The badger 5 that came with our house 3 and half years ago cracked the other night and started spewing water and small food chucks throughout the cabinet under our sink, so I figured it was probably time to replace it
After doing quite a bit of research online I came down to two choices... the Evolution Excel and the Legend 9980. The Evolution Excel seemed to get great reviews, but it was a bit over $300, the Legend 9980 got good reviews and wasn't much more than a third of the price of the ISE model. Unfortunately I couldn't seem to find any reviews from anyone who had actually seen and used both units. So, I'm posting this for those who come after me
I liked the price and the lifetime warranty of the Legend 9980, so I wound up purchasing one and I installed it. I did not like it. It was quieter than the badger that it replaced, but not significantly quieter... additionally the motor in the legend spins faster, so it had more of a high pitched whine to it. But the biggest issue I had with it was the fact that the splash guard was a terrible design. It's a completely flat piece of rubber divided into 8 sections with a small hole in the middle. The problem is that the hole is too small and water can't drain into it fast enough... so as you're running water full blast into the sink as you do dishes you get a few inches of water in the bottom of the sink... this tended to leave rings around the sink and bits of food on the side of the sink that normally would have just washed into the drain. Additionally it seemed that the rubber wasn't quite flexible enough and *everything* needed to be pushed into the disposal with a spoon or something. With my old badger and with the Evolution Excel a lot of food will fall into the drain on it's own, or under a stream of water.
So, I wound up purchasing an Evolution Excel instead... This disposal is *much* better made. It feels much more solid and ISE really did a good job with the sound insulation. This disposal is *much* quieter than both my old badger and the Legend... you really can't hear much of it over the sound of the running water. Additionally the splash guard is designed better and allows the drain to keep up with the running water. In my opinion, this unit is definitely worth the price difference.
Here are a few of my thoughts on each unit...
Legend 9980 - Pros - I thought the drain assembly was slightly easier to install than the ISE version. The drain is nice and wide. Because the splash guard is built into the disposal rather than being removable you get a full 3" diameter drain... the ISE has a removable splash guard, so you only get about 2.75" to push food into. This is definitely a better unit than the badger it replaced for not too much more money. This unit comes with a power cord pre-installed. If you have an outlet for your disposal under your sink you won't have to worry about wiring anything.
Legend 9980 - Cons - Despite Waste King's claims, this is not a quiet disposal. Like I said above, it was quieter than my badger, but maybe only by 10 or 15%. The housing is cheap plastic and as near as I can tell the 'sound insulation' is simply a piece of 1/2 inch foam rubber wrapped around the unit under the cheap plastic housing. Also, like I mentioned above, the splash guard is poorly designed and makes it difficult to get food into the disposal and causes the sink to back up a bit when you run the water at full blast. The pre-installed power cord is a bit of a pain to remove if you want to hard wire the unit.
Evolution Excel - Pros - Very well built and very quiet. The housing is metal and high quality plastic. The splash guard works well... it doesn't allow water to back up in the sink, however, it still allows a little water to pool in the drain to help block the sound of the disposal. Food also seems to enter the disposal a bit more easily through this splash guard. This unit has a three stage grinder, which is supposed to chop the food into smaller pieces. I'm not sure how much of a pro this really is as I never had any clogged drains with my single stage badger before this, but the legend 9980 only has a single stage grinder.
Evolution Excel - Cons - The splash guard is removable (which isn't so bad in itself), but because of that it fits inside the drain and you have a slightly narrower opening than the Legend 9980. The $300 price tag was a bit steeper than I would have liked to pay, but I believe it is worth the price. Finally, this unit only has a 7 year warranty compared to the lifetime warranty of the Legend 9980
One more bonus comparison... I also was able to see the Legend 8000 briefly, but I didn't install one. When I was looking online it wasn't totally clear to me how this unit compared to the 9980. After seeing it I can tell you that it is identical to the 9980 with the exception of the fact that it uses an 'EZ mount' system instead of the 3 bolt mount of the 9980. The 3 bolt mount really wasn't difficult to install, so I'm not sure that the 'EZ mount' could be that much easier. However, one important difference to note is the fact that this unit has a removable splash guard. That, combined with the fact that the whole drain is slightly more narrow because it's threaded for the EZ mount system leaves you with only 2.5" to push food through. This is too small in my opinion. The splash guard is also designed as a cone instead of flat like in the 9980. This may allow it to work better, but like I said, I never installed this unit, so I can't confirm that.
Hopefully this will be useful to someone else trying to make the same decision I was struggling with.
Brett
After doing quite a bit of research online I came down to two choices... the Evolution Excel and the Legend 9980. The Evolution Excel seemed to get great reviews, but it was a bit over $300, the Legend 9980 got good reviews and wasn't much more than a third of the price of the ISE model. Unfortunately I couldn't seem to find any reviews from anyone who had actually seen and used both units. So, I'm posting this for those who come after me
I liked the price and the lifetime warranty of the Legend 9980, so I wound up purchasing one and I installed it. I did not like it. It was quieter than the badger that it replaced, but not significantly quieter... additionally the motor in the legend spins faster, so it had more of a high pitched whine to it. But the biggest issue I had with it was the fact that the splash guard was a terrible design. It's a completely flat piece of rubber divided into 8 sections with a small hole in the middle. The problem is that the hole is too small and water can't drain into it fast enough... so as you're running water full blast into the sink as you do dishes you get a few inches of water in the bottom of the sink... this tended to leave rings around the sink and bits of food on the side of the sink that normally would have just washed into the drain. Additionally it seemed that the rubber wasn't quite flexible enough and *everything* needed to be pushed into the disposal with a spoon or something. With my old badger and with the Evolution Excel a lot of food will fall into the drain on it's own, or under a stream of water.
So, I wound up purchasing an Evolution Excel instead... This disposal is *much* better made. It feels much more solid and ISE really did a good job with the sound insulation. This disposal is *much* quieter than both my old badger and the Legend... you really can't hear much of it over the sound of the running water. Additionally the splash guard is designed better and allows the drain to keep up with the running water. In my opinion, this unit is definitely worth the price difference.
Here are a few of my thoughts on each unit...
Legend 9980 - Pros - I thought the drain assembly was slightly easier to install than the ISE version. The drain is nice and wide. Because the splash guard is built into the disposal rather than being removable you get a full 3" diameter drain... the ISE has a removable splash guard, so you only get about 2.75" to push food into. This is definitely a better unit than the badger it replaced for not too much more money. This unit comes with a power cord pre-installed. If you have an outlet for your disposal under your sink you won't have to worry about wiring anything.
Legend 9980 - Cons - Despite Waste King's claims, this is not a quiet disposal. Like I said above, it was quieter than my badger, but maybe only by 10 or 15%. The housing is cheap plastic and as near as I can tell the 'sound insulation' is simply a piece of 1/2 inch foam rubber wrapped around the unit under the cheap plastic housing. Also, like I mentioned above, the splash guard is poorly designed and makes it difficult to get food into the disposal and causes the sink to back up a bit when you run the water at full blast. The pre-installed power cord is a bit of a pain to remove if you want to hard wire the unit.
Evolution Excel - Pros - Very well built and very quiet. The housing is metal and high quality plastic. The splash guard works well... it doesn't allow water to back up in the sink, however, it still allows a little water to pool in the drain to help block the sound of the disposal. Food also seems to enter the disposal a bit more easily through this splash guard. This unit has a three stage grinder, which is supposed to chop the food into smaller pieces. I'm not sure how much of a pro this really is as I never had any clogged drains with my single stage badger before this, but the legend 9980 only has a single stage grinder.
Evolution Excel - Cons - The splash guard is removable (which isn't so bad in itself), but because of that it fits inside the drain and you have a slightly narrower opening than the Legend 9980. The $300 price tag was a bit steeper than I would have liked to pay, but I believe it is worth the price. Finally, this unit only has a 7 year warranty compared to the lifetime warranty of the Legend 9980
One more bonus comparison... I also was able to see the Legend 8000 briefly, but I didn't install one. When I was looking online it wasn't totally clear to me how this unit compared to the 9980. After seeing it I can tell you that it is identical to the 9980 with the exception of the fact that it uses an 'EZ mount' system instead of the 3 bolt mount of the 9980. The 3 bolt mount really wasn't difficult to install, so I'm not sure that the 'EZ mount' could be that much easier. However, one important difference to note is the fact that this unit has a removable splash guard. That, combined with the fact that the whole drain is slightly more narrow because it's threaded for the EZ mount system leaves you with only 2.5" to push food through. This is too small in my opinion. The splash guard is also designed as a cone instead of flat like in the 9980. This may allow it to work better, but like I said, I never installed this unit, so I can't confirm that.
Hopefully this will be useful to someone else trying to make the same decision I was struggling with.
Brett
Last edited by a moderator: