This happens to me if the garbage disposal isn't emptied and clean. Do you run your disposal before you start the dishwasher? I have to or the dishwasher doesn't drain properly.

I do run the disposal before starting the DW, but I have fairly fine screens on the drains and empty those into the trash instead of putting garbage through the disposal. I'm very particular about keeping the drains clean because we had a lot of problems in Venice. At this house, we made the previous owners clean and line the sewer all the way to the street, and we have no trees in the way to get into the sewer. We still have the DVD of the sewer inspection, which looks sort of like a colonoscopy.

Lars

Drain is clogged try cleaning well on bottom around the arm,you will have to open up and clean out the drain,my hubby fixed mine,same as washer,mine wouldnt drain one time ,pop lid there was a sock in drain.

Well, if you don't like to bend over to empty the dishwasher, I'd recommend a dish drawer instead. I have the Fisher Paykel Dishdrawer; in fact I have three single ones, so they're installed up higher, right under the counter. I've had one since 2002, and the others since 2004. So far so good! I'm not up anymore on what's available, so this may be old news even though they are serving me well. We built in a drawer underneath which holds dish towels/colanders/drainers.

Mind wouldn't drain a couple of times too. I drained off the water, mixed some baking soda and water into a paste and poured into the drain, then followed that with about a cup of vinegar. Much foaming commenced. Then I poured some boiling water into the drain and ran the dishwasher. It cleared it right out, but the repairman that told me to do this said sometimes it would take two or three times and that the water should be as hot as possible, so I pour it boiling right out of the teakettle. I've done that a couple of times in the 10 years I've had this dishwasher and it's worked, thankfully. Easier and cheaper than replacing the dishwasher.

There's even a video on eHow, I think. Good luck!

Annie

My old dishwasher had "didn't drain" problems repeatedly. finally found someone who diagnosed the problem and FIXED it. Seems that when it was installed the hole in the cabinet where the drain hose goes was not in the right place for this dishwasher....and when the hose gotw arm, as during the second wash cycle, it would kink. Once the diagnosis was made as to why it kinked it was simple to make a new hole in the side of the cabinet. I hope your problem is as simple.
Linda C

I'm going to try Annie's suggestion - I have plenty of baking soda and cheap vinegar that I use for cleaning, and it sounds harmless enough. I am wondering if I should try to use a plunger, but the drain is so far back that the plunger would not fit with its handle. Maybe I can find a shorter handle to substitute for this case.

We wash our dishes before we put them in the DW, and so there is no food on them, although I guess some of the jars had residual paper from the labels I removed.

If the problem persists, I will pull the DW out and check for hose kinks, although I'm hesitant to do that, for fear that I cannot put it back in properly. I certainly do not want to buy a new DW if I can avoid it, but OTOH, I do not think I can live without one, even though I have a large double sink.

Thanks for the suggestions, and I will look into the Fisher Paykel Dishdrawer if I have to make a replacement! I'm also very grateful for your help in this matter - I would not have thought of these things on my own!

Lars

1. If when you operate the DW and you don't hear anything, that can mean the motor is defective. Replace the DW.

2. I assume your sink's drain works, because often the DW drains thru the kitchen sink's drain.

3. If the motor makes noise, and this happened suddenly, not gradually, that can mean the impeller of the centrifugal pump is broken. It can be replaced by yourself, generally it is not very difficult. (1/2 hour of work).

4. If the motor works, assuming the impeller is not broken, you can try this:

� After removing all the water collected,
� Disconnect the connecting hose to the sink's drain (normally above the trap)
� Using a garden hose, back force water into the DW's connecting hose to blast whatever might have clogged the DW's drain path. This may not work if your DW has a check valve built in to prevent back flow.

The other issue for DW not draining well, but draining, is the water level sensor (float valve) not operating properly, that too can be replaced.

Good luck.

dcarch

Oh, and I also periodically put CLR down the drain outlet, but I couldn't explain where yours would be. I have to pull out the diswasher, unhook the hose and put CLR into the fitting. I have water with a high mineral level and it just gets all plugged up, then it runs water all over my floor. I had the repairman actually show me how to do that, he's a nice guy, and I've done that half a dozen times now.

I sure hope you don't have to replace it.

Annie

Oh, and dcarch, my dishwasher does use the same drain as the kitchen sink, but hte sink drain worked fine. My clog was in the line between the dishwasher itself and where it hooked into the sink drain.

Annie

Lars, I'm not a plumber so can't be of any help with your DW's problem but wanted to give you another Fisher Paykel Dishdrawer recommendation. We've had ours 4 years & love them. There are traps that need cleaning once/twice a year but it's easy. We never pre-wash the dishes. To me, it doesn't make sense to have a D/W if you have to pre-wash.

/tricia

One choice for us-- Miele. It's expensive, but worth it!

DD has the KitchenAid, I believe the architect series, She's very happy. Cheap dishwashers make lots of noise and don't hold up. I'm not happy with my Bosch washer & dryer-- the plastic fascia repeatedly has cracks, something that shouldn't happen in our little used machines.
Good luck!

Ihave about a 2 yr old Bosch I dispise it,Im done with it

I've heard that Bosch is not as good as it used to be, and so I have to be careful in reading old reviews. I'm really going to try to avoid getting a new one, but I know that will have to happen some time in the future. I did not have time to fiddle with it yesterday because I decided to lie down at 5:30 for a few minutes and didn't get up until 10:30! I guess I was drained from week-end activities. I stayed up and read in bed until about 2:00 a.m., when I started falling asleep again. I took my evening BP meds at 10:30 when I woke up from the nap, and when I went back to sleep, the vivid dreams recurred, but not until about five in the morning, just before I was going to get up. This one was so bizarre that I am going to write down the details and show them to my doctor. The COO of the company was in the dream, and so I told him about it. He then asked me what I was on, and I told him about my BP medication. It was an action-packed dream (according to one of my co-workers that I told it to), and so I thought it might make interesting reading. Anyway, it kept me away from the dishwasher - there was nothing kitchen related in the dream, although part of it did take place in a restaurant where I was supposed to have lunch but was unable to.

Lars

Do you have an air gap on the top of your sink? A couple of times when ours wouldn't drain, there was paper stuck in there. We have a Bosch and I am just lukewarm about it.

We've had a Bosch for 5 years and I can't wait to replace it. It is very temperamental. Some days it cleans beautifully, other days it leaves food on nearly everything. And there is no consistency in why or how it cleans. It's a roll of the dice, every night.

Back then, we were debating between a Bosch and a Miele. I completely regret not buying the Miele.

I do have an air gap on the top of my sink. I haven't checked that, but I will - thanks! Although I cannot imagine how paper would get up in there. We checked it out two years ago when we had a problem, and I think it was okay, but I'm not positive.

When I think about spending money on a DW, I think that I could better spend that money on a trip to Italy. Right now I do not have enough vacation time for a long trip, however.

Lars

Again ..... Lars' I love your posts.

Hope you work out your DW problems.

Di

If it's any help, mine's a GE Profile, 7 years old. I had it fixed once, still under warranty, the touch panel in the front had one button that didn't work.

It's worked fine ever since and I've done at least one load per day, sometimes more, because I have a single large sink set into the island, and it's not convenient at all for washing dishes by hand, it's nearly impossible to wash and rinse and no room to put a dish drainer either.

So, all dishes are done in the dishwasher, pretty much, except cast iron and wine glasses. I think it cost me somewhere around $400 delivered and installed and I've definitely gotten my money's worth out of it.

Annie

Annie, I did your baking soda and vinegar treatment this evening, and then ran just the rinse cycle, and everything seems to be working fine now. My DW is a GE Profile Performance Triton, and I'm happy with it because it is quiet and does what I want done. It came with the house, and so I do not know how old it is, but it's probably the same age as the stove, which works fine also but is showing a bit of rust under the burners. I brought my old washing machine (vintage 1994) from Venice, but we bought new fridge and dryer when we moved. I had an electric dryer in Venice, and we only have gas dryer hookup here, and I wanted to switch anyway. The electric dryer used way too much electricity, and so we hung our clothes on clothes lines in the back yard in Venice, which I do not want to do here. I had made special gladiator outfits to wear while doing laundry and hanging out clothes in Venice, but they do not fit me any more. They were very nice for when I was in Venice, however.

Lars

DW's are pretty simple machines. I have no doubt at all an experienced tech could have your machine diagnosed very quickly. Given the knowledge limitation you've shown in this posting sequence I would suggest you hire someone since you seem to like the machine otherwise. However, if the machine is over ten years old, I wouldn't be willing to put much money into it. And, new machines are always nice.

Mystified by your reluctance to post on the appliances forum. Makes no sense at all. That's where your best information would come from. That's what it's for.

Thank you, but I got all the information I needed here from people I know and trust, and my DW works fine now - therefore there is no need to hire anyone to check it out further! There was really no need for me to post on the appliance forum since I could read previous threads there pertaining to dishwashers that would not drain. My brother got a lot of useful information from doing Google searches which was more helpful than the information I got from the appliance forum. He also disassembled quite a few parts and put them back together. Our previous problem involved a valve that I was able to locate and replace, and so I do not think that my knowledge is that limited. The machine probably is over ten years old, but it's not dead yet!

Lars

lars, I'm glad that simple solution seemed to work, and I sure hope it stays fixed.

I'm also loathe to post on other forums where I'm unfamiliar with the people or the "etiquette" and I always feel like an interloper if I come on to ask a single question then go away when I get an answer (or don't get an answer).

A couple of them have been outright hostile too...

Annie

Glad you got your problem sorted out. If'n when you're looking for a "new" machine check out a Habitat for Humanity Restore if you have one around. They often have nearly new dw's for sale cheap. Like $100-$150 It's amazing what people will rip out of their kitchens when they want to redecorate. They do (at least at ours) check them out, hook them up and run them to ensure they work before putting them on sale.
If you do decide on a new one eventually, a dw and a fridge are two appliances that I'd seriously consider getting an extended warranty on these days.

As for pre-rinsing, that's a waste of water, just scrape and be sure to use a good rated dw detergent like Cascade All In One tabs or Finish Quantumm tabs. They're worth it. Pre-rinsing can also lead to etching on glasses etc because the caustic agents in the detergent need something to eat away at or else they just eat away at the glasses.

The other half here always barks at me about not pre-rinsing and is so quick to point out the very odd time one little utensil or dish has something not washed away.. Well if one dish or fork out of 5 loads of lord how many dishes etc went thru the machine has a tiny speck left on it is hardly reason to pre-rinse everything everytime in my opinion LOL

"....DW works fine now..."

"...disassembled quite a few parts and put them back together."

Glad your DW's working again.....but nobody here learned what the issue was or how it was fixed.

"---Glad your DW's working again.....but nobody here learned what the issue was or how it was fixed."

Not all problems can be explained away. the good news is that the problem is no longer.

Two guesses:

1. If the DW's check valve is temporarily stuck, water from the kitchen sink can enter into the DW.

2. If the water level sensor is temporarily stuck, some of the water may not be drained away.

dcarch