Last week our garbage disposal jammed.About 5 minutes after this happened, I hear, "Honey, I forgot to tell you something..."
Apparently Marcie was cleaning out the girls' lunch boxes, when some change had fell out of one of them and down the drain.The only money we put in with their lunches is to buy milk at school ($.35). Since Marcie had successfully extracted that much money from the disposal, she thought there was nothing more in there to worry about. Well, apparently not...
I was told, by more than one source, to simply use the allen wrench to spin the disposal backward until the offending obstruction came back to the top. Since we thought all the money was out of the disposal, I wasn't 100% sure what this was, let alone the possible denomination value of it.
Well, last night, I finally got around to doing this.
I spun that God-forsaken thing counter clockwise more times than I know... I really wasn't counting, mostly doing my impersonation of Yosemite Sam throwing a fit.
After about 15 minutes of this spinning to no avail, I decided to dismount this contraption from the sink and see if spinning it while it was upside down would do any good.
Have I ever installed a garbage disposal? No.
Have I ever uninstalled one? No.
Have I ever seen anyone do either of these? No.
But after quick inspection, it looked simple enough to dismount my nemesis from its fittings on the sink drain.
After unplugging it, unscrewing the drain pipe and disconnecting the drain hose from the dishwasher, I spun the funky fastener at the top of the disposal and lowered it down. Surprisingly lightweight.
I proceeded to invert this contraption and figured a few more reverse spins with the allen wrench and the obstruction was SURE to come out with the added assistance of Newton's discovery of gravity.
HAH! Nothing doing!
After about 15 more minutes of that nonsense, I decided to get out *dramatic music* The Tools.
Have I ever worked on a garbage disposal? No.
Have I ever watched anyone work on one? No.
Was I thinking I was going to get in over my head in a hurry? The thought crossed my mind...
After taking off what appeared to be some kind of decorative collar, I noticed 3 large screws that seemed obvious to me as what held the top half of this bane of my existence to its lower half.
With trusty, flat blade screwdriver in hand, I began my exploratory operation into the bowels of this electric pig.
With the three screws carefully set aside for hopeful reassembly at a later time, I began examination of the interior.
And THERE it was!
All of a sudden, one of my daughters' Curious George's books came to mind. You know the one? Where he swallows the puzzle piece and has to go to the hospital?
I saw the cause of all this torment. This thing that had me wondering if I was going to have to spend upwards of $75 (or more, plus tax, travel and installation) was peeking out from the crack between the plate and the side of the housing.
1, thin, solitary dime.
A measly ten cents almost had me spending considerably more, whether it would have been for a repair call or replacement.
I successfully extracted the blockage.
EUREKA! Success! Victory! I had to contain myself though. My daughters were already in bed and I dare not create any noise that would disturb them lest I have to explain every detail to them before I'd have any hope of getting them back to bed.
And then I commenced reassembly
Top piece fitted to bottom piece.
Screws tightened.
Decorative plastic piece returned to original location.
Disposal lifted to sink drain and partially set in position.
Drain reattached.
Discharge hose from dishwasher attached.
Tighten down fitting to hold disposal onto sink drain.
Plugged unit back into outlet.
Moment of truth #1. Would it 'hold water'?
With apprehension I turned on the faucet and carefully inspected under the sink for any signs of Gene Kelly Singing in the Rain.
Nope! Bone dry!
Moment of truth #2. Would it spin, or would I suddenly hear that dull, jammed sound?
With water running, I reached over to the switch. I hesitated with anticipation. I threw the switch!
I stared in awe. I listened to the beautiful music of the whirring and humming of a fully functional garbage disposal!
I HAD FIXED IT!
My feelings of self worth have taken an exponential shift upward!
It seemed very anti-climatic to move on to my next task.
Cleaning the kitchen floor...
