Why won't my dishwasher drain?

Question

thats all i need to know. what could be the cause of this?

Answer 1

Could be a problem with the pump

Answer 2

If you are attaching the drain hose to a new garbage disposer or a disposer that has never had a drain hose attached it could be that the “knock-out” plug on the disposer hasn’t been removed.  You can check for this by removing the drain hose connection at the disposer in stick you finger in to the disposer from the drain connection.  MAKE SURE THE DISPOSER IS OFF!  If you feel something stopping your finger than you will need to stick a screwdriver into the disposer connection and hit the end of screwdriver with a hammer to knock out the plug.  The plug will wash down the drain.  Then, reattach the drain hose, and you’re good to go.

It also could be that the drain loop hasn’t been installed.  Your drain hose must go up above the drain connection and down to drain connection to form a loop.  Otherwise, the water will siphon back into the dishwasher.

If you turn the water on in the sink that the dishwasher drain hose is connected to and your sink is draining OK than your problem will likely be with one of these two things. It also could be that you have a bad pump or the dishwasher drain hose is clogged.

Answer 3

I recently paid the repair man $65 to come out and tell me that I needed to use less detergent !! Can you believe it. My dishwasher wasn't draining and he told me to cut those detergent tablets in half. He said it is the cause of many many problems he sees.

He showed me how the excess foam inside caused the overflow valve float to trigger the pump to not finish pumping .

Answer 4

either your pump is bad or your drainage line is clogged from the dishwasher to the drain

Answer 5

Does the outlet connect to a garbage disposer unit? This is often a culprit of causing this kind of blockage.

The disposer unit spins and flings little bits of food/waste into the dishwashers outlet hose connector which can then dry there and eventually block it.

Never run your disposer without a lot of water running. I would say to not use the disposer at all as they cause more problems than the convenience they afford.

If you are up to it, you could disconnect the hose from the waste line or the garbage disposer unit and inspect it to see if it's blocked. If it's clear, take a look at the floor of the dishwasher's interior to see if where it drains is all clear. If it is, then you probably have a problem with the pump and will need to get it serviced.