I’m always keen to make life as easy as possible, especially in the kitchen. This makes installing a garbage disposal incredibly appealing. You can say goodbye to clogged pipes, no bad odors, and less food waste sitting in the trash. But how much power is consumed?
Below we will discuss and test garbage disposal wattage, explain how to work it out for yourself, and calculate the total electricity required.
How Many Watts is a Garbage Disposal?
The average garbage disposal uses between 350 and 750 watts.
The exact number depends on the size and model of your garbage disposal. For example, a small ⅓ horsepower unit draws 350W while a large 1 horsepower disposal uses 750W.
These grinding units don’t use huge amounts of power, but they do vary in power consumption. The difference comes down to the size of the internal motor. The larger and more powerful the motor, the higher the wattage. Often you’ll see the motor size listed in horsepower (HP), 1HP is equivalent to 750W.
How to Find Out Your Garbage Disposal Wattage
There’s 3 ways you can work out the wattage of a garbage disposal.
- Check Product Specification
The quickest way is to look at the garbage disposal’s specification. The watts (W) is usually written on a sticker on the base of the appliance. If not, you can check the user manual or the manufacturer’s website for technical details.
- Use a Wattmeter
A wattmeter is brilliant for getting a live wattage reading and tracking total energy usage of any appliance. You can simply plug it into your garbage disposal to get instant information.
I used one to test my garbage disposal which gave a live reading of 474.5W.
- Wattage Formula or Calculator
If you know the amperage and voltage of your garbage disposal you can use this to find the maximum watt rating. Simply use the formula Amps x Volts = Watts. Or you can head over to the ‘Watt Calculator’ to work this out.
Garbage Disposal Wattage Examples
Let’s take a look at specific examples of how many watts a garbage disposal draws. Below is a collection of modern garbage disposals with their listed power ratings.
| Garbage Disposal Model | Power (Watts) |
| HISSUN Garbage Disposal with Power Cord | 750 |
| Moen GX50C Prep Series | 375 |
| Waste King Legend Series | 750 |
| Waste King L-111 | 250 |
| Waste Maid 10-US-WM-058-3B | 375 |
| Emerson E202, Stainless Steel | 375 |
| Trifecte Blender Series | 560 |
| Chooba Garbage Disposal | 560 |
| Moen GXS75C Host Series | 560 |
| InSinkErator Garbage Disposal, Badger 5 | 375 |
| AmazonCommercial Garbage Disposal | 560 |
As you can see, the power ratings vary between different garbage disposals. So you should take the time to check your own appliance.
How Much Electricity Does a Garbage Disposal Use?
You can use garbage disposal wattage to work out how much electricity it uses. Plus this can be useful in understanding how much it costs to run your garbage disposal.
A watt (W) is a measurement of power at a single point in time. A watt-hour (Wh) is the total amount of electricity used in an hour. For example, a large garbage disposal drawing 750W would use 750Wh when running for an hour.
Happily, electricity bills are recorded in kilowatt-hours (kWh). A kilowatt is simply 1000 watts. So a 750W garbage disposal running for 1 hour uses 0.75kWh.
In reality, you run your disposal for a few seconds at a time. You might actively run it for 5 minutes a week. This means a large garbage disposal uses about 62.5Wh or 0.0625kWh electricity a week. That’s 0.268kWh a month and 3.25kWh a year.
That’s an electricity cost of $0.48 a year to actively run your garbage disposal for 5 minutes a week.
Using a Garbage Disposal Off-Grid
If you’re planning to use your garbage disposal in an off-grid situation like a power outage, RV, boat, or similar, the information above is useful. It enables you to install the correct electrical equipment and calculate runtime.
You can either use a power inverter, portable power station, or generator to generate electricity.
To make sure everything runs smoothly you should check two things on this equipment – wattage capacity and total energy capacity.
Your power source, like an inverter, should have a wattage capacity of at least 20% more than your garbage disposal. This ensures it will be able to deliver enough power as they are never 100% efficient. To grind food waste, it is best to have 1000W power capacity. This gives you enough to comfortably run large disposals without risking overload.
Secondly, you need to ensure your energy source, like a battery, has enough energy to run the garbage disposal for the required amount of time. As we already know, a large one uses upto 12.5Wh electricity each minute. This is the equivalent to 1Ah on a 12V battery.
How Many Watts Does a Garbage Disposal Use Summary
I hope you now have a clear understanding of how many watts a garbage disposal uses.
Truth is: These kitchen appliances add amazing benefits and make life more convenient. Plus they can even help your sink and pipes last longer! What’s great is the fact that they use only a tiny amount of electricity overall. This is because they only operate for a few seconds at a time. While running you will notice a moderate power spike to turn the powerful internal motor.
