The finding, first
Most no-drain calls on this roster end at the filter or at the waste connection, and neither needs a technician. A filter packed solid, a sump with a foreign object in it, or a waste connection that was never cleared when it was installed. Work the path in order and the blockage names itself. Where this page says "on this family" it means every listing in the table above, not a subset of them.
What is left in the machine
- A smell that gets worse between uses — Standing water in the sump with food in it. The smell is a symptom of the drainage fault, not a separate problem.
- Water reappears in the tub hours after a cycle ends — Backflow from the waste, which means the high loop or the check valve rather than the pump.
- The drain runs but stops early — The pump losing prime against a restriction, which usually means the sump rather than the hose.
- A gurgling from the sink when the machine drains — The waste is shared and partly restricted, so the machine and the sink are fighting for the same pipe.
- An error indication and a cycle that stops part way — Many of these machines abandon a cycle when they detect water they cannot remove, which is the control behaving correctly.
- NEAR MISS — the machine never filled in the first place — An empty tub with a stopped cycle is a fill fault, not a drain fault, and it belongs on a different page.
Causes, most likely first on this roster
- Filter and sump packed with debris — First on this roster. The filter is the last line before the pump and it catches everything: labels, seeds, fragments of bone. When it fills, the water stops before it ever reaches the pump.
- Drain hose kinked or without a high loop — A hose crushed behind the machine restricts; a hose without a rise in it lets the sink drain back into the tub. Both are installation faults rather than failures, and both are common.
- Foreign object round the pump impeller — Glass, a fruit sticker or a piece of wire will stop the impeller dead. The tell is a hum with no flow, which distinguishes it from an electrical failure.
- Check valve stuck — Stuck open, the tub refills from the hose; stuck closed, nothing leaves at all. Either way it is a small part with a large effect.
- Drain pump failed — Bottom of the list. Silence at the drain stage means dead or not being told to run, and separating those needs a meter rather than a torch.
Work in this sequence
- Bail out the standing water and remove the filter — It gives you access to everything else and the filter itself is the commonest answer on the page.
- Reach into the sump and clear what is in it — Carefully, because glass ends up here. A foreign object against the impeller is found at this step, not later.
- Check whether water returns to the tub while the machine sits idle — Backflow means the high loop or the check valve, and it is proved by leaving the machine empty overnight.
Before you open anything
Safety
Take the power away first — at the plug, or at the breaker where there is no reachable plug — and treat any capacitor as charged until proven otherwise. Standing water in a dishwasher sump contains broken glass more often than anyone expects.
Models in the DBI family — Scope: the listings below, and nothing past the last row.
Reference| Model number | Family key |
|---|---|
| DBI364* | asko:dishwasher:dbi |
| DBI563****** | asko:dishwasher:dbi |
| DBI564* | asko:dishwasher:dbi |
| DBI565* | asko:dishwasher:dbi |
| DBI652 | asko:dishwasher:dbi |
| DBI652* | asko:dishwasher:dbi |
| DBI663* | asko:dishwasher:dbi |
| DBI664* | asko:dishwasher:dbi |
| DBI675* | asko:dishwasher:dbi |
| DBI776* | asko:dishwasher:dbi |
| DBI786* | asko:dishwasher:dbi |
When to call a technician
The owner line on this family is the sump. Clearing the filter, clearing the sump by hand, checking the waste connection and re-routing a hose are all yours.
The rest of this family
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
