A few very basic disposal install questions:

[oldberkeley]

1. After the disposal is hung and all three mounting tabs are locked over the ridges on the slide-up ramps, can the disposal still be rotated into the proper position? Or does that have to be determined beforehand?

2. Can the dishwasher high drain loop be mounted on the back of the sink cabinet rather than the side?

3. The top of the drain loop must be higher than the top of the dishwasher?????

TIA.

 

[hj]

1. You can rotate it as long as you have NOT completely tighten the lock ring
2. It can be mounted anywhere
3. It should be as high as possible, but the height of the dishwasher is irrelevant.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[oldberkeley]

Thanks for your prompt reply.

One follow up: my neighbor was bad-mouthing the dishwasher inlet on garbage disposals, said that they should not be used (leak, cause problems with disposal???) and instead the dishwasher's flexible drain hose should be connected directly to the undersink drain pipes. Is this true?

TIA.

 

[Dj2]

No.
The dishwasher discharge (waste) is connected to an air gap (on top of the sink), and the air gap is connected to the garbage disposal.

 

[Jadnashua]

If you use a powdered DW detergent AND your water temperature is not hot enough, the highly corrosive detergent can accumulate in the hose and the inlet of the disposer. Some of the cheaper ones are made of a cast metal, and over time, that accumulation of detergent can corrode things enough to actually eat them away. That happened to my first one - one day, it literally was hanging by the pipes under the sink, and the nipple where the DW connected was nearly plugged and it fell off, too!

You CANNOT attach a DW directly to the drain...it needs some means to prevent a drainage system backup from forcing wastes into the DW. In some places, a high loop to the drain from a DW is not allowed, and it requires an air gap. Think of a spout and a funnel with a gap between the outlet of the spout - that's a rough explanation of how an air gap works. The outlet of the funnel then goes to the drain. The two internal parts are far enough apart (the air gap) to prevent any backup from finding its way to the DW and maybe contaminating your dishes when you don't know it.

 

[Terry]

1. You can rotate it as long as you have NOT completely tightend the lock ring
2. the hose can be mounted on either side.
3. It should be as high as possible.

For example, I visited one home where the discharge from the dishwasher went to the disposer and drained downward to the dishwasher. Often that dishwasher went days between being run. After a few days, the dark looking water in the bottom of the dishwasher was almost to the door opening level. And it smelled.
My fix was to install an air gap on the countertop, which prevented the dirty water from the disposer to drain back down into the dishwasher.
After the fix, they no longer had smelly water in the dishwasher.
Some dishwashers may have a check on the discharge line, but not all of them do.

And as far as rusting out a disposer...........they really only last about eight years before the blades start to dull and they don't chip well, causing drain problems. They may spin, but that doesn't mean they are doing the job anymore.