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My garbage disposal shorted out and now I'm questioning electricity itself
Last Tuesday I was grinding up some potato peels and the thing just died. No sound, no nothing. I tried the reset button under the sink, flipped the breaker twice, nothing worked. Turns out a tiny wire had corroded through where it connects to the unit, which seems like a design flaw for something that lives near water. Has anyone else had a disposal fail in a weird way that wasn't the standard jammed blade issue?
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jadej501mo ago
And actually @felix414, I don't think the reset button is totally a lie - it's supposed to trip if the motor overheats from a jam, but mine was useless too because the short was in the power cord before it even reached the motor. Potato peels are actually one of the worst things to put down a disposal though, the starch turns into paste and gets into everything including the wiring compartment if there's any crack in the seal. Learned that the hard way after pulling out mine and finding a gluey mess that had definitely contributed to the corrosion.
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felix4141mo ago
Three hundred dollars and two YouTube videos later I found out the same thing happened to me but with a chicken bone that somehow got lodged in the wiring instead of the blade. Honestly I think disposals are designed by people who've never actually lived in a house with running water. The reset button is basically a lie to make you feel like you tried something before calling a plumber. At least now I have a fun story about how I almost electrocuted myself over some moldy potato peels. Tbh if they put the wires in a waterproof casing we'd all be out of a good excuse to buy new appliances.
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