Keeping a kitchen clean and neat is impossible without garbage disposal. The device is attached to the waste pipe of your kitchen sink. It grinds up food waste and removes it.
The condition of your garbage disposal directly affects the hygiene of your kitchen. If it stops working at any time, you will realize how important it is.
In this article, we will look at the anatomy of garbage disposal so that you can understand its inner structure, mechanism of working, source of any problem and way of repairing very well.
You may also like to read – best garbage disposal
Table of Contents
Visual Guide of a Garbage Disposal
We have said earlier that the garbage disposal is installed to the waste pipe of the sink and the food waste gets aggregated in the hopper chamber of the unit. The hopper chamber is located below the sink drain.
For the convenience of your understanding, we have added a graphic tutorial that will provide you with an “exploded view” diagram of the inner construction of the garbage disposal chamber.
Though our main purpose is to introduce you with different parts of the garbage disposal unit we would like to discuss the basic working mechanism of the unit so that you can understand the importance and necessity of the parts well.
When you switch on the garbage disposal the motor swirls the flywheel and the connected impellers at almost 2,000 RPM. This connected impeller along with the shredder ring mainly grinds and pulverizes the waste food.
Then water from the faucet of your sink flushes the ground and pulverized waste food out the waste line connector discharge outlet and down the sewers system or some time into the septic system. I would like to inform you about an important matter that some municipalities’ area restricts the disposal usage with a septic system. You may be find this reading this article interesting.
You should have a clear idea about the main parts of a garbage disposal unit so that if there occurs any problem or if any fixation is required you can understand that well. And here is our small attempt to help you to know the basic anatomy of garbage disposal:
The Stopper
The stopper is the part where waste food goes at the first step for processing. It is located below the sink flange (an open gasket that has a circular shape).
It has similarity in appearance with the plug of the sink drain and if you look into the drain of your kitchen sink you can see the stopper. For easier passing of the waste items stopper opens and closes easily.
The Hopper
There are two hopper chambers in a garbage disposal unit – one is upside-down and other is downside-up.
The first hopper located under the sink sends the food waste into the shredder of the disposal. Inside the lower hopper chamber, there is an insulated motor. The motor is insulated to protect it from water.
You cannot see this part by looking from outside, you have to open the cabinet to see this part. The hopper has a connection to the stopper of the switch.
Shredder Ring
Shredder ring breaks the waste items and converts these into small pieces for easier processing. Shredder is circular in shape. It sends the waste particles into the impeller part using its rotating motion.
Impeller
Below the shredder ring, there is an impeller. The impeller has a significant influence to control the pressure of the fluid.
It also has a significant influence to break the food substance into little tiny pieces along with the shredder ring, in fact, impeller also works to break down the waste particles together with the shredder ring through a number of slots, blades, and holes.
Flywheel
Flywheel has a significant effect to maintain constant power output. It helps to send the broken tiny pieces of waste item into the lower hopper chamber.
Waste Line Connector
From the lower hopper chamber finally, the tiny pieces of a food item are disposed through the waste line connector.
Dishwasher Connector and Knock Out
To connect the garbage disposal unit with the dishwasher there is a dishwasher connector at the top position of the unit. If you see the picture well you will notice a knock out that is basically a closed inlet pipe.
Before using you should open the closed mouth of this inlet pipe and that is why it is designated as knock out i.e. you have to knock out the closed mouth. Before start knocking out the closed mouth of the inlet pipe do not forget to read the instruction manual provided by the manufacturer of your purchased unit.
The dishwasher outlet hose needs to connect to the garbage disposals dishwasher inlet pipe. Another important thing you should take care of that you should run the disposal before running the dishwasher to confirm the water drainage.
Bottom View
Below the garbage disposal unit, there are an electrical cover plate, electrical reset button, power cord and manual flywheel turning holes. Not all the brands have an electrical reset button located at the bottom position of the unit rather some brands have this button on the front part of the unit.
For more details read – everything you need to know about garbage disposal.
Wrap UP
The garbage disposal unit may turn off because of getting jammed by the waste items. In such situation, the electric motor and wiring may get damaged and that is why you need to open the unit and free up stuck flywheel by removing the item causing the jam so that the flywheel may rotate freely.
If you have a proper idea about the anatomy of a garbage disposal unit, you can do all of this stuff very well by yourself. Moreover, maintaining the device will become easier and you can also do it with proper care and consciousness if you are acquainted with the anatomy of the garbage disposal unit.
