--- title: "Dishwasher will not drain" description: "Jennair dishwasher not draining — jennAir dishwasher will not drain: a cycle that finishes — or stops — with water standing in the bottom of the tub." url: "https://jennairmiami.support/symptoms/dishwasher-not-draining/" date_modified: "2026-08-24" Appliance type: "Dishwashers" --- # JennAir dishwasher will not drain ### The fastest diagnosis is the code Lift out the tub filter first — a quarter turn on the cylinder under the lower rack, then the flat screen underneath — and rinse it under a tap. Then, if your dishwasher was installed at the same time as a garbage disposal, check that the disposal knock-out plug was actually removed. A machine that has never drained properly since the day it went in is very often that, and it is not the appliance. ### The water leaves through five things and only one is a part Out of the tub through a filter, into a pump, along a hose that should rise in a loop under the counter, and then into either an air gap on the countertop or a spigot on the disposal. Every one of those can stop it. Four of them cost nothing to check and three are not inside the appliance at all — which is why this is the symptom most worth ten minutes of your own time on the whole site. ### What a paneled front changes Every dishwasher on this make is built in, and most carry a cabinet door made by somebody who was not the appliance manufacturer. Nothing about the diagnosis changes. What changes is the appointment: the panel comes off before the machine comes out and goes back on aligned afterwards. Say when you book that the front is your own cabinetry, and the time is planned rather than found. ### Water underneath is a different urgency A tub that will not empty can wait until tomorrow. Water arriving under the machine is reaching your cabinet base and your floor, and it is worth a same-day call. On this platform the diverter shaft seal, the sump gasket and the hose clamps are the usual sources. The filter in the floor of the tub Loaded with the residue of a few hundred cycles, it slows the drain until the machine gives up on it. It lifts out by hand and rinses under a tap. The air gap on the counter The little chrome cylinder beside the faucet, if you have one. It blocks with the same debris the sink sees, and it stops the dishwasher rather than the sink. The disposal knock-out plug On a new installation. The commonest reason a machine has never drained properly from the first day, and the only cure is taking the plug out. The drain hose and its high loop Kinked behind the machine, or run without the loop under the counter that stops sink water flowing back in. The drain pump or the control A pump that hums and moves nothing, or a control that never commands it at all. This is where it stops being a ten-minute check. Scoop the water out first A cup and a towel. It makes everything below possible and it stops the tub smelling by tomorrow. Take the filter out and rinse it Under the lower rack, in the floor of the tub. A quarter turn on the cylinder, then the flat screen lifts out. Look at what comes off it — that is what has been slowing the drain. Check the air gap and the disposal Pop the cap off the air gap on the counter and clear it. If a disposal was fitted at the same time as the dishwasher, check that its knock-out plug came out. Look under the sink for the loop The drain hose should rise close to the underside of the counter before it drops to its connection. If something pushed under there has flattened it, that is your answer and it is free. Then book the visit Tell us the model number from the edge of the door, whether you can hear the pump trying, and whether the front is a cabinet panel — that last one decides how long the appointment runs. Water still in the tub What it usually means Standing water at the end of every cycle You can hear the pump trying It drains if you run it again The fastest diagnosis is the code Lift out the tub filter first — a quarter turn on the cylinder under the lower rack, then the flat screen underneath — and rinse it under a tap. Then, if your dishwasher was installed at the same time as a garbage disposal, check that the disposal knock-out plug was actually removed. A machine that has never drained properly since the day it went in is very often that, and it is not the appliance. The water leaves through five things and only one is a part Out of the tub through a filter, into a pump, along a hose that should rise in a loop under the counter, and then into either an air gap on the countertop or a spigot on the disposal. Every one of those can stop it. Four of them cost nothing to check and three are not inside the appliance at all — which is why this is the symptom most worth ten minutes of your own time on the whole site. What a paneled front changes Every dishwasher on this make is built in, and most carry a cabinet door made by somebody who was not the appliance manufacturer. Nothing about the diagnosis changes. What changes is the appointment: the panel comes off before the machine comes out and goes back on aligned afterwards. Say when you book that the front is your own cabinetry, and the time is planned rather than found. Water underneath is a different urgency A tub that will not empty can wait until tomorrow. Water arriving under the machine is reaching your cabinet base and your floor, and it is worth a same-day call. On this platform the diverter shaft seal, the sump gasket and the hose clamps are the usual sources. ### It drains if I run it a second time. That is a partial blockage rather than a stopped pump, and it is the version of this problem that is cheapest to fix. Something is slowing the water enough that the machine times out on the first attempt and gets there on the second. The filter is the first suspect, then the hose. ### Is standing water in the bottom normal? A small amount in the very bottom of the sump is normal and is meant to be there — it keeps the seals from drying. Water covering the floor of the tub, or above the filter, is not. ### The machine stopped mid-cycle and will not restart. On these machines that can be leak detection working as designed: if the appliance has seen water where it should not be, it can shut down deliberately and refuse to restart. Look in the base pan and under the machine before assuming a board has failed. --- **[Read full article: Dishwasher will not drain](https://jennairmiami.support/symptoms/dishwasher-not-draining/)**