I have a garbage disposal that had a shot glass fall in. It got ground up. The disposal got jammed; I unjammed it and now it makes a glass grinding noise because of the shards inside.
How do I clear the glass?
What do I need to do to fix this?
Garbage Disposal Repair – How to Fix a Garbage Disposal with Crushed Glass
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Related Solutions
Have a look at the trap under your sink. Assuming it's PVC with large plastic nuts, all you should need is ChannelLock pliers:
Unscrew the trap from the wall and disposal, and clean the trap itself, or snake the drain going into the wall, depending on where your clog is. Be sure to have a bucket and towels handy since there will be water backed up before the clog and in the trap.
If you can't find the clog either in the trap or with the snake, and you know it's further down the drain (try running some water through the disposal and into the bucket with the trap out), then I have family that swear by these drain bladders that attach to a garden hose, get inserted into the drain (past the vent) and they swell up to seal your end of the pipe while sending water down until the clog is forced out:
Each one of these will cost around $20 give or take, well less than a visit from a plumber.
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.
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Best Answer
The easy way: remove the large shards with tongs. If you're having a hard time, cut up an old kitchen sponge, make sure it's soft (moist) and put it in the tongs as a bait for all the glass shards. They'll stick in the sponge just like they would your hand. Then, just hope that the small pieces will go down the drain with time.
The hard way: unhook the disposal (turn off the power first), take it outside, turn it upside down, and really work on it with a garden hose. Wear gloves and verify by operating it via the screw on the base to make sure you got everything before you take it back in. Don't do this anywhere someone would go barefoot.