I want to install the charging station for a battery-powered "Dirt Devil" vacuum cleaner under the kitchen sink. There's an outlet there which the garbage disposal plugs into, so I thought I would just add an outlet multiplier and plug them both in. But when I plugged my drill directly into the outlet to test this idea, the drill didn't work. Is the garbage disposal outlet (USA) not compatible with standard electric devices? Is there something simple I can do to make this work?
Electrical – How to make the garbage disposal outlet work for other electric devices
electricalgarbage-disposal
Related Solutions
The receptacle that the disposal is plugged into is fed from the Load side of the GFCI receptacle, thereby providing ground fault protection to the receptacle. There is a ground fault somewhere between the GFCI and the disposal, which is causing the GFCI to do it's job and trip.
You'll have to locate the fault, and fix it. If you don't have (or know how to use) a multimeter, you'll want to contact an Electrician. If you have a multimeter and know how to use it, you can narrow down where the fault is by checking continuity between hot and ground.
Start by turning off the breaker, and insuring power is off in the area you'll be working. Unplug the disposal and do a continuity test between the hot blade (smaller blade) on the plug, and the ground pin (long roundish pin). If the test shows there is not fault in the disposal, move up the circuit to the next device (receptacle) and test again (don't plug the disposal back in). If you still haven't found the fault, continue working your way up the circuit (the switch next) until you reach the GFCI. If you still haven't found the fault, try replacing the GFCI receptacle (making sure to hook it back up the same way).
If you still cannot resolve the issue, it's probably best to call in an Electrician (since they'll have cooler gadgets to troubleshoot the circuit). I would focus most of my attention on the disposal and the switch, since those tend to be the usual culprits.
The easiest thing to test with is a receptacle tester:
But that won't find all problems, in fact there's a good chance it won't find this one. Never decide you're safe just because a receptacle tester gives you a good indication! Some of the problems they won't identify are dangerous.
Even testing with a meter won't find certain problems. This article:
details the hows and whys. It shows how a non-contact voltage tester like this one
Can spot some dangerous problems that other methods will miss.
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Best Answer
If you really want to do this you can remove the switch and splice the wires thru so the receptacle is hot all the time. You can then install one of these: Sink top air switch.