You can determine if a garbage disposal motor is permanently burned out by checking its behavior when power is applied. If you flip the wall switch and hear no sound whatsoever (and checking the reset button and circuit breaker yields nothing), or if the motor emits a persistent electrical hum that does not resolve after manually unjamming the blades and pressing the reset button—accompanied by a distinct electrical burning odor—the internal motor windings have failed and the unit must be replaced.
1 votes
Marked as accepted