The short answer
On this machine the drain and the spin only happen with the lid confirmed shut, so a mechanical lid switch outranks the pump. Ranked first on this platform: A lid or door switch stopping the drain step. The checks below follow that ranking, and the first of them need no tools and no panel removed.
What you observe
- It washes normally and then stops with a full drum, every time — Normal wash plus no drain points at the step the lid gates.
- Standing water in the drum and a pump that runs without moving much — A running pump and no flow is a blockage downstream of it.
- It has not drained properly since the machine was last moved — A fault dated to a move belongs to the move.
- NEAR MISS — it drains but will not spin — A machine that empties and then stops is a lid-switch or balance question rather than a drainage one.
Causes, most likely first on this platform
- A lid or door switch stopping the drain step — On many machines the drain and spin only run with the lid confirmed shut. It ranks first on this platform because a worn lid switch gives a machine that washes perfectly normally and then simply sits there full of water, which reads as a dead pump and is a contact that costs a fraction of one.
- A blocked pump filter or coin trap — The filter behind the plinth is designed to catch what the drum lets through, and it is designed to be emptied. It ranks second here because the controls are mechanical — a bulb thermostat, a timer motor, a lid or door switch — and mechanical controls fail in ways you can hear, see and test without a board reader.
- A kinked or badly routed drain hose — The hose behind the machine gets crushed against the wall every time the machine is pushed back. Ranked third: worth checking once the causes above have come back clean.
- The pump itself — A pump that has failed electrically is silent, and one with a worn impeller runs and moves nothing. It ranks fourth rather than higher: real on this platform, and less common than the causes above it.
Check in this order, and why
- Press the lid firmly closed and listen for the switch, then start a drain cycle — A missing click is the whole diagnosis. It leads because it tests the top-ranked cause.
- Open the flap at the bottom front of the machine and look at the filter — Free, quick, and it is the answer most of the time. Tests the second-ranked cause.
- Pull the machine out and look at the whole run of the drain hose — A crush or a kink is visible immediately. Tests the third-ranked cause.
What an owner can safely check
- Drain through the filter hose into a tray, then unscrew and clean the filter — Towels down first; expect several litres in stages.
Tools: cloth, shallow trayAbout 30 min
- Straighten the hose, check its height at the standpipe, and support it so it cannot kink again — Leave a loop rather than a tight bend behind the machine.
About 20 min
- STOP here — the remaining causes are diagnosed with a meter, not by eye — Record which of the checks above changed anything. That record is worth more to the visit than another attempt.
Before you open anything
Safety
Unplug the machine or switch off its breaker before removing any panel. There are litres of water in a stalled machine: put towels down and have a shallow tray ready before you open the filter, because it comes out faster than a bucket can be fetched.
When to call a technician
Call when the filter, the hose and the standpipe are all clear and the machine still holds water, because what is left is the pump or the control that runs it.
Nearest pages of this class
What this page does not cover
This page is written for the Moffat washer as a class, not for one family or one model line. Where a family- or model-specific page exists for your unit, that page is the more specific answer and the one to read first. Deliberately not here: part numbers, wiring colours and disassembly order, which differ by family.
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
