How do you reset a garbage disposal?
Updated August 2026
5 minutes · Easy DIY
Press the red overload button on the underside of the disposal and the unit comes back to life, usually in under five minutes and for no money. That button pops out when the motor draws too much current, which happens after a jam, a marathon grind, or a sink full of potato peels. One distinction decides your next move: a disposal that is completely silent has lost power and wants the reset, while a disposal that hums has a jammed flywheel and has to be freed first. Pressing reset on a humming unit only cooks the motor further.
What you need
- A flashlight
- A small mirror for tight cabinets (optional)
Before you start: The wall switch is the only thing standing between the impellers and your fingers, so turn it off and keep it off while you work under the sink. If anything is going into the grinding chamber, open the breaker instead: a housemate can flip a switch back on, and rarely a breaker. Never put a hand down the throat of a disposal, powered or not. Use tongs. The chamber holds standing water too, so dry your hands before touching the plug or the outlet.
Steps
- Turn the wall switch off and leave it off before your hands go anywhere near the sink or the cabinet below it.
- Listen to what the disposal did. Dead silence points at power: a tripped overload, a dead switch, or a breaker. A hum with no rotation means the flywheel is jammed, and no amount of resetting fixes that.
- Clear the cabinet out and shine a flashlight on the bottom of the unit. The reset is a small red or black square button in the center of the underside, usually within an inch of the seam in the motor housing.
- Push it straight in until it clicks and stays flush. If it springs back out, the motor is still hot. Wait 10 to 15 minutes and press it again.
- Flip the wall switch on with cold water running. Give it two or three seconds; a healthy disposal spins up instantly.
- Still nothing? Plug a lamp into the outlet under the sink to prove the receptacle is live, then check the panel for a tripped 15 or 20 amp breaker. Many disposals share a circuit with the dishwasher.
- If the reset trips again within a few minutes of ordinary use, stop resetting it. Repeat trips mean dragging bearings or a failing motor, and that unit is on borrowed time. Check its age against how long a garbage disposal lasts.
Or hire it out
A plumber or handyman charges $100 to $200 for this call, and plenty of those visits end with the tech pressing the same button you can reach in 30 seconds. Replacement is the real money: $250 to $450 installed for a mid-range unit.
Done. Now the part everyone skips: doing it again on schedule. Log it in OnOtto and the next reminder for disposal resets sets itself.
Log this task, get the next reminderFrequently asked questions
Where exactly is the reset button on my disposal?
On the flat underside, dead center, on nearly every InSinkErator and Badger unit. Waste King and a few Moen models put it on the bottom face too, but it can be recessed and dark red rather than bright. A phone light plus a small mirror finds it in a tight cabinet in about a minute. A handful of models use an internal automatic reset with no button at all; on those, cut power at the breaker for five minutes and restore it.
Why does my disposal keep tripping the reset button?
Repeat trips mean the motor keeps overloading, not that the button is faulty. The usual causes are a partial jam that lets the flywheel drag, chronic overloading of a 1/3 hp motor with heavy or fibrous scraps, or worn bearings on a unit past 10 years. Grease and eggshell grit silting up the chamber makes all three worse. A monthly ice-and-cold-water grind keeps that grit moving; the schedule is on how often to clean a garbage disposal.
Should I press reset before or after clearing a jam?
After, always. The reset restores current to the motor, and current into a stalled motor is exactly what overheated it in the first place. Free the flywheel first with a 1/4-inch hex wrench in the socket at the bottom center, with the power off at the breaker, then press the button. If the unit is more than 8 to 12 years old and jams every few weeks, price a replacement against the repair time using how often to replace a garbage disposal.