"Dottie" wrote in message
...
I have a 5 yr. old Insinkerator (Badger5) garbage disposal. It still
turns - but doesn't grind up anything. Is this about the average age
of a garbage disposal? I will go shopping for one in the next few
days and would like to know whether to get another one like this or
switch to something else.


What sorts of things is it NOT grinding? I'm asking because many years ago,
I discovered that a disposal will not handle kale stems, for instance.
Rather, it will spin them into rope strong enough to anchor an ocean liner.
If you've been putting any sort of tough vegetable stems into the disposal,
some of them may have wrapped themselves around the hammers (the parts that
do the grinding). That would prevent any subsequent food from being ground
up properly.

The hammers are easy to feel. They're not sharp, and they're on the bottom
plate of the disposal. Have you inspected them to see if they're covered
with something?