--- title: "Dishwasher not draining" description: "Frigidaire dishwasher not draining: on these machines this is usually something caught rather than something broken, and the filter at the bottom of the tub…" url: "https://frigidairemiami.support/symptoms/dishwasher-not-draining/" date_modified: "2026-09-08" Appliance type: "dishwasher" --- # Frigidaire dishwasher not draining ### What to do in the next ten minutes Scoop the standing water out with a cup and a sponge, then twist out the filter at the bottom of the tub and look at what is in it. Check under the sink for a kinked hose. If the machine was connected to a garbage disposal recently, the knock-out plug inside the disposal inlet is worth asking about before anybody books a pump. ### Why the filter matters more on this make than owners expect Frigidaire’s dishwashers use a filter you are supposed to rinse — it is not self-cleaning in the way some premium machines are — and the manual says so in a sentence most people never read. Left for a year in a household that does not pre-rinse, it recirculates what it caught and eventually the sump blocks. That is why our first move is to show it to you: the repair is a rinse, and the visit that follows it is one you do not have to book again. ### Standing water is not the same as a broken machine A cycle that ends with an inch of clean water in the sump is a drain problem. A cycle that ends with dirty water and food debris is the same problem further along. But a small amount of water sitting in the well around the filter is normal on these machines and stops the seals drying out — so if the complaint is a cupful rather than a tubful, the answer may be that nothing is wrong. Something in the sump or the filter Glass, seeds, a fruit label. The pump runs, the water does not move, and the fix costs nothing at all. The drain path outside the machine A crushed hose behind the kickplate, a hose without a high loop that siphons the sink back, or a blocked air gap on the worktop. The drain pump itself A hum with no flow is an obstruction or a seized impeller; silence is electrical. This is the third suspect, not the first. Take the filter out and look It twists out of the tub floor. What is in it is usually the answer. Listen at the drain moment A pump that hums and shifts nothing is blocked, not dead. Check the disposal connection The knock-out plug is the classic, and it is not the dishwasher's doing. Water standing in the bottom when the cycle ends What it usually means The filter and the sump first: this is the answer more often than a pump is A new disposal with its knock-out plug still in place blocks every dishwasher fitted to it Slow draining and not draining at all point at different halves of the list What to do in the next ten minutes Scoop the standing water out with a cup and a sponge, then twist out the filter at the bottom of the tub and look at what is in it. Check under the sink for a kinked hose. If the machine was connected to a garbage disposal recently, the knock-out plug inside the disposal inlet is worth asking about before anybody books a pump. Why the filter matters more on this make than owners expect Frigidaire’s dishwashers use a filter you are supposed to rinse — it is not self-cleaning in the way some premium machines are — and the manual says so in a sentence most people never read. Left for a year in a household that does not pre-rinse, it recirculates what it caught and eventually the sump blocks. That is why our first move is to show it to you: the repair is a rinse, and the visit that follows it is one you do not have to book again. Standing water is not the same as a broken machine A cycle that ends with an inch of clean water in the sump is a drain problem. A cycle that ends with dirty water and food debris is the same problem further along. But a small amount of water sitting in the well around the filter is normal on these machines and stops the seals drying out — so if the complaint is a cupful rather than a tubful, the answer may be that nothing is wrong. ### Can I run it again to clear it? Once, after you have removed the standing water and checked the filter. Running it repeatedly on top of a blockage is how a pump that was healthy becomes a part. ### The machine is new and it does this already. Then look under the sink first. A new installation with the disposal plug in place, or a drain hose without its high loop, produces this on day one and is an installation correction rather than a repair. --- **[Read full article: Dishwasher not draining](https://frigidairemiami.support/symptoms/dishwasher-not-draining/)**