You have to watch the vertical stack up and where the drain stub cones out from the wall. It is not usually very hard to lower a drain if the cabinets are not installed, but it needs to be accounted for to prevent problems after the cabinets are installed. I have had a cpuple of remodels with 12 inch deep Blanco sinks that the 'designer' failed to check the drain stub height. One of them would have left 2 inches of water in the GD all the time. Clients are rarely happy about extra charges for dumb mistakes.

I have had many disposals in the 45 years we have been married, and most of them were bottom of the line models that came with apartments or tract homes. I would assume you have a bottom of the line unit unless you know you have one of the maker's deluxe models. With the bottom of the line models, you have to be careful with what you put in them. Nothing stringy like celery, banana peels, broccoli peels, gristle. Nothing requiring strength like bones or corn cobs. A few years ago, we replaced ours with a kitchen remodel, and this time we have a mid or top of the line disposal. Now I can put more things in it to grind up, but I still stay away from bones. I remember when my aunt got her fancy one installed in the 1960s, the installer told her to drop a glass Coke bottle down it every now and then to sharpen it. I have certainly never done that either!

Cronological age means little. Use and power feed are more important for figuring replacement issues. We had an Insinkerator in our new house for 9 years---sold the house to a fellow I worked with----who told me everything that he had to fix---never mentioned the disposer. Moved into a mobile, installed an Insinkerator that lasted 12 years----and died from having the motor damaged by low voltage problems---makes the motor over heat. The replacement was a Badger---was 15 years old when we moved. Leave it.

I was under the impression that GFCI wasnt necessary to have under the cabinet. What i read seem to indicate that the GFCI under the cabinet would be a pain to have to reset and since it wasnt necessary to just not do it. I appreciate the info and will continue to look more into the GFCI outlet if i put in an outlet. I was mostly confused on the white wire but am happy to take any and all advice about wiring everything. If i understand correctly the first box with the switch in it should have 4 ground wires. Wire 1 - Incoming 14/2 from panel Wire 2 - Outgoing 14/2 to disposal or receptacle Wire 3 - additional copper to green screw attached to metal junction box Wire 4 - additional copper to green screw on switch. Wires 3 + 4 i will be adding. All 4 wires need to be connected together via a wing nut. Can i just wrap wire 1 around the green screw prior to joining it to wire 2 to eliminate wire 3? I was going to use the whip instead of leaving the exposed romex. My main panel is 10 feet from my kitchen so i figured i would just turn off the breaker to the disposal if i ever needed to work on it.