Why a washer "refuses" to drain (when it was never refusing anything)
When the wash ends, a small pump pushes the water out through a hose into your house's standpipe. On its way, the water must pass a sieve — the pump filter, behind a little door at the bottom front — because the pump's spinning impeller can't chew coins. That sieve is supposed to be cleaned every few months. Almost nobody does. One baby sock later, the pump is pushing against a wall, and the drum stays full.
Which culprit, by the evidence
- Pump hums or gurgles, water stands → the coin trap: coins, hair ties, lint, the occasional sock. Open the little door, drain via the small hose, unscrew, clean.
- Same symptoms, but the machine just moved or sits hard against the wall → the drain hose: kinked flat, or shoved too deep into the standpipe.
- Foam up to the glass, water barely leaves → suds: regular detergent or too much of it in an HE machine. The pump can't push foam — it looks exactly like a drain failure.
One honest limit: a pump that hums with a clean filter and a straight hose is a dead pump — a part swap, not a cleaning. Total silence at the drain phase points to the door lock's safety interlock. And water backing up out of the standpipe is your house plumbing, not the washer — pour a bucket in; if it overflows instantly, you want a plumber.