Post #104
Part 4: Good Advice, Bad Advice, and News About Investment People (continued)
Fixing the Garbage Disposer
This is another case where I should have just “called a guy”
right at the beginning.
A while ago the garbage disposer sprang a small leak. I called the manufacturer, who told me
that all it needed was some plumber’s putty between the sink and the sink
flange. The phone rep guaranteed
me that the job was so easy, even I could do it.
My spouse was away for the day so I decided to surprise her
and fix the leak myself. I
found the original directions, skipped over the section that said “Important
safety instructions, read completely before starting” and went right to page
5. They had a great picture of all
the pieces and how they fit together.
First I had to disconnect the disposer from the sink trap. No problem. Next I had to turn the disposer so it disconnected from the
mount ring. It wouldn’t
budge. I got a hammer and gave it
a tap. Still wouldn’t budge. I figured if I put a screw driver
against the sink flange from the top of the sink and whacked it a few times, I
might loosen it. Instead I put a
hole or two in the sink flange.
This didn’t look good. I
got back under the sink, stuck my head in the cabinet, and gave the mount ring
a mighty whack. Success! Not only did the disposer come loose,
it completely disconnected. You
can’t believe what a big hole a heavy disposer can put in the bottom of a
kitchen cabinet when it falls from its mount. It looked like a small cannon ball had hit the cabinet
floor.
At this point I needed a glass of water to clear my
head. I stood up and ran the tap
for a few minutes to get a nice cold drink. Then I noticed a large pool of water forming on the
floor. I looked into the
cabinet. Water was pouring out of
the disconnected sink trap, right into the new hole I had made in the cabinet,
and seeping out onto the floor.
That took a while to clean up!
I did have the presence of mind to super glue the holes I
had made in the sink flange before I cleaned the floor, so the glue would be
dry when I reattached my disposer to the mount ring. However, when I tried to reattach the disposer, it wouldn’t
stay put. Apparently, the fall had
cracked the hopper projections, and they wouldn’t fit securely into the
tightening ears. By the way, these
are technical terms. I’m not
making them up. Although my waste
disposer was equipped with the EZ Mount System, I think that the term was a
misnomer. I found it to be the
Impossible Mount System.
Finally, I realized that I had to buy a new disposer. I drove to an appliance store that has
a low sales tax. In New Jersey,
the size of the sales tax is inversely proportional to the chance of your being
involved in a drive by shooting. I
went to a store with a negative sales tax. This is an area where you need Kevlar lined clothing.
When I got there, I noticed that the local parking lot was
on fire. I pulled the car onto the
sidewalk right in front of the
appliance place. I waited until
they lowered the drawbridge, and made my way onto the appliance floor.
The salesman sold me a new food waste disposer (the name had
been upgraded since I purchased the last one) for $194.67. He told me it was so simple to install
I could do it myself. I asked him
to give me the name of a guy I could call.
By the way, I still have a hole in the bottom of the cabinet. I thought I could hide it with a big box of Brillo Soap Pads, but my spouse found it pretty quick. She didn’t believe termites were responsible.
Comments