garbage disposal not draining, both sides w/water

[autumnraine]

Hi there, only think I can remember doing different is putting a lot of spaghetti and meatballs (leftovers) down the drain. When I went to use it later in the day it wouldnt drain the water, it backed up into the other side of the sink. Motor turns but only swishes the water around, after awhile the water goes somewhere (I am assuming drains) but then when you turn on the water it starts all over. I did the reset button, allen wrench, took apart the pipes running from the disposal to the other side but it looked as if nothing was stuck preventing the draining. Plumber coming over later this afternoon but hoping to fix it and cancel. Any suggestions that I have not tried?? Thank you much.

[albright]

Well you have a clog that may be from the spaghetti or build up over time. Spaghetti, rice and foods that are pourous like that swell up from saturating the water. Avoid cooking oil also.

[Phelps]

Years ago I had this problem at an old lady rental and I ended up taking the Y drain apart under the sink and found the main just beyond the Y fitting just absolutley impacted with swelled spagetti...just jammed with it!

If you have a clog downstream beyond a vent pipe, the disposer will actually power it up the vent pipe. Then when you turn off the disposer, the water can fill up the disposer by itself again as if it's haunted. But that is where the water went...temporarily up the vent.

[LazyPup]

This is a common problem for disposals on a double sink. Basically disposals do not like spaghetti or rice,,hehehehh ..but seriously, the problem is easy to fix.

Either midway between the two sinks or directly under the sink opposite of the disposal you will see a TEE fitting on the waste lines which connects the two sinks into one drain to the P-trap. By code, that TEE fitting must have internal baffles and when spaghetti or rice is run through a disposal often it will clog up in the baffles of the tee.

Solution:

Place a bucket under the P-trap and disconnect the trap allowing the water to drain into the bucket.

Now disconnect the TEE fitting and manually clean the inside of that tee fitting. Once you have the tee cleaned you should be able to reassemble the Tee, drain pipes & P-trap and have the problem solved.