Jammed, leaking, humming, or dead? Most Los Angeles repairs are diagnosed and fixed on the same call — usually inside an hour once we're on-site.
Garbage disposal repair is our single most-called service across Los Angeles. On a normal weekday we're on the road across Los Angeles by 8 a.m. — Hollywood, Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Encino, Glendale, Pasadena — and the vast majority of those calls end with the same unit spinning again, no replacement needed. We're a mobile-only outfit, so we're not routing you to a shop or asking you to disconnect anything yourself. The van shows up, we open the cabinet, we diagnose, and in most cases we fix it right there.
This page covers the repair side specifically — not full replacement, not new installations. Repair means your existing disposal is salvageable: a jam that needs clearing, a seal that needs re-bedding, an air switch that needs replacing, a knockout plug that was never removed, an overload that keeps tripping because of a partial obstruction. If diagnostics show the unit itself is done (leak from the bottom shell, cracked grinding chamber, seized motor), we'll tell you honestly and quote replacement instead — but that's a different service, and we don't pretend to repair units that aren't worth repairing.
We service the whole LA basin: from the Westside (Santa Monica, Mar Vista, Culver City) through Central LA (Koreatown, Silver Lake, Echo Park), the Hollywood corridor, all of the San Fernando Valley (Van Nuys, Panorama City, Studio City, Encino, Sherman Oaks), and the Verdugo cities (Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena, Altadena). If your kitchen is inside that footprint, we can almost always get to you the same day.
Call for repair when the disposal is doing something wrong but hasn't fully died: it hums but won't spin (classic jam), it spins but water pools under the sink (flange leak or dishwasher inlet leak), it makes a metallic rattle (foreign object stuck in the grinding chamber), it keeps popping the reset button (thermal overload), or the wall switch clicks with no response (electrical fault upstream of the disposal itself). All of these are repairs, not replacements.
Call for replacement instead when the leak is coming from the bottom of the disposal shell, when the motor is completely silent even after resetting, when the unit is more than 12 years old and giving you multiple problems in the same year, or when there's a visible crack in the plastic or cast-iron housing. Not sure which one you have? Just call — the $75 travel & diagnostic covers us coming out, opening it up, and telling you exactly what's happening. That fee always applies to every visit and is not credited toward the work.
Classic jam. The motor is trying to turn but the impellers are locked around a bone fragment, fruit pit, twist-tie, or a chunk of scrap that fell in. We free it from underneath with a hex wrench, extract the object, reset the overload, and verify the motor spins clean under a water load. Usually a 20–30 minute fix.
Three common sources: the sink flange (dried putty), the dishwasher inlet connection (loose hose clamp or bad rubber gasket), or the discharge tube going into the P-trap (worn washer or misaligned slip nut). We isolate which one and re-seal or re-bed it. If the leak is from the bottom of the disposal itself, that's terminal — we'll quote a replacement.
Almost always a foreign object — silverware, bottle cap, glass shard, coin, or occasionally a wedding ring. Sometimes worn mounting bolts letting the disposal rock against the sink. We fish it out, retighten the mount, and confirm the impellers aren't chipped. If the impellers are damaged, the unit needs to be replaced.
The disposal has a thermal overload switch that trips when the motor overheats. Usually caused by a partial jam, running the disposal too long without water, or a failing motor drawing too much current. We diagnose which cause is at play — often the underlying issue is a small obstruction the motor was fighting for weeks.
Not always the disposal — often the wall switch, an air switch under the counter, a bad outlet under the sink, or a tripped GFCI upstream. We test the disposal directly with a jumper cord to isolate whether the fault is in the unit or the electrical supply. About a third of these calls end up being electrical, not the disposal itself.
If a new disposal or new dishwasher was installed and now the dishwasher floods, 90% of the time the knockout plug in the disposal's dishwasher inlet was never removed. Two-minute fix once we drop the disposal — but if you don't know it exists, it can look like a major problem.
Call (619) 626-3542 or use the form. We give you a two-hour arrival window — no all-day waiting. Most weekday calls booked before noon are on-site the same afternoon.
The $75 travel & diagnostic covers a full inspection: power test, water test, mechanical test. You get the exact quote before we start any repair work — nothing is done without your approval.
Most repairs are 30–60 minutes on-site. We carry parts for InSinkErator, Waste King, Moen, GE, and KitchenAid — flanges, gaskets, mounting kits, air switches, and replacement units if you decide to go that direction after diagnosis.
We run the disposal under load with cold water, check every joint for leaks, wipe down the cabinet floor, and leave the workmanship warranty in writing.
Silver Lake
Issue: 1940s craftsman on Angus St — InSinkErator Badger 5 humming, no spin, homeowner had already tried the reset button three times.
Fix: Freed a chicken bone from between the impellers with the hex wrench, reset the overload, ran under load — clean. Total on-site time: 22 minutes.
Sherman Oaks
Issue: Condo off Kester Ave — leak pooling in the cabinet after every dishwasher cycle. Owner thought disposal was dying.
Fix: Leak was actually the dishwasher inlet hose clamp on the disposal — not the disposal itself. Replaced clamp and gasket, retested two dishwasher cycles.
Pasadena
Issue: 1928 Bungalow near Old Pas — disposal tripping the kitchen circuit every time it was switched on.
Fix: Traced fault to a corroded outlet under the sink (moisture damage from a slow flange leak years earlier). Replaced outlet, re-bedded flange, tested — no more trips.
Travel & Diagnostic
$75
Always applies — never waived or credited
On-Site Repair
$99
Fix without replacing the unit
Replacement Labor
$249
If repair isn't the right call
Mobile on-site service across LA — same-day availability in most neighborhoods.
Same-day mobile service. Upfront quote. Most jobs done in one visit.
Call (619) 626-3542