Suggest using big pliers or kitchen grips to pick out the big pieces of glass and a wet/dry vacuum to suck up the small pieces. Most disposers have a removable rubber diaphram thing at the sink end so you can pull that out and see a bit of what you are working on.

Thank you for the tip! We have managed to get it working again and are much relieved we didn't have to phone a plumber.

My mom used to put a broken jar down the disposer on purpose once in awhile. She thought the abrasive action cleaned it out. It never jammed so I think it just chopped it up and sent it downt the drain. I offer no proof of any positive effects from doing this, however. :-)

Ice works well and lemons are nice for their smell and minor cleansing action. Grinding glass in the garburetor seems a bit risky, but then I tried (accidentally) putting a nail down the darin. It really didn't do any good.

Wet-Dry vac is a FANTASTIC tip! I never would have tought of that.

I broke a glass and used a pair of long tweezers (BIG tweezers) to clean out the big pieces, turned the water on full blast, crossed my fingers, and then turned it on to clear the small pieces. No problems.

My biggest problem is paring knives and dog food tin lids. It's a slow week if I don't grind one of those...

Eons ago my aunt bought a delux Kitchenaide disposal. They told her to drop a coke bottle down it every now and then to keep the blades sharp. That was when coke came in glass bottles.

What worked for me for broken glass was to slice the end off of a big potato. I then carefully pressed it down into the disposal area. It picked up the chunks of glass.

can you dispose of large pieces of glass at the recycling center

I have a small disposal cover over my disposal drain. it's a small round piece of plastic with tiny holes all over it. I found it at meijer in the plumbing department. it really helps keep things from going down the disposal that you don't want going down. you might be able to find it at hardware stores too. it's worth looking for.

We use a mesh sink strainer, I found the first one at WalMart (in the home improvement area) but found a more sturdy one at Garden Ridge Pottery (for about 2 or 3 bucks), love it, nothing gets into the disposal that shouldn't.

A glass got sucked down the drain with the disposal on. Weird how that happens. Completely unexpected. But anyhow, I was able to take gloves and get most of the large pieces out. I didn't have a wet/dry vac. Then, after reading advice on this forum, I turned it on and turned the water on and let it run for a bit. It seems to be working fine. Thanks everyone for the advice.

Glad that worked out. Everyone who gave advice above is probably long gone, since this thread started in 2002! LOL

My mom used to put a broken jar down there too to clean it out. I don't do that myself but it doesn't seem to hurt it a bit.

Back in the early days (50s/60s) of disposals door to door salesmen would demonstrate the units by tossing in some marble and grinding them up.

Little bit of glass is no big deal. Just take out the big chunks if any and grind the rest.

Had to dust the spider webs off the shop vac but that suggestion was money! Fix my disposal, shop vac a sure thing! Thanks to whoever suggested that one.

In the 80's I frequently had a baby food, jar slip down into the disposal, unbeknownst to me! It was only when I'd turn it on that the noise would alert me. When I'd shine a flash light down in there, the jar was already gone! Took only a couple of seconds too. No harm done!