Today I took on the role of a plumber to take care of a few things around the house.

You may remember in my post The Travel Formula that I mentioned that my garbage disposal was leaking on the day that I was packing for my trip.

This is one of the pictures that I took this morning before heading off to the hardware store. I needed to know what connections that I had to make sure that I picked up the right replacement.

Here is where the disposal attaches to the sink. It looked a bit complicated.

Luckily for me, they carried the same exact model that I was replacing. I also found that the replacement work would not be as complicated as I thought.

I simply needed to disconnect the power, pipe and hose and then use a screwdriver to turn the disposal in the mount to remove it from the sink.

Here are the two disposals along with the tools and parts that were needed. You can also see a package with a red part in it that I used for another important project.

The most difficult part of the replacement happened to be one thing that I know about.

What made it difficult? The cable clamp and wire fasteners that the previous person used. The cable clamp was simply not the right one for the job and was difficult to put back. Also the wires were crimped together instead of using wire nuts.

I had to dig through my garage looking for wire strippers and wire nuts. I gave up on trying to find wire nuts and headed back to the hardware store. I now have a set of miscellaneous wire nuts just in case I need them for something else.

Here is the newly installed garbage disposal. I still have the bucket underneath just in case. However, testing showed that it was leak free.

Luckily the second plumbing job was a bit simpler. Here is my newly installed toilet flapper. It took only a few minutes to get it installed and adjusted. No more worrying about having to go back and rattle the handle. It should be good for another five years or so.

Good thing that I was able to give a plumber a day off on Labor Day by doing it myself 🙂

Steven