Hearing a mysterious drip-drip-drip from your cabinet? Or maybe there’s a sudden puddle? It is reasonable to think that there’s a leak which causes this. The problem may be caused by your garbage disposal too.
The bad thing is, this can go unnoticed for long, which may cause some foul smell coming out from the sink. Not to mention, soggy sink as well. Find out how to fix leaky garbage disposal in the article below.
How to Fix Leaky Garbage Disposal
To get rid of this problem, prepare your basic plumbing skill or if you don’t have one, follow these steps of how to fix the leaky garbage disposal.
- Turn off the machine and unplug the cable connecting the disposal machine to any electrical resources.
- Place a sink stopper to avoid any additional water coming through.
- Dry the garbage disposal unit.
- Then, investigate the source.
- Make dyed water by simply combining several cups of water with food coloring. Then, pour the water through the sink stopper.
- Locate the source after the colored water is poured.
- Grab your flashlight and try to find any leaks. That may be visible in the joint of disposal and sink drain or probably on the unit’s bottom. The leak can also come from any pipes that connect to the garbage disposal machine. In the following point, you will find what causes garbage disposal to leak from the bottom.
- If it is hard to notice any leaks, try removing the sink stopper. Then pour some more colored water. But in this case, you got to work scan for any leaks quickly.
Since there are different locations where the leaks come from, there are also different approaches to fix this. Chances are:
- The leaks come from the upper part of the garbage disposal; in this case, you can reseal the flange by firstly detaching the garbage disposal. Then, re-attach the garbage disposal, including the drain pipe and dishwasher hose.
- The leaks come from the garbage disposal side. Then what you can do is tighten the drain line connections. Or replacing any worn gaskets.
- The leaks coming from the bottom. If the garbage disposal leaking from the reset button, this indicates there is interior shell sealing – which protects the machine – has worn out. Maybe the shell itself has cracked too. In this case, although hiring a professional may help, replacing the machine with the new one can be more beneficial. The price doesn’t differ much compared to hiring a plumbing professional to do the job.
Can you run the dishwasher if the garbage disposal is leaking? Well, you can. Your dishwasher’s wastewater is connected to the garbage disposal, but that doesn’t mean your dishwasher will be dysfunctional or not working if the garbage disposal is leaking. The disposal machine is working separately and has no hook into the dishwashers after all.
Those are several pieces of information to satisfy your curiosity about how to fix the leaky garbage disposal. Lastly, to prevent any leaking in the future, make sure you only throw soft food wastes into the machine.
Hard stuff such as apple cores, bones, or raw potatoes may cause overworking to the machine. Besides, this may cause the interior seals to dislodge.
