And then there was the garbage disposal … 🙄

When our garbage disposal broke, we installed a new one. It worked fine until we ran the dishwasher. For whatever reason, the dishwasher was now draining into the sink. The handyman inspected the situation and concluded that the brand new disposal had to be defective. And so we replaced it with another one. But that did not solve the problem either.

I know nothing about plumbing. But since the handyman was just as clueless, I didn’t have anything to lose, so I researched garbage disposals for myself.

I googled them, YouTubed them, thought about them, read manuals on them, and found …

… nothing.

Well, I found a lot, but nothing that helped with the drainage situation.

So I gave up on Google, and the internet, and the manuals, and the videos (and also on the handyman … 😉).

I sat down on the floor, right in front of the kitchen sink, and stared at the intertwined hoses and pipes. Some were attached to the garbage disposal, others were not.

I just sat there and stared, mesmerized.

At some point my mind went pleasantly silent. It didn’t have anything to contribute to solving this puzzle anyhow. Like I said, I know nothing about plumbing.

After sitting there for a while in silence, a notion emerged out of nowhere. It was very clear and genuine but delivered in a soft-spoken way. I probably would have missed it if my mind had been as noisy as it usually is.

The notion was that there had to be an obstruction somewhere that prevented the water from traveling freely from the dishwasher into the garbage disposal and from there down the drain.

I did not dwell on this idea. If I had, I probably would have questioned it and eventually dropped it.

So, instead of thinking about it, I just continued staring and looked for the most obvious spot for an obstruction. My eyes followed the tangle of hoses and pipes, and I envisioned the flow of water. Eventually, I zeroed in on one particular hose. I removed it, and pushed my finger into the opening where the hose had been attached to the garbage disposal.

And there it was.

My finger hit a wall. I immediately realized that was the problem, but I had no idea what to do about it.

To make a long story short, after a trip to Home Depot and more googling I found out that the little wall was called a “knockout plug.” It covered the hole where the dishwasher’s wastewater drained into the disposal. That plug had to be removed before installation.

Of course, after I had “goggled” 😳 the issue, I was better able to google 🤓 it, and I found tons of references to that plug. (I also spotted a mention in the instructions that came with the merchandise … duh … 😂)

I’m glad, though, it all happened the way it did. It allowed me to experience a new kind of problem solving – one that outwits experts, manuals, and even my own literacy (or rather illiteracy, considering that I hadn’t read the instructions carefully 🤪).

This kind of problem solving probably won’t work if the subject is completely out of my league, like finding a cure for cancer or a way to achieve world peace. But if it works for answers that I can conceive with my level of understanding, then that’s good enough for me! And it’s also totally fine that I can’t really take credit for it. 😁

Brigitte Schneider
aka Ms. Google gone Goggle

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