another home appliance question

Homegrown Tomatoes · May 12, 2008, 07:50:26 PM

OK, knowing full well Glenn will make fun of me, I'm still gonna post and ask for advice. Our rental house has a garbage disposal... and since our lease forbids compost piles (idiotic), I have been using it sometimes. I don't know anything about them and have never had one before. Well, the other day I had thrown some stuff in there (mostly scraps from bell peppers) and it started grinding them up and then all the sudden just went quiet. I flipped the switch a few more times and it didn't come back on. I couldn't see any breaker switches that were thrown or anything.... so I turned it off and reached down in to clean out the few scraps left in there. Well, it still isn't working.

Our lease states that the dishwasher and the garbage disposal are merely there for our convenience and the property managers aren't responsible for them if something goes wrong. Now, I don't care to use the stupid thing so much, but I'd like to at least fix it so that I don't have to pay for breaking it. Anyone know anything about them and care to share?

muldoon · May 12, 2008, 07:53:45 PM

open the cabinet under the sink and see the garbage disposal, on the very bottom of it there will usually be a reset button. Just feel around for it if needed. If you have cleared the problem, press that and report back if it comes back to life.

May 12, 2008, 10:05:16 PM

Bless your heart, Muldoon! Thank you so much. It works great!

glenn kangiser · May 12, 2008, 11:53:48 PM

There you go, Homey but I wish muldoon had waited until I got to make fun of you.

PS be sure it's off before you stick your fingers in there

Homegrown Tomatoes · May 13, 2008, 10:24:05 AM

Glenn--

Muldoon, thanks to you my husband thinks I'm a fix-it genius. Neither of us has ever had one of these contraptions before so we really weren't sure what to do about it. I'm glad you saved me a service call and looking like an idiot.

May 13, 2008, 12:00:43 PM

Yeh, Glenn,

He teases me all the time, too. We had the same problem with our garbage disposal - I told Glenn it had stopped working & he told me about the reset switch... had my son reset it. Right now, the master bath toilet in the valley needs new innards - it keeps running all the time so I turned the water off & am using the other bathroom across the house... $:-\$ I've never changed the stuff - it looks different than other toilets I've looked inside of... my son had gotten a new rubber seal but it was the wrong one & I haven't gotten up the nerve to try fixing it myself... He's always saying "it's a mechanical thing" or "think like a computer". I tell him that I work with all sorts of high tech machines in ER & don't have any problem, besides also working with the human body & mind!

muldoon · May 13, 2008, 12:55:00 PM

sassy - toilets are very simple machines. if it is continually running there are only 3 things that can possibly cause it. Just out of curiosity, when it runs, does it run constanly like a slow trickle into the bowl that never stops or does it run then stop then a few hours start running again for no apparent reason?

benevolance · May 13, 2008, 01:03:45 PM

Well

I have stumbled blindly in the dark before restoring old toilets... going to home depot and buying a complete toilet repair kit...They are okay... just okay...
...

Then I found a device that instead of using a float and the water level to shut off the flow of water... it uses the weight of the water itself... like a weight scale...I was then mad that I had rebuilt 3 toilets without using this incredible device...

It installed in about 3 minutes and trust me... if I can install it without directions, anyone can

Homegrown Tomatoes · May 13, 2008, 01:05:37 PM

Quote from: Sassy on May 13, 2008, 12:00:43 PM
Yeh, Glenn, He teases me all the time, too. We had the same problem with our garbage disposal - I told Glenn it had stopped working & he told me about the reset switch... had my son reset it. Right now, the master bath toilet in the valley needs new innards - it keeps running all the time so I turned the water off & am using the other bathroom across the house... $:-\$ I've never changed the stuff - it looks different than other toilets I've looked inside of... my son had gotten a new rubber seal but it was the wrong one & I haven't gotten up the nerve to try fixing it myself... He's always saying "it's a mechanical thing" or "think like a computer". I tell him that I work with all sorts of high tech machines in ER & don't have any problem, besides also working with the human body & mind!

When I was a kid, I was always amazed at the stuff my mom could fix. She would tear the lawn mower into a million pieces and get it put back together and running... then it was the iron, the microwave, the VCR, and the TV. Of course she did stuff like toilets, too, but for whatever reason, she never did mess with the bathroom sink, which was messed up for the longest time until DH and I went and replaced the darn thing for her. She can fix a lot of stuff on her car, too. I know there's a lot of that stuff I could do, but heck, if I don't have to... $:-\$

May 13, 2008, 01:09:18 PM

It was running continuously - pouring out of the little spout inside - it used to do that periodically but then started continuously... the way the water runs out into the tank is different than any toilet I've seen, it seems.

So Peter, what's that contraption called?

I can fix things when I really have to, sometimes...

muldoon · May 13, 2008, 09:49:59 PM

sassy,

I was going to type out a lot of things to look at but instead I found a decent writeup you can printout and look at. http://edisk.fandm.edu/gl/miscellaneous/house-repair-tips.pdf

Start with the setting the water level bit and go from there. If you don't have a simple adjustment to make you might have a 10 dollar fill valve to replace. It covers a few styles with how they are different and similar.

glenn kangiser · May 13, 2008, 10:05:01 PM

I don't go down there often and was hoping step son could fix it.

I asked her to get photo's of the guts.

Only a couple things or types it could be and I don't remember which it is.

Sassy · May 13, 2008, 10:05:43 PM

Thanks, Muldoon! I'll have to print those instructions out & then look at the innards of the toilet to check it out. Glenn tells me "you just have to look at it, it's so simple, I don't know why you have a problem."

I've never really studied how they work except to make sure the chain isn't hung up or that it's closing properly so the water doesn't keep running. I usually have someone around that can fix things - the problem is, he seldom comes down to the house in the valley, so I have to figure it out now or have my son or the renter check it out $:-\$ Well, once I figure it out, I'll know what to do the next time

Sassy · May 13, 2008, 10:06:51 PM

uh oh, guess he posted before I finished my post...

May 13, 2008, 10:11:52 PM

Sassy in the mean time just keep a bucket with a couple gallons of water sitting nearby and by-pass the internal parts. That's just a power outage hint but you wouldn't know about those would you being Off-grid.

glenn kangiser · May 13, 2008, 10:17:19 PM

Rich man has a canopy over his bed - poor man has a can o pee under his bed.

We don't have power outages as often as the grid and usually only when I am working on it - maybe once a year.

I just don't want to drive the 75 miles to the valley for no great reason. Some day I will do it and pick up tools or something and she may actually give me a key to the house so I can get in.

Actually she finally left me one but it is a copy of a copy and I thought it was the wrong one last time there as it didn't work easily so I didn't try much.

Sassy · May 13, 2008, 10:24:31 PM

Red, we've used the bucket trick several times when power was off in the valley - just went out to the pond & filled it up & dumped into toilet after use - works great! Glenn doesn't know where his key is, we used to have one hidden & then my son used it & didn't put it back up, I hid another one for Glenn but all the keys are pretty touchy as they've been copied so much... DH tried to get into the house when I was away a couple times but I had it locked up too tight & he didn't want to break any windows...