If your dishwasher finishes a cycle and leaves a pool of water sitting in the bottom, it is not draining, and the cause is almost always somewhere along the drainage path. Some of it you can check yourself in a few minutes. The rest is a repair worth handing to a technician. Here is how to tell the difference. Start with the filter. Most modern dishwashers have a removable filter at the bottom of the tub, under the lower spray arm. Food debris, glass, and grease collect there and block water from draining. Pull it out, rinse it under the tap, and clear anything caught in the sump opening underneath. This is the most common cause of poor drainage and the easiest to rule out. Check the drain hose. The hose running from the dishwasher to your sink drain or disposal can kink behind the unit or clog at the connection. If the dishwasher was recently moved or a new disposal was installed, this is a likely spot. Look at the garbage disposal. If your dishwasher drains into a disposal that was installed recently, the knockout plug inside the disposal inlet may still be in place, blocking the water entirely. This one catches a lot of homeowners after a kitchen upgrade. Run the disposal and clear the air gap. A quick run of the disposal clears food that can back up into the dishwasher line. If you have an air gap fitting on the counter beside the faucet, check it for buildup too. If you have worked through those and the water still will not clear, the problem is usually inside the machine, and that is where a proper diagnosis saves you money. The drain pump. The pump pushes water out of the tub. When it fails or jams on a shard of glass or a bone fragment, the water has nowhere to go. A worn pump often hums without moving anything. Replacing it means opening the unit and testing the motor, which is technician work. The control board or timer Less often, a dishwasher that never advances to the drain part of its cycle has a control fault rather than a physical blockage. It looks fine otherwise but simply never drains on schedule. A dishwasher leaving standing water is worth addressing before you keep running it, because a slow drain often points to a part on its way out, and repeated cycles can push water past worn seals and onto your floor. Andy's Appliance Repair has serviced dishwashers since 1971 across Nebraska and Missouri, and our technicians work on the brands we see most, including Bosch, KitchenAid, Miele, LG, GE, Whirlpool, and Samsung. Every repair uses factory OEM original parts and is backed by a one-year parts and labor warranty. You can read more on our dishwasher repair page, or book with the location nearest you if you are in Omaha or the St. Louis area .
Choose Andy’s Appliance for reliable St Louis appliance repair. Schedule professional service for refrigerators, washers, dryers, dishwashers, ovens and more.
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