Dishwasher Not Draining? Standing Water Is Usually Just a Clog
You open the door after a cycle and there's a pool of cloudy water sitting in the bottom of the tub. It looks like a dead machine, but it's usually a clog, and sometimes the clog isn't even in the dishwasher.
The good news is that this one frequently clears in a single visit. The machine is trying to pump the water out, and something between the bottom of the tub and your kitchen drain is in the way. Most of the time that's the drain filter, the drain hose, or the pump.
One thing worth knowing first: a small amount of clear water down in the sump, under the filter, is normal on a lot of dishwashers. It keeps the seals from drying out. Standing water across the floor of the tub is not.
Start with the filter
Most newer dishwashers have a filter at the bottom of the tub, under the lower spray arm, that's meant to be pulled out and rinsed by hand. It's usually a cylinder that twists out, sometimes with a flat mesh screen under it. When it's packed with food, seeds, labels soaked off jars, or bits of broken glass, water can't reach the pump fast enough, and it sits. This is the one to check yourself: pull the bottom rack, twist the filter out, and rinse it in the sink, carefully if there's any chance of glass.
Then check where it drains to
A dishwasher doesn't have a drain line of its own. Its hose runs under the sink and empties into the garbage disposal or the sink drain, and that's where a lot of these clogs actually are:
- A newly installed garbage disposal. New disposals come with a plug in the dishwasher inlet that has to be knocked out during installation. If the dishwasher stopped draining right after a new disposal went in, that's very likely it
- A clogged disposal or sink drain. If the kitchen sink is draining slowly too, the problem is probably the drain, not the dishwasher
- A kinked drain hose. This tends to happen after the dishwasher has been pulled out and pushed back in, or when something under the sink gets shoved against the hose
- A clogged air gap. If there's a small cap on the sink deck next to the faucet and water spits out of it when the dishwasher drains, the air gap is blocked
If the backup turns out to be in the disposal or the sink drain, that's plumbing rather than a dishwasher repair, and it's part of our plumbing repair service. One thing not to do in the meantime: pour chemical drain cleaner into the dishwasher. It won't clear a filter or pump clog, it can damage the seals, and it leaves a caustic pool for whoever works on it next.
We start at the filter and work outward: the sump, the drain hose, the air gap or the loop in the hose under the sink, and the disposal connection. If all of that is clear and the water still sits, it's usually the drain pump itself, which is a standard part swap, not a reason to replace the dishwasher.
When it's a different problem
Water on the floor in front of the dishwasher, rather than water sitting inside it, is a separate issue. That's most often the door gasket or a hose fitting, and worth handling promptly given where the water goes. And if the dishwasher drains fine but the dishes still come out dirty or spotted, that's a cleaning problem, usually the spray arms or the water temperature, not the drain.
Is it worth fixing?
For a drain problem, yes, almost always. A clog, a kinked hose, or even a failed drain pump says very little about the rest of the machine. We'd only start talking replacement if the dishwasher is old enough that parts are getting hard to source, or if several unrelated problems are showing up at the same time.
Standing water in the dishwasher that won't go away? We can usually find the clog and get it draining again same visit.
Call (435) 414-1667