Cleaning, maintenance: dishwasher not draining

Self-tutoring about maintenance: the tutor mentions a side track from yesterday.

The following is according to my understanding.

Saturday I typically do housework – vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, etc. Yesterday was no exception, but it started with something extra: as I was emptying the dishwasher of clean dishes, I noticed water sitting in the bottom.

The dishwasher we have now has always seemed a little more temperamental than the one it replaced. However, since we started using enough detergent (see my post from July 14, 2025), it has worked much better.

Anyway, back to yesterday’s situation: After I’d emptied the dishwasher of dishes, I tried draining it. The pump ran for a couple of minutes, but afterwards, the water level hadn’t changed: it seemed evident there was a physical problem. I unclamped the dishwasher’s drain hose where it outputs into the sink drain, then put the hose end in a bucket. Then, I pressed the “Drain” button again: it drained rapidly into the bucket. After it had finished, I checked the dishwasher: all the water was gone.

I realized that the blockage might be at the receiving end, where the drain hose from the dishwasher clamps on to join the sink drain. This was confirmed when I took a pipe cleaner and tried to insert it there: it took some digging just to get the pipe cleaner in. I started pulling debris out from it. After a while, the inlet over which the drain hose fits was clear. However, trying to push the pipe cleaner down further, there was a lot of resistance, and when I would withdraw the pipe cleaner, it carried with it lots of debris.

Evidently, the sink drain itself was on the verge of being clogged. Therefore, it was starting to back up, which was clogging the inlet from the dishwasher hose.

I re-clamped the drain hose from the dishwasher over its inlet on the sink drain. Next, I got some drain opener and carefully poured the prescribed amount – just under two cups, in this case – down the sink. I waited, letting it work, for about 25 minutes. Afterwards, I turned on the tap and let hot water run into the drain to flush it out, as directed.

After that, I poured about a litre of water in the bottom of the dishwasher to test if it would drain, which it did: the problem seems fixed.