Best Garbage Disposal Units: Badger 5 Leads

The best garbage disposal units for the money start with the InSinkErator Badger 5, a 1/2 HP continuous-feed unit backed by a 2-year in-home warranty that covers parts and labor. If noise is your real complaint, the KRAUS WasteGuard runs a 1 HP motor at a claimed 3800 RPM with dedicated soundproofing instead. This is not a category for everyone, though. If you rent, compost, or your building bans disposals outright, none of these five belongs under your sink, and a good countertop compost bin costs a fraction of the plumbing bill.

Best garbage disposal units for the money at a glance

Who should skip a garbage disposal entirely?

Plenty of kitchens are better off without one. Read this list before you buy anything.

• Renters. Cutting into a drain line and adding a switched outlet is landlord territory. A disposal is not a plug-and-play appliance.
• Homes on old, narrow drain lines. Ground food slurry needs volume and slope to clear. If your kitchen already backs up, a disposal adds load to a pipe that can't take it.
• Anyone who already composts. Peels and coffee grounds are worth more in a bin than in a pipe.
• Municipalities that restrict them. Some cities discourage or prohibit disposals on the sewer side. Check first.
• Septic owners with an undersized tank. Moen says the GXP50C is "septic safe" with a properly-sized tank, and KRAUS makes a similar claim. Note the qualifier. It's doing real work.

If you're still in, the rest of this guide is for you. Four of these five picks ship with a pre-installed power cord or an equivalent plug-in path, which is the single biggest predictor of whether you finish the job yourself.

How I screened these five picks

I built this shortlist around buyer profiles rather than a single spec sheet, because the deciding factor in this category is who's doing the installing and how hard the unit gets worked.

1. The homeowner who wants someone else to fix it. One published warranty in this set covers parts and labor with in-home service for two years. That's the Badger 5, and it's why it wins.
2. The heavy grinder. Big family, fibrous scraps, nightly loads. Only one pick here runs 1 HP: the KRAUS WasteGuard, with a 34 oz chamber.
3. The weekend DIY swap. The Moen GXP50C weighs 9.64 lb and ships with the cord already attached. Holding a 17 lb unit overhead against a sink flange is genuinely harder than it sounds.
4. The light-duty kitchen. The Waste King L-111 is 7.5 lb, 1/3 HP, and the cheapest of the five.
5. The like-for-like replacement. The Badger 1 fits existing InSinkErator hardware, per the manufacturer.

What got cut: batch-feed models, since every pick here is continuous feed and mixing the two makes the comparison useless. Also anything without published dimensions. You cannot recommend an appliance that has to fit in a fixed box without knowing how big the box is.

Worth saying plainly: "for the money" is a judgment you make at checkout, not something I can settle here. Price positions move constantly. What I can tell you is what each unit gives you in horsepower, weight, chamber size and warranty coverage, so you can decide whether the gap between them is worth the gap in cost on the day you look.

1. InSinkErator Badger 5 Garbage Disposal — Best overall

The Badger 5 is the safest default in this set because it pairs a 1/2 HP motor with the only warranty here that explicitly covers labor as well as parts.

Best for: a homeowner who wants a plumber on the hook for two years Skip it if: your cabinet is shallow or you need a plug-in cord

Two things separate this from the rest. The first is the warranty language: a 2-year in-home full service limited warranty covering parts and labor. Every other pick here either publishes a shorter term, offers a vaguer promise, or publishes nothing at all. On an appliance bolted under a sink, a service call is often the expensive half of the repair.

The second is the body. At 11.5 x 6.31 x 6.31 in, this is the shortest unit in the set by nearly two inches over the Waste King and more than three over the Moen. Under-sink height is where disposal projects go wrong, and shorter is easier.

InSinkErator describes a 1/2 HP Dura-Drive induction motor with galvanized steel grinding components. That's the same horsepower as the Moen, double the Badger 1 and the Waste King, and half the KRAUS. It's also the pick buyers here choose most often by a wide margin.

The trade-off is weight and wiring. At 17 lb it's the heaviest of the five, and the model number carries no cord, so you're wiring it or buying one. Against the KRAUS you also give up a 34 oz chamber and any soundproofing claim.

Pros:

• Only pick with a stated 2-year parts and labor warranty
• Shortest body here at 11.5 in tall
• 1/2 HP Dura-Drive induction motor per InSinkErator
• Galvanized steel grinding components claimed
• Clearly the fastest seller in this group

Cons:

• Heaviest of the five at 17 lb, awkward to hold up during install
• No power cord in the box
• No published soundproofing or noise figure
• Premium price position without the 1 HP of the KRAUS

2. KRAUS WasteGuard 1 HP Continuous Feed Garbage Disposal — Best premium

Double the horsepower of the Badger 5 and the only unit here that makes noise reduction an explicit design goal.

Best for: big households grinding fibrous scraps every night Skip it if: your under-sink space is tight or you need published warranty terms

This is the outlier of the group, and the numbers say why. KRAUS lists 1 HP, a claimed 3800 RPM MagnaGrind permanent-magnet motor, and a 34 oz chamber. Nothing else here publishes a chamber volume at all. More chamber means fewer stop-and-wait pauses when you're clearing plates after a big dinner.

KRAUS also claims QuietStorm soundproofing plus anti-vibration mounting, and argues a permanent-magnet motor reaches speed instantly where an induction motor ramps up. Those are the manufacturer's words, not a measured decibel figure, so treat the quiet claim as a design intention rather than a number you can compare.

The listing includes a power cord, flange, splash guard, plunger and dishwasher connectors, with universal 3-bolt mounting and an automatic shut-off for jams. That's the most complete box in the set.

Two real costs. It's the bulkiest unit here at 15.4 x 8.63 x 10.6 in, so measure your cabinet before ordering. And no warranty term appears in the listing data at all, which is a genuine gap next to the Badger 5's two years of labor coverage.

Pros:

• Only 1 HP pick in this comparison
• 34 oz chamber, the only published chamber volume here
• Ships with cord, flange, plunger and dishwasher connectors
• Automatic shut-off for jams claimed
• Soundproofing and anti-vibration mounting per KRAUS

Cons:

• Largest footprint at 15.4 x 8.63 x 10.6 in
• No warranty term published in the listing
• Only one seller lists it
• Slowest-selling unit of the five by a wide margin
• Quiet operation is a claim, not a stated decibel rating

3. Moen Prep Series PRO Continuous Feed Compact Garbage Disposal — Best upgrade

Badger 5 horsepower at 9.64 lb with the cord already attached, which makes it the easiest genuine upgrade to install alone.

Best for: replacing a dead unit yourself in an afternoon Skip it if: you have less than 15 inches of vertical clearance

The Moen GXP50C is the one I'd hand to someone doing their first disposal swap. It matches the Badger 5 at 0.5 HP but weighs 9.64 lb, a difference of over 7 lb. When you're on your back in a cabinet aligning a mounting ring one-handed, that gap decides whether the job takes twenty minutes or two frustrated hours.

Moen cites a 2,600 RPM Vortex motor and says the unit replaces most existing disposals, including other brands, thanks to the pre-installed cord. So no electrician, assuming there's already a switched outlet under there. The brand also calls it septic safe with a properly-sized tank.

Where it loses ground is height. At 14.8 in tall it's the second-longest unit here, more than three inches taller than the Badger 5. Compact refers to diameter and mass, not vertical reach, and vertical reach is what bumps into your drain trap.

The warranty is listed only as a limited warranty with in-home service, without a stated term. Against the Badger 5's specific two years, that vagueness matters. You're trading warranty clarity for a much easier installation.

Pros:

• 0.5 HP at only 9.64 lb, easiest heavy-lift install here
• Pre-installed power cord, no electrical work claimed
• 2,600 RPM Vortex motor per Moen
• Stated as septic safe with a properly-sized tank
• Cheapest position of the five alongside the Waste King

Cons:

• 14.8 in tall, second-tallest body in the set
• Warranty length not stated
• No chamber volume published
• Sells noticeably slower than the Badger 5

4. Waste King Garbage Disposal L-111 — Best budget pick

The lightest, narrowest and cheapest unit here, and the only one with a 5.25-inch diameter.

Best for: rentals, small kitchens and light daily scraps Skip it if: you grind bones, corn husks or fruit pits

At 7.5 lb the L-111 weighs less than half the Badger 5, and its 5.25-inch diameter is over an inch narrower than the two InSinkErator units. In a cabinet crowded with a filter, a bin and a pull-out tray, that inch is real. Waste King lists 12.8 x 5.25 x 5.25 in overall.

The spec that matters most is 1/3 HP driven by a claimed 1,900 RPM permanent-magnet motor. That's the lowest RPM figure published in this set, and half the horsepower of the Badger 5 and Moen. It handles coffee grounds, peels and plate scrapings. It is not the unit for a household that regularly pushes hard, fibrous waste down the drain.

You do get a 2-year warranty stated outright, which puts it level with the Badger 5 on term length, though the Badger 5's coverage spells out labor. Waste King calls it a 2-year limited in-home warranty. The EZ Mount system and pre-installed cord mean no electrical work, and the splash guard is removable for cleaning, which is the part most people neglect.

The trade against the Moen is stark: same price position, half the horsepower, but a shorter and narrower body.

Pros:

• Lightest pick here at 7.5 lb
• Narrowest body at 5.25 in diameter
• Stated 2-year limited in-home warranty
• Pre-installed cord and EZ Mount for plug-in installation
• Removable splashguard for cleaning

Cons:

• 1/3 HP, tied for the least powerful in this set
• 1,900 RPM is the lowest published motor speed here
• No chamber volume or noise data listed
• Warranty does not specify labor coverage

5. InSinkErator Badger 1 Garbage Disposal — Best minimal setup

The straight swap for an existing InSinkErator, since it fits the hardware already bolted to your sink.

Best for: swapping an old InSinkErator using existing hardware Skip it if: there's no switched outlet or wiring under the sink

There's one scenario where the Badger 1 beats everything above it: your old InSinkErator just died and the mounting assembly under the sink is still good. InSinkErator says Badger Series units fit existing InSinkErator hardware, which can turn a plumbing job into a twist-and-lift.

At 11.4 x 6.31 x 6.31 in it's fractionally shorter than the Badger 5 and the shortest body of all five picks. Inside is a 1/3 HP Dura-Drive induction motor with galvanized steel components, per the brand. Same materials story as the Badger 5, half the horsepower.

Two things hold it back. The warranty runs 1 year of parts and in-home service, the shortest term published here, against two years from both the Badger 5 and the Waste King. And the listing is explicit that it comes without a power cord, so plan on wiring or a separate cord kit.

It also sits mid-range on price while delivering 1/3 HP, the same horsepower as the cheapest pick in the set. That's the honest problem: you're paying for the InSinkErator hardware compatibility and the brand's steel components rather than for grinding power.

Pros:

• Shortest body of the five at 11.4 in
• Fits existing InSinkErator mounting hardware per the brand
• 1/3 HP Dura-Drive induction motor
• Galvanized steel grinding components claimed

Cons:

• 1-year warranty, the shortest stated term here
• No power cord included
• Mid-range price for the same 1/3 HP as the cheapest pick
• 16.8 lb, awkward to support during installation
• No published chamber or noise figures

Does horsepower actually decide it?

Most guides to the best garbage disposal units for the money rank by horsepower and stop. Horsepower matters, but it isn't the number that decides your purchase. Motor speed and chamber volume tell you more about how the thing behaves on a Tuesday night.

Look at the published RPM claims across this set:

• KRAUS WasteGuard: 3800 RPM, 1 HP
• Moen GXP50C: 2,600 RPM, 0.5 HP
• Waste King L-111: 1,900 RPM, 1/3 HP

Higher speed at the same horsepower generally means the grind ring clears faster, which is what "less jamming" is really describing when both Moen and Waste King make that claim. Neither InSinkErator unit publishes an RPM figure at all, which is worth knowing before you assume the Badger 5 out-grinds the Moen just because they share 0.5 HP.

Chamber volume is the other blind spot. KRAUS lists 34 oz. Nobody else lists anything. A bigger chamber means you can scrape a full plate in one go instead of feeding scraps in batches.

Here's the practical cutoff. Household of one or two, mostly soft scraps: 1/3 HP is enough, so the Waste King does the job. Three or four people with nightly cooking: 0.5 HP, which is the Badger 5 or the Moen. Five or more, or you routinely grind stringy vegetable waste: go 1 HP and accept the bulk of the KRAUS.

Will it fit under your sink?

This is the question that sinks the most projects, and it takes two minutes with a tape measure. Vertical clearance from the bottom of your sink basin to the cabinet floor is the number you need, plus the horizontal run to the drain trap.

Published heights, shortest to tallest:

1. InSinkErator Badger 1 — 11.4 in
2. InSinkErator Badger 5 — 11.5 in
3. Waste King L-111 — 12.8 in
4. Moen GXP50C — 14.8 in
5. KRAUS WasteGuard — 15.4 in

That's a four-inch spread from top to bottom, which is enormous in a cabinet. Diameter matters too if you've got a water filter or a pull-out bin fighting for the same space. The Waste King is 5.25 in across, both InSinkErator units are 6.31 in, the Moen is 6.34 in, and the KRAUS is 8.63 x 10.6 in.

Weight is the third measurement nobody checks. You have to hold the unit against the sink flange while you turn the mounting ring. At 9.64 lb the Moen is manageable solo. At 17 lb the Badger 5 usually wants a second pair of hands or a stack of books underneath it.

What the listings do not tell you

Even good listings leave gaps, and knowing where they are keeps you from over-reading a spec sheet when you shop the best garbage disposal units for the money.

Noise, in numbers. KRAUS is the only brand here describing soundproofing, and even that arrives as feature copy rather than a decibel rating. No unit in this set publishes a measured noise figure, so nobody can promise you a quiet kitchen.

Grind stage count. None of these five states how many grind stages it uses. That's a spec plenty of buyers look for and none of these listings supplies.

Warranty detail. Two units publish a clear two-year term. One publishes one year. One says "limited warranty and in-home service" without a length. One publishes nothing at all. Read the actual terms on the listing before you assume coverage.

Cord and flange contents. The Moen, Waste King and KRAUS list a power cord. Both InSinkErator picks do not, and the Badger 1's colour field literally reads "Without Power Cord." Only the KRAUS explicitly mentions an included flange.

Amp draw and required breaker. Not published for any pick here, and it's the detail that decides whether your existing under-sink circuit is adequate.

The verdict

Think of the best garbage disposal units for the money in three tiers, and pick the tier that matches your kitchen rather than the biggest number on the box.

Entry tier. The Waste King L-111 and the Moen GXP50C sit at the bottom of this set on cost. The L-111 gives you 7.5 lb, a 5.25-inch diameter and a stated 2-year warranty at 1/3 HP. The Moen gives you double that horsepower at 0.5 HP with a 2,600 RPM motor and 9.64 lb, though it stands 14.8 in tall. For most buyers, the Moen is the better value in this tier, and it's the one I'd choose if I were installing it myself.

Middle tier. The Badger 1 exists for one reason: it fits existing InSinkErator hardware and stands just 11.4 in tall. Outside that swap scenario, its 1/3 HP and 1-year warranty don't justify the position.

Premium tier. The Badger 5 takes the overall win on service terms, with 0.5 HP, an 11.5 in body and the only 2-year warranty here that states parts and labor with in-home coverage. The KRAUS WasteGuard is the raw-capability answer instead: 1 HP, a claimed 3800 RPM, a 34 oz chamber and soundproofing. Its exact advantage is grinding headroom. Its exact cost is a 15.4 x 8.63 x 10.6 in body and no published warranty term.

FAQ

Which garbage disposal gives the best value for the money?

The best value for the money in this set depends on which job you're solving. The Waste King L-111 is the cheapest position with a stated 2-year warranty at 1/3 HP. The Moen GXP50C sits at a similar position with double the horsepower at 0.5 HP and a pre-installed cord. On specs per position, the Moen is the stronger buy.

Is a 1 HP garbage disposal worth it?

A 1 HP garbage disposal is worth it for households of five or more, or anyone grinding fibrous scraps nightly. The KRAUS WasteGuard is the only 1 HP pick here and adds a 34 oz chamber plus a claimed 3800 RPM motor. For two-person kitchens with soft scraps, 1/3 HP handles it and you'd be paying for headroom you never touch.

Will a garbage disposal fit under a shallow sink cabinet?

A garbage disposal fits under a shallow cabinet only if you check the height first. The InSinkErator Badger 1 is shortest at 11.4 in, followed by the Badger 5 at 11.5 in. The KRAUS runs 15.4 in tall and 8.63 x 10.6 in across. Measure from the sink basin down to the cabinet floor before ordering anything.

Badger 5 or Moen GXP50C: which should I buy?

Between the Badger 5 and the Moen GXP50C, both run 0.5 HP, so the decision is install and warranty. The Badger 5 is 17 lb with no cord but carries a 2-year parts and labor warranty and stands 11.5 in tall. The Moen is 9.64 lb, ships with the cord attached, and is 14.8 in tall with no stated warranty term.

What's the most common garbage disposal buying mistake?

The most common garbage disposal buying mistake is treating horsepower as the whole story and ignoring physical fit. A 1 HP unit that won't clear your drain trap is useless. The second mistake is assuming a cord is included: both InSinkErator picks here ship without one, and the Badger 1's listing states that outright.

Measure your cabinet tonight, check whether there's a switched outlet under the sink, then choose. If the answer to both is yes and you want the safest long-term bet, the Badger 5 earns its default status not on power but on paperwork: it's the only pick here whose warranty explicitly covers a technician's labor for two full years, and disposal repairs are labor-heavy jobs. If you'd rather do the install yourself in an afternoon and skip the electrician, the Moen GXP50C at 9.64 lb is the pragmatic choice, provided you've got 14.8 inches of vertical room.

Last updated: September 12, 2026. Product availability re-checked.

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