The short answer
On a Lin's washer this is a blockage far more often than a failed pump, and the blockage is usually in the filter or the drain hose rather than inside the machine. The first check below needs a tray and ten minutes. A replacement pump is the last entry on the list.
What you observe
- The drum is full of water at the end of the cycle — The clearest version of the fault, and the one that stops everything else until the water is out.
- The clothes come out soaking rather than damp — The machine could not drain, so it could not spin, and the load has taken the consequence.
- NEAR MISS — the machine never filled in the first place — Then the fault is upstream at the taps or the inlet valves, and the page for a machine that will not start covers it.
What goes wrong here, in order
- The drain hose or where it drains to — A hose kinked behind the machine, pushed too far down a standpipe, or draining into a sink whose own trap is blocked will stop the water leaving. So will a waste connection on a disposer whose plug was never knocked out at installation. Top of the list on this one: this machine drains into a sink rather than into a standpipe, which makes the sink's own blockage the machine's problem. Lin's sells portable and compact machines that are hooked up to a tap and a sink rather than plumbed in, which moves the hose and the connection to the top of almost every fault list.
- Too much detergent, or a load the machine cannot handle — Excess detergent produces a foam that a drain pump cannot move — the pump runs, the suds absorb the effort, and nothing leaves. An overloaded drum does something similar by packing fabric against the outlet. Second on this brand: it is free to test: one rinse cycle with no detergent answers it.
- The drain filter is blocked — Behind a flap at the bottom of the front sits a filter designed to catch coins, hairclips, lint and the occasional sock. It is meant to be cleaned every few months. Almost nobody does, and a filter packed solid stops drainage completely. After those two: it remains the commonest cause of a blocked drain even where something else outranks it here.
- The machine is not being told to drain — A cycle left on a rinse-hold or a no-spin setting will deliberately leave water in the drum. So will a pressure sensor that believes the drum is already empty. The machine is behaving correctly and the result looks identical to a blockage. Fourth in order: it is a diagnosis by elimination and belongs after the physical checks.
What to check first, second, third
- Trace the drain hose from the machine to where it discharges — Look for a kink where the machine was pushed back, and check the sink or standpipe it feeds actually runs freely on its own.
- Look for foam standing in the drum or the door glass — Suds that persist through a rinse mean the pump is fighting foam rather than a blockage, and no amount of filter cleaning will change that.
- Open the filter flap at the bottom front and look — Have a tray ready before you turn it. A filter that is packed with lint or holding a coin has answered the question outright.
What an owner can safely check
- Straighten the drain hose and check the standpipe or sink runs clear — Pour a bucket of water into the standpipe or sink with the hose out of it: if that backs up, the machine was never the problem.
Tools: bucketAbout 20 min
- Run a rinse and spin with no detergent and nothing in the drum — Repeat it once if foam is still showing. Then reduce the dose permanently: most machines need far less than people use.
About 45 min
- STOP before removing the back or lower panel to reach the pump body — Behind it are live terminals and a pump full of water. Naming the fault is the useful end of an owner check.
Before you open anything
Safety
Unplug the machine or switch off its breaker before removing any panel — a capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off. Shut both taps before disconnecting a hose, and expect water in the machine even when the drum looks empty: a drain filter opened without a tray under it empties onto the floor.
When to call a technician
The owner's part ends at the filter housing. Anything that needs the pump body removed, or a hose replaced inside the cabinet, is a service call — and a machine full of water should not be tipped or moved without emptying it first.
Nearest pages of this class
What this page does not cover
Generalized information. This page addresses the appliance class; where a more specific Lin's page exists beneath it, that is the page for your machine. Deliberately not here: service-manual disassembly, component locations and specifications that change family to family.
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
