby, press its reset button. Then press the red reset button under the disposal once and try the switch again. That is where checking should stop.

When to stop and call

Call if the disposal is still silent after those checks, if the breaker trips again as soon as you reset it, or if you notice a burning smell, scorch marks or a warm switch plate. Do not open the switch, the outlet or the electrical cover on the disposal, and do not try to rewire anything. Those are jobs for a professional, and a repeated tripped breaker can point to a fault that needs proper attention.

Repair or replacement

A loose connection, a failed switch or a tripped overload is usually a repair. A motor that has burned out generally means a new disposal, because replacing a motor rarely makes sense next to replacing the unit. Fix Garbage Disposal works out which one you have before recommending anything. Describe what you checked and what happened through the contact page, and the details of the visit are agreed with you directly.

Get help with a dead disposal