I am an amateur artist, just beginning to learn this craft. Last night I made the boneheaded mistake of pouring leftover acrylic paint into my garbage disposal. Now my poor garbage disposal appears to be jammed tight - it only hums when I switch it on (which I only do for a second, because I don't want to burn out the motor).
I don't actually have any direct proof that the paint caused the problem, but my gut instinct tells me it did. Acrylic paint can be dissolved with acetone, but if I pour this into the garbage disposal, won't it all just run through and go down the drain? (The drain itself isn't plugged; water still flows through, but the unit won't spin).
The acetone could be harmful to pvc. There should be a hex shaped hole on the bottom of the unit to put the once included wrench into to clear a jam. Procure the proper hex (allen) wrench, and see if you can free it that way.
I don't see the alleged hex-shaped hole there, but your suggestion has made me think I should possibly contact the manufacturer and ask them what they recommend for clearing a jam in general (I don't think I'll mention the paint just yet - don't want to look like more of an idiot than I already do). Unless you can think of another method for clearing a jam? Or somewhere else to find that hole?
Sometimes, you can use a broom handle or similar wooden item to loosen. You do this with power off and just pry with handle to try to rotate blades. If it turns, try turning on. Frank
Suggestion #1 don't pour any kind of paint down the pipes. It can cause damage not only to your home but down the line as well. The solution for Acrylic paints is the clumping cat littler. Just pour in some of the cat litter, it will mix with the paint forming a solid mass and that is disposed of with your regular trash.
As noted the make and model of the disposal will help us or you (use google) try to locate the procedure to free up a jam.
I run latex paint down the drains all the time when I'm cleaning brushes and stufff.... just run a tremendous amount of water to dilute the stuff.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm sure I'm violating some sort of environmental law somewhere.
As far as acetone goes...that stuff is wicked strong. I can't imagine it doing anything good to your disposal or pipes.
Here's my solution, make sure there isn't a spoon or rag in there before you go to much trouble. (UNPLUG IT FIRST, THEN PROVE IT SAFE BY OPERATING THE SWITCH. Treat putting your hand in a gargage disposal the same as a loaded gun.) If that isn't the case, take the disposal off and take it apart if you can. (loosen the three screws, usually slot head, from the bottom...the unit will rotate then fall right off. There's probably illustrations online if you're concerned) Once the disposal is taken down and apart, you'll see your acrylic paint all over the the blade impeller thingymajig. At this point, start cutting it away from the shaft until the blades rotate freely.
Then pat yourself on the back, you've successfully colored the blades of your disposal.
Also note, new disposals aren't that expensive. It may be time for a new one anyhow if yours doesn't have a hex lug on the bottom to clear a jam. I find this a useful feature once a month.
It is probably there whether you have seen it yet or not. 80% of the garbage disposals, in the US at least, are made by In-sink-erator, and they all have the hole. If you don't have the wrench, it's sold separately and it's a dollar or two, or three, and is better for this than a standard allen wrench of the same diameter.
So to save your pride, in front of a stranger, and after you've already told the hundreds or thousands who read this group what you did, you're going to waste the time of the manufacturer's employee??
Would you go to a doctor for stomach cramps and leave out the fact that you ate poison? Or are you trying to build a long-term relationship with whoever reads your email?
First, it's not going to do them or you any good to discuss jams in general, without discussing your jam.
Second, don't waste a person's time, who can't do better than send you a copy of what someone else there has already written. If you want, read what it says about jams in the instructions if you have them, and on their webpage.
Third people here told you what you can do. Take that wrench (just a hex shaped rod, bent once or twice) and turn the rotor back and forth until it frees up.
They presumed you had plastic drain pipes and not metal. If you do have plastic, you can remove the whole disposal (easy. Turn off the fuse or circuit breaker first) and try the acetone. Then flush out the acentone well before putting the disposal back. This assumes your disposal is old enough that IT has a metal case, or that the plastic case it has won't be ruined by acetone. You don't want the whole thing melting.
It's in the middle. Use a mirror, or get down low.
Unless this was some kind of super paint, my vote is that the paint is unrelated to the problem. I think a disposal is enclosed enough and wet enough that it's unlikely paint could dry that much overnight. Plus, you'd normally run water at the same time, or to rinse off brushes, etc, wouldn't you? That would carry most of it away and leave the rest real thinned out. You wouldn't just pour a quart of paint in and leave it, would you?
You haven't mentioned in the discussion whether or not you were running water when you poured the paint, or just poured it. If you were running water, chances are something else is jamming it, if you just poured the paint, then, yeah, you may have painted the sucker stuck.
If you go the hex wrench route in trying to free up the disposal, MacGyver yourself a long handle for the wrench - at least 12". You want as much leverage as possible to free up the blades.
Whether or not you do that, I would recommend pouring acetone down the disposal only under the following conditions: (1) that the disposal has no plastic pipe leaving the disposal chamber, and (2) that you remove the disposal from the sink and drain and pour the acetone in the unit outside.
And I'd like to put in my 2 cents' worth about not putting stuff other than water down the kitchen drain. Garbage disposals are more problems than they're worth - all that food doesn't get ground up finely enough and if you have any kind of low spot or belly in your sewer line, it lays there, hardens and blocks the drain. Since I stopped using my garbage disposal two years ago, I haven't had to have the plumber out to auger the line...
The problem with that is, when I tried it, that I was afraid I would break the connection to the drain pipe, or the drain pipe itself.
There is no doubt that the whole disposal was moving and the pipes were challenged by that. I tried to hold on to the disposal while I turned but I was alone and it was stuffed under the sink with a cabinet around it, so no success there.
If I used the thing more often, it wouldn't gather rust. This time it had been more than 3 months. After the first one rusted/froze shut after 19 years, and disassembling it led nowhere, I gave up and just replaced this one (maybe 10 years old). I too would think he could break the paint if that was the problem.
What about the fact that most disposals have plastic tops to the food chamber?
That might take care of it.
I don't actually even intentionally grind anything up. Thbat's why I use it so rarely. And I keep a strainer in the sink which I empty into the waste basket. But food sneaks in and makes it hard for the water to drain. Then I run the disposal. I think if I would remember to run it once a week, it would last for 40 years.
I lost my own clothes washer once because for 3 or 6 months I went to a neighbor building where I could do 2 loads at once and where there were dryers. The Whirlpool Cool Line spent lots of time with me, but the main bearing had rusted no-rotate and rusted in place as well, so I couldn't even get the thing out.
I think the same thing happens with garbage disposals.
Hear. hear! I hardly use mine at all. Table scraps and veg peels, etc. (non-meat or fat) go into the compost jar. Meat, fat, bones go in the trash. Only thing that goes down the disposal is lemon rinds for disinfecting.
Am still recovering from a big Thanksgiving dinner I threw 'n' years ago, when, night before dinner, all preparations on track, I put CELERY down the disposal! Even as I did it, a dull bell tolled in the back of my mind. Too bad it wasn't in the front of my mind. Whole story would make a strong man cry.. I got through the dinner next day somehow, with a stopped-up sink... whatta nightmare!
What finally ended my wife and I using our disposal was a combination of buying a composting unit, and my spending 2 hours Thanksgiving morning - three hours before we were expecting both families for dinner
- disassembling the sink drain (it's complicated because of having to move the sink when we re-did the kitchen) and fishing the hand-cranked auger down the drain to find six feet down under the floor a clump of shredded asparagus had blocked the line. Grrr.
As a person who spent a number of years working for a company that did warranty repair services for appliances and computers, I have exactly ZERO qualms about wasting that employee's time. It's what they get paid for.
No.
Or are you trying to build a long-term
No idea what you just said right there.
I had a better idea: I took the whole thing out, threw it away, and bought a brand-new one. It wasn't terribly expensive, and I consoled my wife by telling her she didn't have to buy me anything else for Christmas. Maybe you think that's wasteful, but my problem is solved now, and I don't have to sleep on the couch anymore, either.
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