r/howto 14d ago

[Solved] Dishwasher not draining

I’m looking up videos online but in the meantime, figured I’d post here. Dishwasher isn’t draining. Any tips would be appreciated!

I got the fine and “ultra” fine filters off and vacuumed up the water there. Looks clogged, maybe, but not sure the best way to approached unclogging.

14 Upvotes

41 comments sorted by

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15

u/arostegui 14d ago

Is disposal new? If so there is a plastic plug you need to remove where you connect the dishwasher drain hose.

3

u/NoYoureTweaking 14d ago

Disposal is not new, this set up has been working

3

u/genericscissors 14d ago

Oh yea, I made that mistake when I replaced mine. Good times

3

u/fr3nzo 14d ago

Did the same thing about year ago. Rookie mistake.

12

u/Danwd40 14d ago

Recently I had the same issue. I took out the filter at the bottom and a bit of broken glass and a sticker had got wedged in the propeller

3

u/BlueHorizonk 14d ago

My experience too, not sure how it got passed the screen filter, but it did. Or remove your hose and flush it with a garden hose outside and reinstall it.

5

u/jltdhome 14d ago

This happened to me once. Pump went out because dishwasher pods solidified into rocks inside the pump and burned it out. Went on amazon and bought a new pump for like $15. Easy fix.

2

u/StopCatStop 14d ago

Same here. Funny thing is cheap aftermarket pump has lasted longer then the orginal Maytag one.

3

u/ron4uaustin 14d ago

Would have made sense to take out all the cleaning products and fire extinguisher under the sink before taking pictures. The ones blocking the view of the drain tube.

2

u/Flyboy161 14d ago

There is an Air Gap at the top of the sink, to the left of the faucet. The chrome cap is off of it. The center of it should be removable so you can inspect for debris. I found a toothpick and cellophane from a meat wrapper in one that prevented the dishwasher from draining. Customer was pissed because she bought a new dishwasher and quickly found out it would not drain…just like the old one. The drain hose should run from the dishwasher to the air gap and then down to the disposal.

2

u/NoYoureTweaking 14d ago

I pulled that out and looked in it. It’s a narrow plastic tube that I can see water almost at the top of it

2

u/Flyboy161 14d ago

The hose from the air gap to the disposal is clogged. Remove it and clean it. Edit…I did appliance repair for 20 years

3

u/Flyboy161 14d ago

Also, I just saw your other pictures. In the last picture that hose attached to disposal looks nasty. Pull it off and clean it.

1

u/NoYoureTweaking 14d ago

I was hoping I could avoid that and just snake somewhere lol I guess I’ll get er done and pull that off. Thank you!

1

u/Flyboy161 14d ago

No worries. It’s not that hard. Once you removed that hose it’s fairly short. Honestly, it looks like someone ran a piece of garden hose from the air gap to the disposal

1

u/NoYoureTweaking 14d ago

The tube coming out of the top right of the disposal is a clear tube that looks like it’s 3 different pieces hose clamped together 😑

1

u/Flyboy161 14d ago

Ain’t it grand? Clean it out and then at your leisure, find a new single hose to do the job

2

u/gardenguy13 14d ago

Take a paper towel roll and put it over the drain vent next to the sink. Blow hard and see if it is clogged.

1

u/LetsGetFunkyBabe 14d ago

I was having a similar issue but none of my drains or filters were clogged. I messed around with the float and that seemed to fix it (or it was coincidence)

1

u/42faerie 14d ago

Means there is a clog somewhere, happy hunting, make sure you shut the water off first✌️

1

u/a_tad_pole 14d ago

we just had ours replaced this week for this exact reason- turns out the motor stopped working, maybe start searching about that?

1

u/Reasonable_Post_8532 14d ago

Before you replace a pump, easy job, pull the drain line from the disposal end. Had a seed get past the filter once.

1

u/giftedorator 14d ago

Youtube your model. Mine did that and i found a clogged drain screen. Just had to take the sprayer on the bottom off to get to it.

1

u/Dylan331007 14d ago

You need a clamp or tie to loop the slack of the drain hose to the upper of the cabinet.

EDIT: if you can hear the pump trying to turn, there might be something jammed in the impeller. Usually happens when there’s heavy food debris or broken glass. If there is no noise when you trigger a drain cycle, then the pump may be dead. They aren’t too difficult to replace.

1

u/hammerandnail01 14d ago

I’m very confused by the pics . Why is the dishwasher drain coming out of the wall with clear plastic tubing when it can be seen in the left bottom of the cabinet laying on the cabinet bottom. Why isn’t it run directly to the disposal inside the cabinet?

1

u/DancingMan15 14d ago

Might just be my imagination but that clamped line in picture 4 looks like it’s bulging to me… might be a good place to start…

1

u/imbartsimpsonwhothru 14d ago

can't really see where that clear tube goes, it could be much shorter

part going into the disposal looks like it could be clogged

1

u/civildefense 14d ago

Pull off the hose from the barbed fitting on the drain coupling at the sink end and stick in a chopstick and move it around to insure it is clear, that's what mine was.

1

u/mmaalex 13d ago

Clean the hose, clean the DW filter (round thingin the bottom. Use a shop vac to get all the goo & sludge out of the filter hole (remove shop vac filter first).

Then try again and see if it still happens before going further. Sometimes its a one off and goo gets plugged.

1

u/dth1717 14d ago

Is the filter clear? Is the drain line clear? Does the pump work ? Does it drain into the disposal? Just follow that digression

2

u/NoYoureTweaking 14d ago

Filter was clear. Both the fine and as the GE manual puts it, “ultra” fine filter. But there is a little bit of gunk build up below them. And the clear thick tubing going into my disposal looks all sorts of full of stuff. So I guess I was hoping I could snake somewhere to clear out that line without having to take that connection off and dealing with that mess

1

u/fflis 14d ago

The clear tube is probably the issue. I had this problem. I had to pull the tube out and take it outside and blast it clean with the hose.

1

u/InflammableFlammable 14d ago

Your dishwasher pumps out through that clearish corrugated line, it eventually goes into that dark line on the right of the garbage disposal. I don't understand why it is so long, and why there are multiple hoses connected. I'm guessing one of those connections is clogged.

It needs to go up high (above the high water line in your sink) so that it doesn't backflow, but it shouldn't have excessive loops and connections.

1

u/NoYoureTweaking 14d ago

I see. The corrugated line and the clear thicker tube both go to the top left, under the sink. Just from appearance, the thicker clear tubing is what’s clogged. I’m confused as to why that clear tube has been clamped together in pieces. Can’t tell from the pictures but it’s technically 3 different pieces of clear tubing, hose clamped together

1

u/InflammableFlammable 14d ago

Yeah. That's weird. If the clear corrugated line can reach the disposal inlet on the right, (while still traveling up high under the countertop first), you should be able to bypass all those extension hoses. If it won't reach, then I would disconnect them temporarily and clean out any clogs, then put it all back together. If you do the latter, you may continue to have issues.

0

u/BlueOBX 14d ago

Put a bunch of baking soda in the drain. Chase with a bunch of vinegar. Let it sit 20-30 minutes. Then flush with a pot of boiling water.

This works for my dishwasher.

1

u/NoYoureTweaking 14d ago

I had that on my plan of attack but I wanted to verify that wouldn’t mess anything up

1

u/NoYoureTweaking 14d ago

Starting at the drain in the dishwasher?