garbage disposal won't turn on

[jimaj]

Been reading some of the posts (which is how I found your site). Disposal would just hum. Got the blades to spin around, still hummed. Put a butter knife in there and went around in circles and now I don't even get a hum!

[LazyPup]

First we have to determine if the disposal is actually turning or are you possibly mistaking the slingers for the cutter wheel?

Examine the illustration below and you will see both the slingers and the cutter/rotator. (In the illustration the cutter/rotator is labelled the grinder)

When a disposal hums but will not rotate that normally indicates the cutter/rotator plate is jammed. If that is the case you can usually make sure the power is off, then use a disposal wrench or the appropriately sized allen wrench to turn the motor shaft from the bottom to free the wheel.

Once you are certain the motor shaft and cutter wheel is turning free try turning it on. If you get no responce, chech the reset button on the bottom of the motor housing, then try it again.

If you are certain that the motor shaft and cutter wheel are free to turn, the reset button is properly depressed and it still only hums, the problem is either a jammed centrifical switch (inside the motor) or a burned out motor start winding. In that case you will have to replace the unit.