The answer first
The Ariston ARWL washer family covers six listings in the roster below, and on that platform the filter and the impeller behind it are where this fault usually ends. A washer that will not drain is one of the few appliance faults where the most likely cause is also the easiest one to reach. A drain hose that has been pushed too far into a standpipe, or looped the wrong way, produces a machine that drains and then refills itself.
What you observe
- The pump can be heard running but nothing leaves — The motor is turning and the impeller is not moving water, which points at a blockage at the impeller or in the hose rather than at the pump itself.
- Water appears at the filter cover or under the front — The filter cover has been left loose or its seal has hardened. It is a leak caused by the last attempt to clear a drain rather than by the drain itself.
- Water returns to the drum overnight — A siphon in the waste connection is pulling water back after the machine has finished, so the drum is wet again by morning with no cycle having run.
- NEAR MISS — the drum is empty but the machine still will not spin — With no water to remove, the fault is balance, the lid switch or the motor rather than drainage, and a drainage diagnosis is not what will resolve it.
Causes, most likely first on the ARWL line
- Pump filter blocked with lint, coins or debris — Ranked first here, because it is the first restriction on the way out and it is designed to be opened by hand, which is why it is both the most likely cause and the cheapest one to rule out. This label is wide enough that the only safe starting point is what every listing on it shares, which is why the order below begins with the checks that need no panel off.
- Object jammed against the pump impeller — Second here, because an impeller that cannot turn stops the motor dead, and the silence that produces is read as a dead pump rather than as a jammed one.
- Drain hose kinked, crushed or badly routed — Third here, because the hose is behind the machine where nobody looks, and pushing a washer back into its space is enough to crush it against the wall or a skirting board with no other sign.
- Drain pump failed electrically — Fourth here: it ranks below the mechanical causes because a genuinely dead pump is far less common than a blocked one, and the two are distinguished by whether anything can be heard at all.
- Pressure sensing telling the machine the drum is already empty — Last here, because the machine never asks the pump to run, so the pump is silent and blameless, which is the one case where silence does not mean a jam.
Check in this order, and why
- Listen for the pump during the drain step — A hum or a whirr with no water moving is a blockage past the pump; complete silence is either a jammed impeller or a pump that is not being asked to run.
- Test the standpipe with a bucket of water — Pour water into the waste connection with the hose out of it. If the standpipe backs up on its own, the fault is the plumbing and no repair to the machine will change it.
- Run a drain or spin programme and watch the whole sequence — With the filter clear and the hose proven, a drain programme shows whether the machine asks the pump to run and whether the water leaves in the time it allows.
Before you open anything
Safety
Turning the impeller by hand is done with the machine unplugged and not otherwise. Unplug the appliance or switch off its breaker first: a capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off. The filter holds a surprising amount of water and on a hot programme that water can scald, so let the machine stand until it is cool and have a shallow tray and towels ready before the cover moves. Objects in a pump can have sharp edges; use a torch rather than a bare finger to find them..
Models in the ARWL family — Every listing above is covered by this article rather than by a page of its own; where a page exists for one of these models it goes further than this one. Numbers reproduced from the platform data for this label.
Reference| Model number | Family key |
|---|---|
| ARWL129# | ariston:washer:arwl |
| ARWL129(NA).1 | ariston:washer:arwl |
| ARWL129NA.1 | ariston:washer:arwl |
| ARWL129S# | ariston:washer:arwl |
| ARWL129S(NA).1 | ariston:washer:arwl |
| ARWL129SNA.1 | ariston:washer:arwl |
When to call a technician
Call once the filter is clear, the impeller turns by hand, the hose is unkinked and the standpipe takes a bucket of water freely, since what remains is the pump or its circuit. Stop restarting the cycle in the hope that it drains. Every attempt refills the drum and adds to what has to come out by hand.
Other faults covered for the ARWL line
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
