The garbage disposal is a modern marvel—until it isn’t. One minute you’re happily rinsing dinner plates, and the next, you’re met with a ominous hum followed by silence, or worse, a sink full of murky, food-flecked water that refuses to drain.

There are few household sounds more disheartening than the low, humming drone of a garbage disposal that has given up the ghost—or worse, the sound of water backing up into your sink.