--- title: "Dishwasher not draining" description: "LG dishwasher not draining — the most common dishwasher call there is, and the cheapest cause is also the most likely." url: "https://lgmiami.support/symptoms/dishwasher-not-draining/" date_modified: "2026-09-05" Appliance type: "Dishwashers" --- # LG dishwasher not draining ### Ten minutes with a bowl and a cloth Scoop the standing water out with a cup so you can see the bottom. Take out the lower rack, twist the filter cylinder anticlockwise and lift it out with the flat mesh plate under it. Rinse both under the tap with a brush, look in the sump for glass or a bone, and put them back. Then check the drain hose behind the machine for a kink. That sequence answers most of these before anybody is called. ### What it usually means, by the kind of LG appliance LG sells one appliance in several forms — five shapes of washer, three kinds of dryer, four fuels of range — and the same behavior points at different things on each of them. A built-in side-by-side and an integrated column are not the same service situation, and a dual-fuel range and an induction range fail in different halves. - **Front control** — The filter is under the lower spray arm and twists out by hand. No tools. - **Top control** — Same filter, same place. The control layout makes no difference to this. - **With a disposal** — Check the knockout plug was punched out when the machine was installed. A machine that has never drained properly since day one is usually this. ### Where the water actually goes A dishwasher does not have a drain of its own. It pumps into the kitchen waste, usually through a hose that loops up under the worktop or through an air gap on the sink, and joins the sink drain or a disposal spigot. That means three separate things can stop it: the machine, the hose, or the plumbing it shares with the sink. Checking whether the sink itself drains freely is a thirty-second test that saves a wasted call. ### Why the filter matters more than people think Modern dishwashers use very little water, and the filter is what keeps what they do use clean enough to reuse through the cycle. Everything that comes off the plates ends up there. Five minutes twice a year is the best-value maintenance in the kitchen, and skipping it is the single largest cause of both poor cleaning and no draining on every make we work on. A loaded filter The commonest cause by a wide margin, and free to put right. A kinked or blocked drain hose Usually crushed when the machine was pushed back into its opening. The disposal knockout still in place A new disposal ships with the dishwasher spigot blanked off. If nobody removed it, the machine has never had anywhere to drain. The drain pump Last on the list and genuinely uncommon. It is diagnosed by sound before it is diagnosed by price. Scoop the water out and find the filter It is a cylinder in the middle of the tub floor and it twists out by hand. Run a rinse and listen A humming pump with no flow is blocked. Silence at the same moment is a failed pump or its supply. Look under the sink Follow the corrugated hose from the machine to the sink. A high loop or an air gap should be there, and a kink usually is. Check the sink drains freely A blocked kitchen waste will back up into the dishwasher and look like an appliance problem. Water standing in the bottom at the end of the cycle What it usually means The filter in the sump floor is the answer more often than the pump OE is the code, and LG's own order goes from free to expensive A pump that hums is blocked; a pump that is silent has failed Ten minutes with a bowl and a cloth Scoop the standing water out with a cup so you can see the bottom. Take out the lower rack, twist the filter cylinder anticlockwise and lift it out with the flat mesh plate under it. Rinse both under the tap with a brush, look in the sump for glass or a bone, and put them back. Then check the drain hose behind the machine for a kink. That sequence answers most of these before anybody is called. What it usually means, by the kind of LG appliance LG sells one appliance in several forms — five shapes of washer, three kinds of dryer, four fuels of range — and the same behavior points at different things on each of them. A built-in side-by-side and an integrated column are not the same service situation, and a dual-fuel range and an induction range fail in different halves. Front control — The filter is under the lower spray arm and twists out by hand. No tools. Top control — Same filter, same place. The control layout makes no difference to this. With a disposal — Check the knockout plug was punched out when the machine was installed. A machine that has never drained properly since day one is usually this. Where the water actually goes A dishwasher does not have a drain of its own. It pumps into the kitchen waste, usually through a hose that loops up under the worktop or through an air gap on the sink, and joins the sink drain or a disposal spigot. That means three separate things can stop it: the machine, the hose, or the plumbing it shares with the sink. Checking whether the sink itself drains freely is a thirty-second test that saves a wasted call. Why the filter matters more than people think Modern dishwashers use very little water, and the filter is what keeps what they do use clean enough to reuse through the cycle. Everything that comes off the plates ends up there. Five minutes twice a year is the best-value maintenance in the kitchen, and skipping it is the single largest cause of both poor cleaning and no draining on every make we work on. ### There is always a little water in the bottom. A small amount in the sump is normal and by design — it keeps the seals wet. What is not normal is water standing above the filter, water you can see without moving anything, or water that has gone cloudy and started to smell. Those are drainage. ### It drains but very slowly. Same list, earlier in its progress. A partly blocked filter or a partly kinked hose gives exactly this, and it is much easier to fix now than after it stops entirely. --- **[Read full article: Dishwasher not draining](https://lgmiami.support/symptoms/dishwasher-not-draining/)**