The short answer
On the C line, the most common reason a dishwasher is not draining is filter and sump blocked. On this page that cause is ranked ahead of drain hose kinked, blocked or wrongly looped, which is where the order departs from the brand-generic article above; the ranking below says what about this platform moved it. Three of the four causes below are owner-checkable with no tools worth naming, and the last of them is a service call.
What you see on the C line
- Standing water in the base at the end of the cycle — A little water in the sump is normal on some designs; several centimetres is not.
- A humming from the pump with no water leaving — The pump is driven and the impeller is stopped.
- Dirty water rather than clean — Food soil left in the base means the filter is not doing its job either.
- Water appearing in the base between cycles — That is the sink draining back into the machine, which is a plumbing fault.
- NEAR MISS — it will not start at all — The start page covers that.
Causes, most likely first on the C line
- Filter and sump blocked — The filter assembly catches what comes off the plates, and once it packs the water cannot reach the pump at all. It lifts out by hand and it is meant to. It ranks first because it is the most common cause and the only part of the drain path meant to be cleaned by the owner. The C key covers a single model, so nothing on this page has to be qualified across capacities or configurations.
- Drain hose kinked, blocked or wrongly looped — The drain hose needs a high loop before it falls to the waste, and it needs to be uncrushed behind the cabinet. Without either, the machine cannot clear itself and sink water can come back. It ranks second because it is the cause when the filter is clean, and because it also explains water appearing between cycles.
- Disposer knockout plug still fitted — When a dishwasher is plumbed into a new disposer, a plug inside the disposer inlet has to be knocked out first. Left in place, the machine cannot drain at all from its very first cycle. It is placed here because it is the whole answer on a recently installed machine and it is invisible from outside.
- Drain pump failed electrically — A pump that is completely silent during the drain step has either lost its supply or failed. Separating those needs a meter. It stays last because it is the conclusion once every mechanical cause is clear.
Check in this order, and why
- First: Lift out the filter and rinse it — Clear the sump underneath with a sponge and check nothing is caught in the outlet. It comes first because it is the cheapest of the four to exclude and because everything below it is harder to read while it is unresolved.
- Second: Look at the hose route under the sink — Check for a crush point and confirm the hose rises high before it falls to the waste.
- Third: Was the disposer or the machine recently installed? — A machine that has never drained since installation points straight at the plug.
- Last: Is there any pump noise at the drain step? — Silence with a clear filter and hose points at the pump circuit.
Before you open anything
Safety
Switch the dishwasher off at its breaker and at any wall switch before reaching into the sump or removing a panel — a capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off. Assume broken glass in a sump you cannot see the bottom of, and use a sponge rather than bare fingers. The water in the base can still be hot at the end of a cycle.
Models in the C family
Reference| Model number | Family key |
|---|---|
| C*14EFSBK1RCM | comfee:dishwasher:c |
When to call a technician
Owner work is the filter, the sump, the air gap and the hose route. Anything behind the toe panel is a technician job, and standing water should be bailed out rather than left between visits.
