If you’re like many people, you take your dishwasher for granted. You put dirty dishes in, and clean dishes come out a little while later. Then one day, you have a big mess on your hands when your dishwasher won’t drain. You have not only dirty dishes to deal with, but a big clog as well! What happened? These are the most frequently-seen reasons why dishwashers clog:
You have clogged filters
The lower filters in your dishwasher are the first place you need to look in case of a clog. Your dishwasher has two, a large basket filter and a smaller mesh filter. Almost all the water in your dishwasher drains through these two filers. In the process, these filters catch and collect most of the muck that was washed off your dishes. Over time, food debris from the dishes can build up on the filters and create a clog.
A problem with the hoses
Your dishwasher’s drain hose is near the filter basket and connects to either your sink or garbage disposal. Residue builds up in this tube over time and turns into a gross sludge. Use a flashlight to look into the hose. If you see any build-up, all you or a professional needs to do is clean it out to clear the clog.
There’s a clog somewhere else in your plumbing
As stated above, your dishwasher is connected to other pipes, like your garbage disposal and kitchen sink. On occasion, the reason your dishwasher won’t drain isn’t because of a problem with the dishwasher at all but actually a clog in a connecting pipe. If there’s a significant enough blockage elsewhere, it could cause back up into the dishwasher.
The most common home dishwasher issues are drainage problems. This is certainly troublesome, but it is nothing a dedicated plumber in the Birmingham, AL area cannot help you with. While drainage problems are annoying, they’re far from impossible to fix for us here at DrainBlaster Plumbing Service. Give us a call at 205-637-0668 and let us know the problem you’re experiencing. We’ll send someone over to take a look at it. Once we find the problem, we will clean out the clog so your pipes and dishwasher go back to working and draining properly again.