Dishwasher not draining FIX. D.I.Y. KitchenAid & Whirlpoo

Hey what's up everybody this is CLS all-in-one. If you have a dishwasher that's not draining this video might be what you're looking for. This particular dishwasher is a KitchenAid brand but this video will be helpful for many other brands as well. When your dishwasher begins the drainage cycle the drainage pump should turn on and when this happens you should hear a noise that's similar to this. This noise the dishwasher is making indicates that the drainage pump is indeed turning on but the water is not draining which to me indicates that there's some sort of blockage in the drainage system of the dishwasher and this usually can be repaired for free with just a little bit of labor and time. But if the drainage pump is not making any noise whatsoever during the drainage cycle more than likely the drainage pump is bad or the control board is faulty. And if this is your issue you can just use a voltage tester to test if you're getting power to the drainage pump. And if the pump is receiving power and not turning on the pump probably needs replaced. If the pump is not receiving power then it's probably a faulty control board. For repairs such as these I will not be covering in detail in this video. For this video I'll be concentrating more on the free repair options to get your dishwasher draining again. So currently right now this dishwasher is not draining but I can hear the drainage pump turning on during the drainage cycle. So this tells me I probably have something blocking or plugging the drainage system on my dishwasher. To start with I'll be checking the inside of the dishwasher first to see if there's some sort of blockage. More than likely if it's not draining there'll be a good amount of water in the bottom of the dishwasher. To remove this water you can just use a shop vac as I did here or you can just scoop it out with a cup and dump it in your sink. In the bottom of most dishwashers there should be parts and components that look similar to this. Parts such as the spray arm should either just clip in place or twist in place. So it's usually very easy to remove these parts. This spray arm just has to be twisted counterclockwise to remove. This dishwasher also features a built-in drain filter that can be removed by twisting it counterclockwise as well. And once that filter is removed the filter screen should just lift right up. At this point you should inspect all the areas for possible blockage. There could possibly be a chunk of food blocking the drain. You should also clean the screen and the filter if equipped on your dishwasher. Both of these parts can be cleaned with a soft brush such as a toothbrush along with some dish soap and warm water. If either the screen or filter or both are extremely dirty this could be your issue. The screen and filter are designed to block larger chunks of food from entering the drainage pump area. But if they get too dirty this will end up just clogging the dishwasher. With this dishwasher the screen and filter were somewhat dirty but not terrible. So I didn't think these were the issue. But I went ahead and assembled the dishwasher back together to give it a drainage test. And unfortunately the screen and filter were not the issue. So it's time to move on to the next step which would be inspecting the drainage hose for possible blockage. So one end of the drainage hose connects at the bottom of the dishwasher and the other end usually connects under the kitchen sink with the drainage pipes. Or if you have a garbage disposal it will connect right to the side of it. And here is something I would like to mention regarding the garbage disposal. If the garbage disposal was recently replaced and your dishwasher is not draining then more than likely the knockout plug inside the hole where the hose connects for the dishwasher might need to be knocked out with a screwdriver and a small hammer. And this will allow water to flow through the inlet on the side of the garbage disposal. If the disposal was not recently replaced this should not be an issue. Now it's time to loosen the hose clamp on the drainage hose and disconnect the hose. Then check the ends of the hose and the garbage disposal inlet for possible blockage. If there is anything plugged in the hose or inlet a very small snake or a piece of wire could be used to clean the blockage. In my case the end of the hose looks a little bit gross but there is no blockage. So it's time to inspect the opposite end of the drainage hose. At the bottom of most dishwashers there'll be an access panel that'll have two screws that have to be removed and this will give you access to the underneath side of the dishwasher. And right here is the opposite end of the drainage hose. To remove this end of the drainage hose it can be somewhat difficult because this is a tight space but it can be done and I have done this multiple times. To remove the hose clamp on this it should be a spring clamp and you can remove this clamp with just a pair of pliers. But before you disconnect this hose you want to make sure you have some towels or some rags handy because some water is going to be coming out of the bottom of the dishwasher. Once the hose is disconnected go ahead and check this end of the hose for blockage. If there is any blockage that's visible go ahead and clean the end of the hose. At this point you should also ensure that the drain hose can flow freely from this end to the other end. To check this you can use a clean pair of rubber gloves. Then grab the end of the hose and make a funnel with your hand. Then blow through the hose. There should be some water still remaining in the hose that should blow through at the other end. And if it does blow through that means that the hose is working properly. But if you are unable to blow water or air through the hose that means that there is some sort of blockage in the middle of the hose and it needs to be cleaned out better. This can be somewhat of a difficult task and sometimes it's easier to just replace the hose. But I have had luck with clearing clogs and drainage hoses like this with the use of very small hand snakes or even metal hangers. But in my case again the drainage hose is not the issue. This means there must be something blocking the drainage pump internally. To inspect the drainage pump more than likely the dishwasher will have to be removed. So you'll have to disconnect the water, the electricity, and the drainage hose in order to remove the dishwasher. There's also going to be two screws that secure the dishwasher that will be located either on the sides of the cabinet like this or at the top of the dishwasher underneath the countertop edge. After removing the screws the dishwasher should pull out but you might have to help guide the water line and drainage hose and electrical cord at the same time as you're pulling the dishwasher out. And I'd also like to mention that sometimes dishwashers are hardwired so you want to make sure to go to your breaker box and kill the power for the dishwasher before you disconnect the electricity. So right here I have the dishwasher pulled out and laying on its side and here is where the drainage pump is. So I'm going to disconnect the drainage hose and now we're going to take a look at the inside of the drainage pump. So now I'm going to check for any blockage right here that's visible and I don't see nothing. So I'm going to use my finger and feel inside here where the impeller is located to see if I feel anything that doesn't belong. And I don't feel nothing here but I did notice the impeller is not spinning very freely when I tried to manually spin it with my finger. So something must be inside this drainage pump. And if you just happen to have a KitchenAid model dishwasher you might get lucky and find out that the pump does come apart just by twisting it like this. But for most other models of dishwashers the pump will more than likely have screws that secure the pump together. And it looks like I finally found what the issue is with this dishwasher. There's a piece of glass right here. This small piece of glass somehow made it through the screen and filter and got stuck inside the drainage pump which caused the impeller to become somewhat stuck and spin very slow. So because the impeller was unable to spin properly the drainage pump did not work. After removing the piece of glass I went ahead and reassembled the dishwasher. Then connected the water supply, drainage hose, and power. And now it's time for a test to make sure this dishwasher is working. So I poured some water in the bottom of the dishwasher and I got everything hooked up. So now it's time to go ahead and plug this in and hit the cancel drain button on the dishwasher to see if it does indeed drain. And here's how the test went in real time. Working. Yeah it's kind of a pain to get it out of there. I mean yeah pain you have to take everything out but after that it was easy to access the pump. Yeah. Well good. Okay it's time for me to go. If you like this video if you could hit that like button and subscribe and have yourself a great day and I'll see you next time.