HI, I had thrown some celery into the garbage disposal last night, while the dishwasher was running. Then, I turned on the garbage disposal. Next, the disposal continued making noise, but did not seem to be grinding up the food, and then the water level in the sink began to rise. Later, we emptied the dishwasher, and then this morning, we noticed some brown water in the bottom of the dishwasher. I tried unplugging the disposal, and resetting the reset button, and also tried using the Allen Wrench to turn the disposal from underneath. While the disposal was unplugged, I also dug around and pulled out stringy pieces of celery. The, I turned the machine back on, only to have the water rise. It sounded like things were moving around in there, but now have (seemingly) more brown water in both the sink and in the dishwasher. I also tried using the broom handle, but still no luck. Any suggestions?

Try opening the discharge pipe on the side of the disposal. It is usually a dark color and curves downward, held by one screw and a clamping plate. Check this tube and the P trap it is connected to, there is your blockage.

Hi. It could mean that your trap is plugged up. Most dishwashers will drain into or very near to the disposal unit and then the outlet of the disposal unit will combine with the other drain (from the other sink bowl assuming it is a two bowl sink) before going into the common trap and out. The trap or P-trap as it is called is the piece of pipe that has a U type of bend in it. There are usually two treaded pieces on either side of this U piece so you can remove the piece and check it. Simply removing the piece and cleaning out the inside of the trap should fix the problem. All kinds of things can clog this up. Usually grease or hair or dirt from the disposal unit can clog it up. Some good drain cleaning liquid or powder poured in will help a lot.