It’s not duct tape. But it may be something you have around the house…or more likely, out in the garage. Just the other day I had use for it.
Saturday morning when I went to pour the water off the olives I’m curing, I carelessly refilled one jar with hot instead of cold tap water. That seemed undesirable…the olives should soak in cold water. Too lazy to snap the handy plastic lid back on, I poured the water out through my fingers…and of course, the wet glass slipped right through my hands, crashed into the sink, and exploded into a mass of razor-sharp glass and olives (with pits!), all of which came to rest at the opening to the garbage disposal.
Yes.
A great wad of busted-up glass and olive pits, poised to drop direct into the garbage disposal.
Well, after picking out the glass shards and rescuing as many olives as I could (and cutting the hell out of my fingers), what I had was a bunch of broken glass and olives (with pits!) down inside the garbage disposal. Put on some disposable gloves and fished out as many as I could, cutting myself only once more.
{sigh}
Dialed the plumber. This was adding up to a new garbage disposal. I could feel it in my bones.
Got the plumber on his cell phone. “Want me to turn the unit on and see what happens?”
Well, no. “Uhmm,…” said he, “do you have a shop vac?”
“Yeah.” (Doesn’t everyone?)
“Good. Turn it to wet-vac, stick the hose down the drain, and try to vacuum everything out of it. Then fill up the sink and try to rinse whatever’s left down.”
Okay.
Got off the phone. Emptied the dirt out of the shop-vac, still there from whatever the last adventure was. Put the thing back together. Plugged her in, shoved the hose end into the garbage disposal, and turned her on!
She howled and she clicked and she clattered and she jingled as the glass and olives and whatnot flew out of the plumbing. Didn’t take long before the rattle of debris passed and it sounded like nothing else was coming out.
Disengaged the vacuum cleaner. Filled a bucket half-full of water and poured it into the sink while the accursed water-saving tap was running at its excuse for full-bore. This put enough water into the sink to flow down the drain with some force.
And turned on the garbage disposal switch.
Mirabilis! It WORKED!
Nothing banged, nothing clanked, nothing rattled…and the garbage disposal did not jam! Saved!
There you go: the real handyman’s secret weapon. The shop-vac. Worth its weight in plumber’s tools.
Image: Nynexman4464. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.
Gosh what a nightmare – but with a happy ending! I don’t think we actually own one of those things…idea for Christmas maybe? Sorry about the lost olives, though…
Most of the olives were saved. They came to rest at the top of the drain, stopped from rolling down by the disposer’s little rubber flap cover thingie. So I managed to pick them up, one or two at a time, rinse them off, and make sure they were glass-free. The disposable gloves allowed me to dig out the others, which I also washed carefully.
A shop-vac isn’t very expensive, as small appliances go. I use mine for all sorts of odd chores. It’s a very useful tool.
I’ve seen a little flowchart that always makes me laugh.
Should it move? Yes. Does it move? Yes. It works.
Should it move? Yes. Does it move? No. Use WD-40.
Should it move? No. Does it move? No. It works.
Should it move? No. Does it move? Yes. Use duct tape.
Not sure if they could wiggle the Shop Vac in here 🙂
I need to get one of those things. I have been using just a regular vacuum for really dirty jobs, and it has really taken a beating. :\