Product Reviews

Waste King L-8000 Legend 
1.0-Hp Continuous Feed Waste Disposer

I bought the Waste King Legend 8000 to replace a Waste King "HushMaster" that had broken some hammers and vibrated badly -- making one hell of a racket, as well as doing a poor job at grinding up anything. I don't know when it was originally installed - probably by one of my tenants before I moved back in.

What attracted me to the Legend 8000 was Consume Reports top rating, and Waste King's lifetime warranty. I also thought Amazon's $120 price just unbelievable low for something with a lifetime warranty - and that included free shipping and no taxes.

I got to check the warranty out right away. Two days after I received the unit, while installing it I broke one of the retaining nuts for bolting on the outlet pipe. I was trying to stop a leak at the outlet while checking the connections after installation, and over-tightened one of the flange bolts.

I was expecting to shell out another $120 for a new unit. But on calling the warranty number, the service rep had a new unit on the way under warranty almost before we finished talking. Not only that, but when they couldn't find a plumber to install it for me under the warranty, they said they would send me $60 for installing it myself - just mail back the serial plate on the bottom of the unit.. I just don't think you can beat that kind of warranty service anywhere.

As far as installing the unit goes, it was relatively easy - but I can see where problems could develop if the original plumbing needed to be realigned or substantially redone. Most of us just aren't familiar with doing that sort of work, though with the right instructions, it really isn't hard, as just about all the connections are compression slip joints, which are very easy to connect.

Speaking of instructions, I have a double sink, and thus had no use for the black 90 degree elbow outflow tube that came with the unit (it would be what you would use for draining directly into the P-trap for a single sink). Instead, a double sink normally uses a long horizontal tailpiece from the Waste King outlet to the drain pipes on the other sink, which has a special Tee fitting called an "End Outlet Tee." There are no included instructions with the unit for this installation case - so I will discuss my experience here. In addition, there are plenty of instructions on the web, and a trip to your local Home Depot and a short talk with a plumber customer rep will probably be all you need.

What I learned in my trip to Home Depot was that the piping under the sink was 1-1/2 inch thinwall PVC tubing, which was kept on a different aisle than the heavier duty schedule 40 PVC pipe. A perusal through the bins for 1-1/2" thinwall uncovered some fittings that might be useful in curing the leak I experienced, including a flexible tailpiece with a compression slip joint. What I like about Home depot is that if you can't use a piece, you can return it for a refund. They also have experienced ex-contractor personnel on hand to advise you on how it should be done. (Just keep your receipt.)

If you are just replacing a unit, you should be able to use the existing plumbing in place with little, if any change. In my case, for the first installation attempt, I had to shorten the horizontal connecting pipe (a long 12" flanged tailpiece) between the Waste King outlet and the End Outlet Tee on the other sink. Then after the connection leaked at the Waste King end, I discovered the outlet for the Waste King was a little lower than the Tee opening on the other side. This misalignment wasn't off by much, but it was enough to place a stress on the connection so that it leaked.

The normal cure for this misalignment would be to loosen the compression nuts on the End Outlet Tee so the Tee could be raised or lowered for proper alignment. But when I tried this, the Tee dropped off the tailpiece above it, which had been cut too short. So I couldn't use this fix. That's when I installed the flexible tail piece (in combination with a short tailpiece) in place of the long tailpiece. And though that did not cure the misalignment, it did relieve the stress on the connections so they did not leak. Later I will go back and change the tailpiece off the other sink.

I created a couple of sketches to depict how the double-sink plumbing normally fits together, and also a sketch showing the flexible tailpiece solution. You can see them at  installing an under-sink garbage disposal 

All in all, I think the Waste King Legend 8000, with an extraordinary lifetime warranty, at $120 from Amazon.com, is a fabulous buy. I would highly recommend it to my friends. I might add that there is no need to buy anything else, (such as a three bolt adapter, or drain cover) as everything you need is in the box (except any plumbing changes you might have to make.)