Can You Fix A Smelly Garbage Disposal?

If your garbage disposal smells awful, even after you flush it with hot, soapy water, call a plumber for emergency services today. Your garbage disposal could be clogged with old food, grease, and other debris. If you don't service your garbage disposal now, it could cause issues with your kitchen plumbing later. Learn more about your smelly garbage disposal and how an emergency plumber can fix it below. 

Why Do Your Garbage Disposal Smell?

If you currently prepare most of your meals at home during the week, you may use your garbage disposal on a daily basis. Although garbage disposals are designed to break down and discard soft foods, such as pasta, eggs, and cooked vegetables, the appliance can build up with smelly debris over time. The debris can make your kitchen and home smell like sewage or rotten eggs.

Hot, soapy water may not be strong enough to clear out the debris inside your garbage disposal. If you try to force the debris out of the disposal with a plunger or stick, you may accidentally bend or break the blades inside the appliance. Rather than risk damaging your garbage disposal and plumbing pipes, call an emergency plumber for help instead.

How Do You Fix Your Garbage Disposal? 

Although the problem with your garbage disposal may not seem like an emergency, you still want to have a plumber fix it for you. If your garbage disposal fails completely, it can make life difficult for you at home. In addition, a broken garbage disposal can cause problems with the plumbing pipes beneath the sink. Large pieces of food can lodge inside the pipes and block them. 

An emergency plumber will test your garbage disposal to see if it still works as intended. If the appliance turns on without straining or making other strange sounds, a plumber will simply need to clean it for you. In this case, a plumber will disconnect the power to the appliance before they flush and clean it. 

A plumber will also flush out any pipes connected to your garbage disposal. Debris can dislodge from the pipes and clog up your garbage disposal later. 

If the odor inside your garbage disposal still remains after the emergency services above, it may be time to purchase a new appliance soon. A plumber can install a new garbage disposal for you at a later date.

For more information on emergency plumbing, contact a professional near you.