---
title: "An Electrolux Dishwasher That Will Not Drain: One Test Settles It"
description: "Electrolux dishwasher not draining: clear the filter and glass trap by hand, then run one cycle with them out. Water still standing means the problem is past the filter."
url: "https://electroluxmiami.support/blog/a-dishwasher-that-will-not-drain/"
date_modified: "2026-09-11"
Category: "Troubleshooting"
---


# An Electrolux Dishwasher That Will Not Drain: One Test Settles It

An Electrolux dishwasher not draining has one cheap answer and one expensive one, and a single cycle tells you which.

## Bail it out first

Before anything else, get the standing water out with a cup and a sponge. It makes the rest of this possible and it stops the next step from tipping a quart onto the kitchen floor.

## Clear the filter and the glass trap

Pull the lower rack all the way out. In the floor of the tub there is a cylindrical filter — twist it a quarter turn and lift it out. Beside it, or under it depending on the model, is a flat plate: that is the glass trap, and this maker names it specifically in its own article about this code.

No tools. Both are designed to be removed by the person who owns the machine, and almost nobody ever has.

Rinse both under a hot tap, using a soft brush on the mesh if there is a film on it. Look into the empty sump while you are there.

## Then run one cycle with them out

This is the test that decides everything.

**The water drains.** The filter and the trap were the whole story. Refit them — properly, because a filter that is not fully seated lets solids straight past — and run a normal cycle. Do this twice a year and this call very rarely comes back.

**The water still stands.** Now it is a repair, and the useful thing is that you have already ruled out the cheapest cause. What remains is past the filter.

## What "past the filter" means

Four things, roughly in order of how often they turn out to be it.

**The disposal knockout.** If a garbage disposal was fitted after the dishwasher, or replaced at any point, the plug inside its inlet has to be punched out. When it is not, the dishwasher has nowhere to send water and there is nothing wrong with the appliance at all. It is a classic, it is not our repair, and it is free to check.

**The drain hose.** A kink behind the machine, or a high loop that has slipped down. Water that cannot climb comes back.

**The air gap**, if the installation has one — the small chrome cylinder on the sink deck. They block, and they are opened by hand.

**The pump or its impeller.** The genuine repair, and the only one on this list that needs the machine drawn out from under the counter.

## What the code is telling you

i40 is one of only three codes this maker publishes for its dishwashers, and it is the only one of the three that reports something actually wrong. The other two are modes: a number between 1 and 24 counting down is the delay start, and Hd or HO is the machine heating water before it will wash.

That is worth knowing before you call anybody, because two of the three most common "my dishwasher will not start" calls we take are neither a problem nor a repair.

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