Hardened substance in Garbage Disposal

9 years ago

Hello, about three weeks ago I put some left over beans in the garbage disposal. The disposal locked up. I used an allen wrench to loosen up the blades, which seemed to be successful, however when I attempted to plug the disposal in the disposal fired up even though the power switch was off. I had to pull the power cable while it was running. This freaked me out at the time because I did not know that one outlet was always hot so I left it unplugged.

This occurred the night before I had to leave town for two weeks on business. I poured a some alcohol down the garbage disposal and left town. On my first day off after I came back I checked the garbage disposal. The beans and whatever else was in there had solidified to the point that I could not loosen up the blades with an allen wrench. With the disposal unplugged, I put my hand in there to check and the substance felt solid.

Is there anything that I can pour down the garbage disposal that would soften or loosen up the hard substance that is in there, without eating through the PVC piping underneath?

I tried some boiling hot water but that didnÃ¯Â¿Â½t really do the trick. Looking for something stronger.

Thx.

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Comments (6)

snoonyb
9 years ago
Alcohol goes just under your nose.

Use a long screwdriver, as a chisel, and gently, break it apart.
jakethewonderdog
9 years ago
The best way to clean a disposal that's running and prevent the problem you described is to run ice through your disposal. It will clear all the gunk off of it and won't clog the pipes. If it does clog the waste tee, just stop running ice through and wait, the ice will thaw.
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klem1
9 years ago
If nothing else good comes out of this,it should convince you to put left overs in garbage can or compost bin. A disposal is intended to pulverize what is rinsed off dishes after they have been scraped off.
jerry702
Original Author
9 years ago
The disposal isn't running because the substance has locked the blades in place. I don't have much experience with plumbing / garbage disposals which are not functional. Perhaps I'm lucky but this is the first significant problem with a disposal that I've ever had. I might do more damage than good by chipping at it with chisel or screwdriver.

Isn't there some commercially available chemical that will dissolve the substance?
jakethewonderdog
9 years ago
I can't really imagine what would be that hard. Hardened grease would be dissolved by an base such as lye and hardened calcium would be dissolved by an acid such as vinegar. That said, I wouldn't use lye on a disposal.

My experience is that the aluminum or magnesium bodies of the garbage disposal becomes corroded and gets a hole in it after a period of time - esp when there's food and such left in the disposal for long periods of time. Probably from the acids that form from decaying food.

What I suspect is that you should simply replace the unit and then keep the new one clean using the ice cube method every few months.
JeromeMoler
9 years ago
Don't let to plug the drain as water with little detergent would good for this. You should stuff some rags into the hole and keep them wet for a while. Its better for you, if you installed a new garbage disposal.

Here is a link that might be useful: septic system parts

This post was edited by JeromeMoler on Thu, Aug 28, 14 at 3:21