Garbage Disposals Do Not Have Blades - Learn Stuff

You see it all time in movies, especially in the horror genre: body parts or other objects are violently torn up in a garbage disposal like The Shredder is hiding down there. That`s just not how they work in real life.

I`m sure a lot of people imagine that the inside of a disposal looks like the scary corridor from Event Horizon. Sharp blades whirring around, tearing up anything you put down the drain. If that was the case, they probably wouldn`t get clogged as often as they do.

I`ve installed and taken apart plenty of those things and there are no blades in there. The motor is at the bottom of the unit, and attached to that is a heavy metal wheel plate that looks kind of like the head of a tunnel boring machine.

Would I stick my hand in there while it`s running? Not if I can help it, but I have. As long as you don`t reach all the way to the bottom, nothing is going to happen to you. Take my word for it and don`t try it yourself.