Dishwasher Knockout Plugs for Dummies - The Freelance Files MMCLXXI

disposal plumbing

Remember the cartoon that told you to pound forehead on keyboard? Every once in a while an Antisocial Network staffer gets the urge to do exactly that. It usually happens when someone comes across the sort of dumbassery that only occurs when "communications" majors try to explain tasks and procedures they've never attempted themselves by using references that... well, that aren't on point. Most recently, a staffer ran across a post by returning DotD Chad Buleen, who was pretending to know help someone complaining that "My Dishwasher Won't Drain and I Just Installed a New Garbage Disposal" at Hunker.com (a niche site full of content from eHow.com).

We'll give the young BYUBA credit for finding the most likely cause of the problem, not that it takes a genius:

"...if you want the garbage disposal to work with [a] dishwasher, you need to remove the knockout plug."

Yeah, that took a lot of searching, we suppose. It's too bad that Chad didn't keep searching to find out how to remove the knockout plug from a disposal that's already been installed. Instead, this is what he said to do – in its entirety

1. "Turn the water valve under the sink off by hand. Unscrew the garbage disposal from the base of the sink by turning the disposal counterclockwise."
2. "Unscrew the hose clamp from the inlet where the hose connects to the disposal and remove the hose."
3. "Lay the disposal on its side, with the inlet facing up."
4. "Insert a flathead screwdriver into the inlet."
5. Etc.

Chad's problem? He had several, including:

1. He didn't disconnect the power to the disposal.
2. He didn't disconnect the drain pipe from the disposal outlet.
3. He tried to unscrew the disposal while the dishwasher hose was still attached.

Can you tell that our Dumbass of the Day had never installed a garbage disposal when he wrote this? We could, and it's not like Buleen's an expert in everything he writes about: this is the fourth time we've featured him here.

We would be remiss if we didn't point out that, in order to prevent backflow from the disposer into the dishwasher, the discharge hose should always loop higher than the inlet on the disposal. Bet Chad didn't know that, either...

DDIY - PLUMBING