Check these, in this order
The order matters. It runs from the cause that is most common and costs nothing to the one that is rare and costs money.
Step 1. Get the water out first
Nothing else can be checked until the drum is empty, and the door will not unlock while it is full. Most front loaders have a small drain tube tucked beside the filter hatch at the bottom front. Put a shallow tray under it, pull the cap off, and let it run. It will fill the tray several times over, so cap it between trips. Machines without that tube drain through the filter itself, which is messier and needs towels down first.
If the cycle stopped part way through a hot wash, the water can be hot enough to scald. Give it an hour before you start.
Step 2. Clean the filter, and look at what comes out
Unscrew the filter and pull out whatever is in it. What you find tells you whether you have solved the problem: coins, hair grips, buttons, a screw or a build-up of lint mean the blockage was here and you are done. A filter that is genuinely clean means the fault is further along, and you should keep reading rather than refitting it and hoping.
Step 3. Spin the impeller behind the filter
With the filter out, reach in and turn the small plastic propeller with a finger. It should spin freely. If it is stiff, jammed or crunches, something is wrapped around it, usually a thread or a piece of underwire that has worked its way through the drum.
Unplug the machine at the wall first. This is the one check where a machine that decides to start would do real damage.
Step 4. Follow the drain hose along its whole length
Pull the machine out far enough to see all of it. You are looking for a kink, a crush point where it has been trapped against the wall, or a section that dips below the machine and siphons. A hose that has been pushed into a standpipe too far also blocks itself.
Step 5. Test the standpipe or the sink trap
Take the hose out of the standpipe and pour a jug of water down the pipe. If it backs up or drains slowly, the blockage is in the house plumbing rather than the appliance, and no amount of work on the machine will fix it. Where the hose runs into a sink trap, check the spigot on the trap is not still capped or clogged with grease.
Step 6. Listen for what the pump does
With the filter refitted and the machine plugged in, start a spin. A pump that hums but moves nothing has usually failed. A pump that is completely silent points at the pump, the wiring or the control board. A pump that runs normally while water sits in the drum points at a blockage you have not found yet, or at the pressure sensor that tells the machine how full it is.
What a technician will look at next
Replace the pump
A failed pump is the most common part-level cause once blockages are ruled out. On most machines it is reachable from the front or the base, but it means tipping the appliance and working on a live circuit.
Check the pressure sensor and its hose
If the pump is fine, the machine may simply not know there is water to remove. A blocked or split pressure chamber hose makes the sensor read empty, and the machine ends the cycle without pumping. Cheap part, awkward diagnosis.
When to stop and call someone
Once the filter, the impeller, the hose and the standpipe are all confirmed clear. At that point you are into the pump, the sensor or the board, and the guesswork gets expensive fast. Call sooner if there is any smell of burning from under the machine, or if it trips the breaker when the pump should run.
What it costs
| Repair | Part only | Fitted by a technician |
|---|---|---|
| Clearing a blocked filter, hose or standpipe | - | Free |
| Drain pump replacement | $20 to $100 | $150 to $400 |
| Pressure sensor or hose replacement | - | $150 to $350 |
| Diagnostic call-out, if nothing is found | - | $70 to $130 |
If a code is showing too
Questions people ask
- The door is locked and full of water. How do I open it?
- You do not, until it is empty: the lock is holding back a drum of water on purpose. Drain it through the filter hatch first, then the lock releases on its own within a minute or two. Forcing the handle breaks the handle.
- It drains sometimes but not always. Is that still a blockage?
- Usually yes, and usually a partial one. A filter that is half clogged copes with a small load and gives up on a full one. Intermittent behaviour also fits a pump that is starting to fail, which is why the sound it makes is worth paying attention to.
- Could too much detergent cause this?
- It can, and it is overlooked constantly. Heavy foam stops the pump moving water properly and the machine reads that as a drain fault. If the drum is full of suds rather than water, halve your detergent dose before you look at parts.
- Is it worth repairing or should I replace the machine?
- A pump on a machine under about eight years old is worth doing: call it two hundred dollars against five hundred and up for a replacement. Past that age, with a machine that has had other faults, the arithmetic turns.