Garbage Disposals for the Dummy Plumber

Disposal knockout plug removal

Our staffers think nothing is more hilarious than some freelancer attempting to write a how-to for a task he or she has never performed. On second thought, "hilarious" doesn't fit – perhaps we should say "annoying." In reality, if you're already pretty accomplished in the field and have dome closely related tasks, you can probably reword someone else's instructions. Knowing what you're doing helps a lot in describing the procedure and knowing what the terminology means. On the other hand, you could just reword instructions for something you've never done, and make a major boo-boo in the process. It sure looks like that's what eHow.com's Owen Pearson did for Hunker.com in "How to Remove the Knockout Plug in a Garbage Disposal."¹

Our DIY staffers have installed a few garbage disposals over the years (including one within the past couple of years at AN HQ), and when they read through Pearson's piece they were a bit underwhelmed. Of course, the first instruction Owen should have cribbed was probably "RTFM." After all, most of the time when you replace a garbage disposal, you have installation instructions (not that they're always comprehensible, of course). Those instructions will tell you how to remove the knockout plug, of that you can be certain.
Of course, Pearson found himself a thread on a Bob Vila chat board (which, by the way, became verboten for eHow soon after) with mention of the problem. Of course, never having done this himself, Owen quickly forgot what he said in his introduction:

"If you are installing a garbage disposal in a kitchen that contains a dishwasher, you will have to run the discharge pipe from the dishwasher into the garbage disposal for everything to work properly."

Nope, Pearson's instructions are specific to the problem that appeared in the TOH thread:

"...the plumber forgot to remove [the knockout] when he installed the disposal and dishwasher..."

Because of his unfamiliarity with the process, Owen's first instruction is

"Remove the dishwasher drain hose if it is already connected to the garbage disposal."

Duh: you're installing the darned thing, so the drain isn't already attached (unless you're a true dumbass). That's great, because – as some absent-minded DIYers can tell you – the knockout is much easier to remove while the disposer is sitting on the floor than after it's been hung on the bottom of the sink!
Nope, Pearson's unfamiliarity with this little plumbing project meant he gave a specific (and unusual) answer to a non-specific question. For his lack of knowledge and his lack of thought, we hereby name Owen the Dumbass of the Day.

¹ The original has been rewritten by Leaf Group's cleanup team, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   ehow.com/how_5918366_remove-knockout-plug-garbage-disposal.html

copyright © 2017-2023 scmrak

DDIY - PLUMBING