Waste disposal unit in new house has destroyed me

[Bloodyhellthishouse]

I’ve just moved house. Old owners were very into gadgets (I am not, so I’m struggling as no instructions left for anything) however, they have an “Insinkerator” waste disposal unit.

I used it twice and tonight came home to a pool of water underneath it.

So I googled and flushed it with some hot soapy water thinking it probably had a small blockage.

Certainly did, and the weight of the water meant the fucking thing literally fell off the bottom of the sink. So now the sink and dishwasher can’t be used because there is just a sink hole where this fucking thing used to be!!

I want to just get it taken off. I don’t even know (beyond a plumber) what to do about it! I don’t know how to unblock it, don’t know how to attach it and don’t know why it was blocked anyway.

Long and the short of it is I’ve cried. I can’t make any sense of the hive heating here, I’ve got no internet for another week and they removed the tv aerial so I’ve got no telly, a pipe under the utility room sink pissed water everywhere a day after I got here and now this stupid, bastard waste disposal has fallen off, very nearly taking all the plastic pipes with it.

This was a new start for me and it’s just been one thing after another since the day I moved in.

So, does anyone know anything about these units? It’s full of water so that’s why it fell. Clearly sooner or later that was going to happen.

We have an insinkerator. Dh hails from a land in which this gadget is typical and I dragged my heels on it as long as possible (I blame watching the gremlins on loop as a kid) but now we have it, I love it.

There's some stuff you don't want to throw down there though, some is counter intuitive - chicken bones fine - coffee grounds and onion skins bad. It's worth looking up. But it's brill for speeding up the post-dinner clean.

If you are going to pay someone to look at it you may as well get it fixed as pulled out.

Of course they need a lot of water - otherwise the mush you just made will sit inside the unit rather than go anywhere.
That’s rule #1 with these - lots and lots of water to flush through the freshly-blended waste.

All of the tech you mention is useful stuff once working correctly - I’d focus on embracing it rather than ripping it out.
Hive saves us a lot of money (and lets us put the heating on remotely when we’re heading home from the airport etc) and I don’t need to explain how CCTV is good for security.

Oh God, yeah, you run the tap full blast the whole time it is on and I leave it on for a few seconds after for good measure.

I watched far too many 90s horror movies to have one of these in my house! 😱

Hope you get it sorted op.

I think that my error, I didn’t know re the water, so I think I’ve gummed it up inside and it needs cleaning out. I have no idea how to do that, so trying to find a plumber.
I’ve never used one and when the owner told me about it he said “you chick it all in, press this and it’s gone” omitting the large part involving water

I had one of those (blocked when I bought the flat) but had it removed and not even by the plumber, just a keen DIY enthusiast friend.
So easy to find out the hard way what not to put in there.

Aren't we supposed to recycle kitchen waste rather than feed the rats in the sewage system?🤔

So that is the most frustrating thing I found…we couldn’t get it ‘signed over to us’ and it took me forever to find this out. We downloaded the app and everything but it just doesn’t work unless you have a subscription. You don’t need one though. The box our previous owner left just works like a thermostat and we control the temp on that…with no instructions we had to just play around with it until we got used to the buttons.

Oh I sympathise OP, nothing worse than moving into a new house and stuff going wrong. I was a single parent and moved into a house where the built-in fridge broke (that was fun in summer with two small children!), the oven, the boiler, then we had nice…I did find everything very upsetting at the time because you feel so stupid and helpless, and like you’ve been conned! And it’s very hard to get these things sorted when you’re on your own and work too - I don’t think people in couple realise how much harder it is with just one adult in the house.

Everything did get sorted in the end and now I don’t live there any more we look back on that house fondly.

Oh dear OP 😢. I have to say I have an Insinkerator and I bloody love it. No more gross food waste bins. A plumber will fix it easily. The older models are more likely to get blocked jn my experience, when I moved I installed the absolute daddy of units and it's never failed me yet. Sorry you have to deal with mystery gadgets though. It's crap 😞

Some waste disposals require running water when in use others you put a plug in and run it dry. Look up the model you have and see which one it is.

Since they need a lot of water, it might be worth to find the manual of your specific model on the manufacturer's site or something, and that should tell you also how much electricity it uses on top of that.

In comparison, as the food waste needs to go somewhere, which would be the prices for another or a bigger bin?

Then it's possible to figure out what is more cost-effective with possibly rising energy and water prices (as this is a new home): to keep using this equipment or register for a different/larger bin.

Plus, all the shredded food in the sewage then needs to be cleaned out at the sewage plants which raises the cost to clean water. Plus there were several reports in the media about water companies just dumping sewage into rivers or not fixing leaking pipes etc.

In contrast, food compost can be turned into energy at the recycling plant.

Insinkerators, are not really supposed to serve as garbage disposal though they are often called that. I only used mine to rinse out the sink of leftover bits quickly and efficiently. I wouldn't dream of chucking loads of vegetable peels down there. Let's not be lazy and overdo it. If you use it correctly you should really never have a problem. And that is not said lightly; can think of no other electrical appliance that lasts several lifetimes and is so useful and time saving?

Jesus we stick everything down there, pineapple skin, whole chicken carcasses (DS as we're veggie), I think the only time we've had trouble was with melon skin oh and the teaspoon which fell down there although you'd know immediately as it makes a dreadful noise. Don't use bleach on it or it rots the seals, a halved lemon and a dishwasher tablet will keep it grease free and smelling nice.

Are we just letting this comment go 🙄. Just trot off and find a man that can help 🤦🏼‍♀️

That's not correct - you need an account, but they're free. No sub here, had hive for three years now and it's paid for itself several times over.

You can also just use it as a "twiddle the knob to a temp and forget it" without even using all the fancy shit.

It's a shame the previous owners didn't leave you a manual of how everything works. Our house has zero gadgets and the previous owner left details of what keys worked where, that the dishwasher connectors had been put on the wrong way round so the pipe that you think was hot was actual the cold water pipe. Things like that. I hope you get sorted soon. It's discombobulating enough moving to a new home without added tech problems.

I have been in my house 5 years, never turn the sink thing on.

You'll get there OP.

To clean the water disposal, stick a lemon down there cut in half, followed by a good squeeze of washing up liquid and running very hot water. Never put fat down there. It may be a plumber can replace the pipe /tubing and reattach properly. They are very useful.

When using, add a bit at a time with plenty of running water. And poke down with a wooden spoon. Don't ram it full otherwise it will block up.

Thankyou everyone.
I am currently waiting for a plumber. Will get it sorted if I can, if not, I’m turning it back into a normal sink