Once in a while we’ll end up with something down our garbage disposal that should not have gone down there (a spoon, a piece of bone, etc).  Usually the disposal just bats it around and makes an awful racket.  Recently whatever was down there stopped it cold in its tracks and when you flipped the switch it only made a humming sound.  Here’s how to troubleshoot and fix a stuck garbage disposal:

How to Fix a Garbage Disposal that Only Hums

Hardware:

• Evergrind Model E202-2 1/2 Horsepower Garbage Disposal
• Garbage Disposal Replacement Splash Guard (optional, but I recommend replacing these every so often because they get nasty)

Tools:

• Stanley Metric and SAE 2-Pack Allen Wrench Set
  (1/4″ was all I needed for our disposal)

Step 1: Is there something wedged in the disposal?

If you can take the rubber “splashguard” out of the drain it makes it much easier to look down in there.  I used a flash light from my iPhone to look down in there.

Removing the garbage disposal splash guard

Side Note: Our disposal splash guard got all rotten and nasty and I found that it was actually pinched in-between the disposal and the bottom of the sink.  I actually just cut it out, along the seam, and then purchased a replacement splash guard and it snaps down in there nicely.  I keep an extra one on hand and I replace the splash guard about once every year and it makes the sink look a lot nicer and clean for sure.

Plastic toy wedged in garbage disposal

Using a large screwdriver I was able to dislodge the plastic part:

That there is the largest flat screwdriver I own, usually reserved for tightening screws in electrical panels

Step 2: If the garbage disposal still will not turn you can manually turn it with an allen wrench.

On the bottom of the garbage disposal, right in the middle there is a hole where you can insert an allen wrench into the center shaft on the motor.  In our case it was a 1/4-inch allen wrench:

Location of hole to manually turn the garbage disposal with a 1/4-inch allen wrench

Here I am turning it with a allen socket (but you can use a plain allen wrench too):

Manually turning a stuck garbage disposal

Caution: Make sure not to turn on the garbage disposal while you have a wrench in there or you could injure yourself.

Step 3: Check the garbage disposal reset switch.

After I removed the plastic part our garbage disposal still would not come on and at this point would not even make the humming noise it originally was making.  The problem was that the current limiting reset switch had been tripped.  Look on the bottom of your disposal for a switch like this:

Garbage disposal reset switch tripped (popped out)

Press the switch in to reset it:

Garbage disposal reset switch reset (pushed in)

Once I pushed the reset button back in I was back in business and the garbage disposal was working fine.