Kitchen trash compactor hums when foot pedal is lifted

[Chris Morris]

Do you have experience troubleshooting kitchen compactors?

The GE built in compactor just stopped working. When I close the door and lift up the foot pedal, it just very lightly hums as if a motor is only barely going on or maybe some electrical circuit is going on.

What normally makes a compactor just lightly hum electrically when the pedal is activated?

It's a GE GCG 1580 (LOSS) about 10 years old.

The specs say it's a 1/3 hp trash compactor with 1.4 cu. ft. capacity.

[trader_4]

Bad capacitor on the motor, if it has one? First step would be to see if you can turn whatever the motor drives by hand. If it moves, then it's a motor problem. If it doesn't then it's most likely something stuck somewhere else. I guess it could still be bad motor bearings that have seized too.