Garbage Disposal Installation in San Diego: Replacing an Old Unit or Adding a New One

Most of the garbage disposal calls we get are replacements. The old unit leaks from underneath, or it went quiet and won’t start. The rest are first installs in kitchens that never had a disposal. We handle both, and we’re happy to put in a unit you’ve already bought. Before you buy anything, though, two quick checks can save you the price of a new disposal. Courtesy Plumbing installs disposals across San Diego on weekdays, from 8 AM to 5 PM.

One thing an installation won’t fix: water standing in both sink bowls while the disposal itself runs fine. That’s a blockage further down the drain line, and we pass drain clearing to Drain Mob, the drain specialists we partner with.

Two Checks Before You Replace It

The red reset button. InSinkErator puts a small red square overload button on the bottom of each disposal, facing the floor. It trips when the motor jams or runs too long, and the unit simply stops. Turn the wall switch off, look underneath, and if the button has dropped about a quarter inch, press it gently. If it won’t stay in, give it ten minutes and try again. One of our customers was sure their disposal had died after they freed a jam; our technician pressed that button and it started right up. If yours hums but won’t turn, it’s jammed, and our garbage disposal repair page explains that fix.

The gray tag. InSinkErator’s warranty is an in-home one: inside the warranty period, the company arranges service at your house. The serial number is on a gray tag near the bottom of the unit. On older tags the first two digits are the year it was made and the next two are the month, so 1503 means March 2015. Units built since summer 2024 carry a new 10-digit serial format. The warranty length depends on the model and is listed in its manual, and the period starts from the latest of three dates: installation, purchase or manufacture. Keep the receipt, since it can push the start date later. InSinkErator’s warranty page shows how to read your tag.

A unit that drips from its own body, not from a pipe joint, has a failed internal seal. That one is finished, and no amount of tightening will help.

Replacing an Old Disposal: What Carries Over

A straight swap is the quickest version of the job, mostly because of the mount. InSinkErator’s Quick Lock mount lets one of its disposals twist off and another twist on, and the company says any Badger model can be swapped for any Badger or Evolution model. If the sink flange and mount are sound and dry, they can stay. A different brand, or a flange that has been seeping, gets a new flange bedded in fresh plumber’s putty and a new mounting assembly.

Two details trip people up on a swap. Every new disposal ships with a plastic plug sealing its dishwasher inlet, and if nobody taps it out, the dishwasher can’t drain. Our dishwasher installation page covers that plug and California’s air gap rule. The new unit may also sit higher or lower than the old one, so the discharge tube often needs cutting down or an extension to line up with the trap.

If your old InSinkErator model has been discontinued, the company publishes a chart pairing each retired model with a current one of similar horsepower.

Adding a Disposal Where There Wasn’t One

A first install changes more under the sink. The basket strainer comes out of the drain opening, the pipes below it come off, and while the horizontal drain into the wall is open, it’s a good time to clean it out. Then the flange, mount and disposal go in, and the trap is put back together to fit the new layout.

Height decides how smoothly that goes. The disposal’s outlet has to sit above the point where the drain enters the wall, so the trap can dip and rise the way it’s meant to. On a sink plumbed without a disposal, that wall connection is sometimes set high, and the trap can’t be built properly until the drain at the wall is lowered. We check that before anything is bought or cut.

Power is the other half of a first install. Most disposals plug into an outlet in the sink cabinet that a wall switch controls, and some are wired in directly. If your cabinet has no switched power, adding it is electrical work, and older kitchens may also need ground-fault protection added. Our Mira Mesa disposal installation guide explains that electrical side in detail.

Picking the Unit

We install InSinkErator disposals, and we’ll install one you picked out yourself. Customers have had us fit a disposal they bought that morning, and others have supplied their own parts for a swap. If your last unit wore out early, look at the grind parts as well as the horsepower. InSinkErator’s entry-level Standard Series uses galvanized steel grind components, while its Power Series steps up to stainless steel. We’ll go over the options for your kitchen during the visit.

How the Installation Visit Goes

1. We look at the setup under the sink first: the mount, the drain, the dishwasher hose and the power. You get the price before any work starts.
2. Power is shut off at the breaker, the trap is disconnected, and the old unit comes off its mount.
3. The flange and mount are reused or replaced, the dishwasher knockout is removed, and the power connection is made.
4. The new disposal is hung and locked in place, and the discharge tube is lined up with the trap.
5. We run water and check for leaks at the sink flange, the dishwasher connection, the tailpipe and the mount, then run the disposal.

With the cabinet emptied, it’s a good time to sort out anything else at that sink. Customers often have a related leak, a new kitchen faucet or a filtered water faucet handled on the same visit as the disposal. In one new kitchen, our technician installed the sink, disposal and dishwasher together and finished in an afternoon.

Swapping one corded InSinkErator for another is a fair DIY job thanks to that Quick Lock mount. Call us when the job needs new power in the cabinet, a drain change at the wall, or a leak you can’t trace.

Master plumber Tony Misleh started Courtesy Plumbing in 2007, and each disposal we put in is covered by our state license, CSLB #910268. For an installation, call (858) 567-0544 on a weekday between 8 and 5, or tell us the make and model you have through our Contact Us page.