I revisit Home Depot

Hi everybody.

Before I forget to do this I want to answer Andi. Before I answer Andi I want to thank her, thank you. I really enjoy the comments.

Yesterday , or was it the night before, now I can't remember? The first thing I did when I got silence from the garbage disposal was swear, a lot. The second thing was check the breaker which was "off." I flipped the breaker on, checked the reset button and the clog thing you turn on the bottom. Nothing worked and the breaker kept popping off. At this point I had unplugged the disposal. When I tried to plug it back in I heard noise and saw sparks. I decided then we had a problem, probably a big one.

I left yesterday with the problem and a soon to take trip to Home Depot.

At the local Home Depot yesterday I was directed to one of the guys that works in the commercial area of the store. I told him my problem, he asked how old the disposal was and I told him around thirty years. He didn't hesitate two seconds and said, "you need a new one." He then proceeded to explain a bunch of stuff I didn't understand about bushings and armatures. I nodded politely as if I knew what the Hell he was talking about. I figured if he was taking the time it was the least I could do.

He walked me over to the Badger garbage disposal area and determined we only needed a smallish one. As soon as he said, "You have everything you need right in this box." I knew I was in trouble. See, Handy Man Mike installed our dishwasher about 1994, it was still working fine. The potential problem, I thought, was all the plumbing he did under the sink at the time. Most everything he did back then has broken, fallen apart and/or has been a bitch to clean up after. Not knowing what I may need I took the Badger and a new power cord package. Wouldn't you think if you paid a hundred bucks you would get a damn power cord? He said I could use the old one but since the plug looked melted I wanted a new one. One garbage disposal and one hundred and eleven dollars poorer I left for home.

I'll spare you some of the details but installing the thing was not as easy as the web site suggested. This was supposed to take about one hour. I started around noon and finished around four or so. The Home Depot man was almost correct in his assumption that I would have "everything I needed." Does every household have "Plumbers Putty" around? It just so happens, I did. I needed an extra trip to get some when we installed a new bathroom faucet a few months ago.

What gave me a real problem was getting something called a "snap ring" to snap. This would also be a little easier with a helper, maybe. I have mentioned before what a jerk I am when doing things like this, it's just as well I did it alone. I had to put a 1" ring of plumbers putty around the sink opening, put the new sink collar in to the opening and press it down flush with the sink. The next step was laying down under the sink, working upside down to put the under the sink stuff in. The disposal holder-on-er-rings and such. This was a little difficult since I was pushing up which made the sink collar lift up. Finally I redid the putty etc. and laid the old disposal in the sink to act as a weight, it worked.

I also had a little trouble getting the garbage disposal on, it's heavy and you are working upside down,  but, eventually it locked into place. As far as I could tell, I was done. It was now time to test everything.

I went into the garage and flipped on the breaker. I came into the kitchen, plugged in and tested the dishwasher (it's on the same plug) it worked. I plugged in the garbage disposal and the thing started working. I guess this may have been a good sign but the wall switch was OFF. I quickly flipped the wall switch to ON, the disposal stopped. I don't remember what I did next but whatever it was tripped several breakers and the entire family room/kitchen lost power. Eventually, and, after a couple of different things I determined that when I flipped the wall switch ON  the entire room lost power. I unplugged everything, flipped the breakers off and decided to call it a day.

Ten or fifteen minutes after giving up, Wanda got home from work. The kitchen was a mess, I had crap everywhere. Nothing was working. I spent all that money and for all I knew would still need an electrician here. I had a great big ugly bruise on my right wrist and a deep cut on my right thumb. I was tired, frustrated and hungry. We had a strainer sitting over the sink hole. I was about one more problem or five minutes away from vibrating. Oh, forgot to mention. When the power went out I lost all the Wii Fi in the house and had to spend time resetting everything.

Wanda did the best she could with the kitchen situation and made dinner. We both cleaned up then she did some work on the computer. I watched a little TV and tried to calm down. "The Lost Weekend" and "Days Of Wine And Roses" was on TCM so I watched them. There is nothing like a couple of movies about alcoholics to cheer a person up. I was obviously drained as I fell asleep in front of the TV around ten.

After doing some on line research this morning I learned I needed to fix a problem with the receptacle I installed under the sink. Of the two plugs, one is always "hot." The other one is controlled by the switch on the wall. There is a little metal tab between the two screws where the wires go on the receptacle. I was supposed to break that off and I hadn't. So, both the dishwasher and disposal were "hot." With this knowledge I knew my third trip to Home Depot would be a snap. I was going to get a new switch and receptacle (just to be on the safe side).

It was now 7:20 in the morning. I wanted to get going but hadn't had any coffee. With all I had done and would be doing I thought a trip to Starbucks was in order. What was I thinking? It was like half the population of our town was in the Starbuck's/Al's Doughnuts parking area. Two coffee shops directly across the lot. Both these places have their regulars, it was crowded and busy. I made my way into the store, placed my order and moaned for ten minutes. The Barista decided to restock her cups, milk and coffee beans just before making my latte.I finally got my order and got the Hell out of there and on to Home Depot.

I must have looked lost as I stood staring at all the possible wall switches and receptacles. Maybe you heard of a movie, "The Men Who Stare At Goats?" (i haven't seen it) I was the "Man Who Stares At Electrical Stuff." A worker asked if he could "help me." I told him my issue only to hear, "Sorry, today is just my second day in electrical." "I used to work in paint." and he added, "If I gave someone bad advice there all they would need do is paint over, here you could get killed." THAT was just what I wanted to hear. He thought maybe he would go get someone who really could help me. Just a few minutes later he returned.

"I talked to one of the other guys," he said. "It's really cramped under the sink and such." His advice was, "Call an electrician." He then went on to apologize for the lack of help and added, "Oh, he said it's probably something really simple, would only cost about forty bucks."

Does anyone think an electrician would bother to answer the phone for forty bucks?

I picked out a switch and came home. I already had two new receptacles plus the one I screwed up yesterday. I decided to give this one more chance. I would break off that metal thing install a new wall switch. If that worked, great. If it didn't, I would call an electrician and figure on spending a tad more than forty bucks.

After the better part of two days, three trips to Home Depot and one hundred and fourteen dollars I am done. The dishwasher works, the water drains and nothing leaks under the sink. The disposal seems to be installed properly. It is off when the wall switch is off and on when it's on. The motor works, it grinds and I am done, at least for now.

By the way, it's a beautiful day, around sixty degrees. Tomorrow I guess I can try to figure out why the driver side window in my car won't roll down. Well, actually it sort of "falls" down, then will not roll up. If nothing else, I just happen to have a decent hammer.