Daddy pulls it out of the fire AGAIN

[CAJUNLAWYER]

Walk into the kitchen yesterday and find my wife and daughter looking over the sink. SO I walk over to see what be goin' on. Turns out that she has jammed the garbage disposal. She and the daughter have poked prodded, turned in on and off, and are now wringing their hands. I explain to her once again that the disposal is not to be viewed as a challenge but more of an adjunct in her repertoire of tools needed to clear the kitchen. She gives mr the old stank eye and then says to the daughter-"he's no help-I'll call the plumber in the morning." At this point I decide I need to prevent such wasteful spending and tell both "Stay here". I then get my allen wrenches, tell them"These are Allen Wrenches". I male then each get down on their hands and knees with a mirror and flashlight and show them the underside where the protruding nipple houses the allen hole within which to insert said allen wrench and unstick the motor. I then hand the allen wrench to my wife tell her to insert and turn. And wonder of wonders, she fixes it. She and daughter are hi fiving that they learned something new, I'm thankful I was there to short stop the plumber nonsense and save myself $150.

So now I'm trying to decide how to spend my newly found $150

 

[Rule3]

If you were a "real handyman" you would have the supplied wrench taped or wire tied to the drain with a tag that says "This is the thing to un-jam the disposal"
That would save a trip to go find the correct on.


As there is no ammo, I suggest Beer or Spirits of your liking.

 

[DWalt]

I keep the Allen head wrench for the disposal in the junk drawer next to the kitchen sink. But I never use it. We rarely use the garbage disposal, most everything goes into the kitchen trash container. We keep a screen over the basin drain opening to keep larger debris out. We started doing that over five years ago after a severe drain line clog resulting from ground-up stuff coming from the disposal.

 

[s&wchad]

Good job! You could spend $30 of it and get a copy of this for the Mrs. and another for your daughter.

Unfortunately, I suspect the only thing they would learn is how to flip you the gesture shown on the cover. That is NOT a happy look of accomplishment!

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

I had that issue in my bathroom sink. Had a real slow drain that nothing I could do would work. I finally bought on line some enzyme that eats organic matter. Tried it and let it sit over night. Well the drain was completely clogged the next morning so I got the plunger and PLUNGED-hard. You could hear the clog let go with a rush of the water through the pipe and ever since then it has been a draining ****** ****er. This stuff worked when lye didn't . Don't know why but at least it is another tool in the arsenal

 

[pawncop]

Another vote for a fine bottle of spirits, I prefer gin but it’s your choice.

 

[woodsltc]

You could hear the clog let go with a rush of the water through the pipe and ever since then it has been a draining ****** ****er. This stuff worked when lye didn't . Don't know why but at least it is another tool in the arsenal

Sometimes I hate the forum's word filter....I'm still trying to figure out the letters replaced by the asterisks (*) above.

Don

 

[crazyphil]

I remember my Dad used to bring the business end of the garden hose in
and stick it in the drain. Then wrap towels around it to keep a tight grip,
holding it in place firmly with his hands. Then he would yell at me or my
mother to turn the hose on. It worked. I was never brave enough to
try it.

 

[Sistema1927]

Guessing that it will be a long time before Mrs. Cajun turns loose that $150. Don't spend it yet.

 

[Rpg]

I had that issue in my bathroom sink. Had a real slow drain that nothing I could do would work. I finally bought on line some enzyme that eats organic matter. Tried it and let it sit over night. Well the drain was completely clogged the next morning so I got the plunger and PLUNGED-hard. You could hear the clog let go with a rush of the water through the pipe and ever since then it has been a draining ****** ****er. This stuff worked when lye didn't . Don't know why but at least it is another tool in the arsenal

Lye based drain cleaner is a poor second to sulfuric acid based drain cleaner.

A word of warning: don’t use lye drain opener and then sulfuric acid. That will create more excitement than you can imagine!

 

[DWalt]

I had that issue in my bathroom sink. Had a real slow drain that nothing I could do would work. I finally bought on line some enzyme that eats organic matter. Tried it and let it sit over night. Well the drain was completely clogged the next morning so I got the plunger and PLUNGED-hard. You could hear the clog let go with a rush of the water through the pipe and ever since then it has been a draining ****** ****er. This stuff worked when lye didn't . Don't know why but at least it is another tool in the arsenal

My favorite drain cleaner is hydrochloric (muriatic) acid, diluted about 50/50. Available at Home Depot, etc. It always works, have used it for many years. Also great for cleaning toilets, in fact it is sold in diluted form for that purpose. Much cheaper to buy a gallon or two of the concentrated acid and dilute it yourself.

 

[gonerydin]

I’m too old and lame to crawl around on the floor so I attack from the top side with a 1/2” drive socket + 18” extension.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[anoblefox]

when we had our present house built two years ago I made sure that NO disposal was ever installed. Problem solved!

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

44 years of apartment maintenance taught me; 1) nobody ever cleans out under the kitchen sink. 2) the 1/4" Allen wrench provided with In-Sink-Irater brand disposals is made too soft and can turn into a pretzel when you need it most. 3) My personal disposal "key" is a Stanley 32" crow-bar.

The most difficult thing I ever had stuck, was a dime between the floor plate and the toothed sidewall!

The nattiest was, fishguts! took almost 4 days for my hand to quit stinking! I tried lemon juice, baking soda and several others nothing worked! So I rubbed an onion on my hand for a couple of days as a cologne. Why would you gut fish in the kitchen?

I knew of one maintenance man that had a blacksmith cut the hook off a crowbar and thread it for a plunger head, A true double duty tool. You can use broom and plunger handles but they get chewed up and look like giant wooden pencils.

If you disposal starts smelling, turn it on with cold water running and dump a tray of Ice Cubes down it while running, they will "Brush" the sidewall teeth.

Very important: Convince the primary cook that egg shells and bones belong in the trash! The best way to convince her was to supervise her as she fixed the jam (from bones) and clogs (from egg shells). This method works on teenagers too.

I had a female tenant that had a clogged disposal 45 days in a row! Enclosed with the bill for 40 service calls ($32 each) were 45 baggies with the bones I pulled from her disposal! She was a school teacher, and had a tow truck operator as a new boy friend; after dinner she would relax and he cleaned up the dishes. We reached an agreement, the bill goes away as long as the jams stop. That was easy, she threw him out that night! Problem solved.

Ivan

 

[ACORN]

Reminds me of refrigerator breaking down. All the food in the freezer thawed. Refrigerator section was 50 degrees. I’d hear something buzz for a little then a click. A couple minutes later buzz-click.
I called my uncle a retired appliance repair man and explained the problem and the symptoms. “Junk it!” He said. I explained that this wasn’t a cheapo refrigerator. We paid about $1300 10-15 years ago. The fridge was 3 years old at the time and out of warranty. He explained the compressor was probably a Tecumseh made in Brazil and were pretty much poo.
I Googled the symptoms and found something called a hard start capacitor on Amazon that seemed like it might work for around $12 shipped. I put it on and it’s been running ever since.
I tried to convince my wife that being I saved us $1300 I should be “allowed” to by a nice Model 27-2 but that motion was quickly voted down.

 

[quikdraw67]

when we had our present house built two years ago I made sure that NO disposal was ever installed. Problem solved!

If you are on a sand mound/septic tank with a drain field a garbage disposal is the LAST thing you want to have in your house.

Insinkerator came out with a specific disposer with an enzyme dispenser to help break down the food waste.

I still wouldn't recommend it. We have a compost pile. It's free and it never breaks down.

 

[Old Arkansawyer]

Cajun, are you day dreaming about the $150.00 your wife owes you. If it
is anything like around this house, you will never see it.

 

[Dingotech]

The following truisms apply when a woman moves in with you:

i) Your heating bill will skyrocket;

ii) A 24-roll jumbo family-size toilet paper pack will last a week...maybe;

iii) You can have a 50,000 watt industrial-strength garbage disposal capable of shredding car frames, but she will eventually break it.

 

[gregintenn]

when we had our present house built two years ago I made sure that NO disposal was ever installed. Problem solved!

Same here. We just walk outside and throw the food scraps in the woods. The dogs take it from there. I haven’t had to unclog a dog yet.

 

[crazyphil]

Reminds me of refrigerator breaking down. All the food in the freezer thawed. Refrigerator section was 50 degrees. I’d hear something buzz for a little then a click. A couple minutes later buzz-click.
I called my uncle a retired appliance repair man and explained the problem and the symptoms. “Junk it!” He said. I explained that this wasn’t a cheapo refrigerator. We paid about $1300 10-15 years ago. The fridge was 3 years old at the time and out of warranty. He explained the compressor was probably a Tecumseh made in Brazil and were pretty much poo.
I Googled the symptoms and found something called a hard start capacitor on Amazon that seemed like it might work for around $12 shipped. I put it on and it’s been running ever since.
I tried to convince my wife that being I saved us $1300 I should be “allowed” to by a nice Model 27-2 but that motion was quickly voted down.

Your story reminded me of an incident way back in about 1958.
I got a spike elk on opening day of hunting season. Took it home
and butchered it. By the time I got it all cut up and wrapped my
Dad came in with a new freezer from Sears. Plugged it in, set
the temp. and left it. Went to the storage room a couple of weeks
later and it wasn't working. All the meat spoiled.

Sears really impressed me though. They paid us market price,
for beef at the time, and a new freezer.