The short answer
Water left in the bottom of the tub is nearly always a restriction somewhere in the drain path, not a dead pump. A pump that has failed outright is silent; a pump fighting a blockage hums, strains or pulses and still leaves water behind. Listen at the end of the cycle: a hum with no water movement points at a restriction or a jam, and complete silence points at power, the control or the pump winding. On a Summit dishwasher the cause that ranks first is filter and sump packed with soil.
What you observe
- Dishes come out wet and the cycle seems to take longer than it used to — Drain steps that time out stretch the cycle before they fail it outright.
- A smell from the tub between cycles — Standing water plus trapped soil, which is the same fault seen a week later.
- NEAR MISS — water appears on the floor rather than in the tub — That is a leak, and it belongs on the water-leak page for this machine, not here.
Causes, most likely first on a Summit dishwasher
- Filter and sump packed with soil — Food soil, labels and grease build into a mat across the fine filter until the pump can no longer pull water through it. It ranks first on a Summit dishwasher because there is very little slack behind the panels of a compact cabinet, so anything that restricts restricts completely.
- Drain hose kinked, crushed or high-looped wrongly — The hose leaves the machine, is squashed behind the cabinet or under a plinth, and the pump cannot lift water over the loop. Second on this platform: the hose is the only part of the path that moves when the machine is fitted, pushed back or transported.
- Drain pump impeller jammed — A cherry stone, a shard of glass or a twist tie gets past the filter and locks the impeller, so the motor buzzes and nothing moves. Ranked here because the debris that gets past a neglected filter has nowhere else to go.
- Disposer inlet still plugged, or the disposer full — When the drain hose is tied into a food-waste disposer, the factory knockout plug has to be driven out first, and a loaded disposer blocks the same port. Last, and the reason to work down the list rather than guess: it only applies to a machine plumbed into a disposer, but when it does apply it is total.
Check in this order, and why
- Lift out the filter stack and look at the sump beneath it — It is the commonest cause and it takes a minute, so nothing else is worth doing first.
- Pull the machine forward and follow the drain hose by hand end to end — A crush point found here saves taking anything apart.
- Listen at the end of the drain step for a buzz without flow — A buzz with no water movement is a jam, not a dead motor.
What an owner can safely check
- Remove the filter stack, wash it under a hot tap and clear the sump by hand — Wear a glove — broken glass and staples collect down there.
Tools: warm water, washing-up brush, gloveAbout 20 min
- Straighten the hose, re-seat the high loop above the sump and re-clip it — Do not let the hose rest on its own weight against the cabinet back.
Tools: torchAbout 15 min
- STOP HERE — the next check means a meter, a panel, or both — The ranking above tells you what to ask for; it does not make the remaining tests owner work.
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. Bail the tub before you reach into the sump: broken glass sits in there invisibly under the water.
When to call a technician
Call when the filter, the hose run and the air gap are all clear and the machine still holds water, or when the drain step is silent rather than straining. A silent drain step means power, control or winding, and that is meter work on live terminals. On a compact machine, expect access to be the larger half of any labour quote — the part itself is rarely the expensive part.
Nearest pages of this class
What this page does not cover
This is the generalized page for a Summit dishwasher. It does not carry anything model-specific: no part numbers, no wiring colours, no panel sequence and no torque figures, because those differ between families sold under the same badge. Where a family- or model-level page exists it is linked above, and it is the more specific answer of the two.
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
