There are few things worse than going to take your wash out of the washing machine only to find that it didn’t drain. When the washing cycle doesn’t finish and you are left with garments wet and soggy and not fully clean it can be very frustrating. There could be a number of reasons for the drum to not empty the water but there is no reason to panic.
Very often, the cause of the standing water in your washing machines is an easy fix that you can do yourself. In most cases, it is a blocked drainage pump that can be cleaned out in a matter of minutes to be able to drain water properly. Troubleshooting the problem with washing machines is essential to know what the problem is, however.
In this article, we will take a look at the most common reasons that your washing machine is not draining water properly.
How to manually drain the water from the drum
Before you can begin to help your washing machine drain water properly, you have to get the rest of the water out of the machine. Since Candy washing machines don’t have a tube that will drain the excess water manually, you will need to remove most of the water from the drum to avoid a big mess. Using a large sponge, soak up the water in the drum and squeeze it out over a bucket. This will only get the water that is above the bottom of the metal drum in most washing machines but there will be standing water beneath it that can’t be reached this way. Follow these steps to drain the rest of the water in the drum:
- Electrically disconnect the washing machine by disconnecting it from the main power supply
- Turn off the incoming water by locating the valve that brings water into the washing machine, or by locating the incoming water supply to the whole house
- Have a towel or set of rags ready to sop up the dirty water
- Locate the service flap at the bottom left-hand side located low on the washing machine and gently open it to reveal the cap cover of the drainage pipe
- There is no drainage hose for this operation so be prepared for things to get messy
- Unscrew the cap cover of the drain pump filter by turning it anti-clockwise to be slightly open and water starts coming out
- Sop up the excess water until the discharge slows down with the cap slightly open and then open the cover further
- Once the water has stopped coming out of the cover then remove it completely and inspect the filter
Unfortunately, the way this service flap is designed, there is no way to put a shallow container underneath to catch the water so you will have to use a towel to sop it up. There is not much space between the cap cover and the bottom of the washing machine so unless you have yours lifted above the floor with a pallet or something similar there is not much space.
This is how to get the water out of the washing machine, the next step is investigating the cause of the water not draining from the drum correctly.
The top reasons the water is not draining
When you find your garments wet in the drum then you probably think that you will need a technician to come out to fix them. However, we recommend contacting Candy only after you’ve looked into the causes and doing a DIY troubleshooting session. There are some common reasons that this is happening and they don’t indicate that there are significant problems with the machine itself.
Blocked drainage pump
There is a filter in the bottom of the machine that tends to collect large objects and then it gets clogged. It is a drain pump filter but is often called a coin trap since it is very common for coins to slip past the edge of the drum into the bottom of the machine during the spin cycle where it is caught by the filter. There are a number of other articles that often get caught such as small socks, hair bands, safety pins, and many other small items.
Once you have done the job of manually draining the water that the washing machine cycle didn’t do, take a moment to inspect the filter. Remove it completely once you have drained off all of the water and see if there is anything inside. If there is remove it and set it aside. Next, take a look inside the chamber because there are usually items such as small safety pins that will remain in there. There is usually some sludge that builds up from the amount of lint cleaned off of the clothes mixed with soap suds that should be wiped out with a rag or sponge.
Take a look at the impeller that feeds water into the drain pump chamber by trying to move it with your fingers. If it doesn’t move then this could be the reason that the water isn’t draining assuming there were no obstructions in the pump.
If you found some obstructions then replace the cap cover and close the service flap. Turn on the incoming water and reconnect the machine to the main power.
Now you should run a 90°C washing programme to clean out the machine since you may have some sludge remaining. This will also give you the opportunity to see if the water is now draining properly. If the problem occurs again where the water doesn’t drain then proceed to the next common cause, ie the drainage hose.
Drainage hose is clogged or bent
The drainage hose that expels the water from the drum is a flexible and corrugated type that can easily get kinked. It runs from the machine to the outside drainage pipe either through a dedicated pipe just for the washing machine. Or, it can be attached to the under-sink pipes and flushed away that way.
Since the hose is flexible if you have moved your washing machine recently then it could have bent the hose causing the water to get blocked before draining. This often happens when the machine is overloaded and then unbalanced so it tends to move while shaking around. Then you try to put it back into position and the hose turns out to be kinked. Another factor is if the hose is placed too far down the drainage pipe as this tends to bend the hose too much for water to pass through.
There could even be an obstruction in the hose that is blocking the water. The first thing to look for if the hose isn’t kinked is an obstruction of some kind. Do these steps to check if there is anything in the hose:
- Electrically disconnect the power to the machine by disconnecting it from the mains power supply
- Turn off the incoming water supply by locating the valve to the machine or turning off the water coming into the house
- Remove excess water from the drum using rags or sponges
- Follow the steps to remove the dirty water from the drain pump
- Once the water is drained, remove the hose from the machine end and then withdraw the other end from where it drains into the drainage pipe
- Take the hose into the garden where you can flush it out with a garden hose
- Pay attention to any sludge or item that may have flushed out of the hose
- Once the hose is cleared then reattach it to the machine and drainage pipe
- Turn on the incoming water and reconnect the machine to the mains electrical supply
If there was an obstruction in the hose then congratulations. You successfully found the cause of the blockage and can now count on the correct functioning of your washing machine cycle. However, if there was no obstruction you will need to look further down the water discharge system.
Blocked drainage pipe
Think about how your sink and other fixtures have been draining lately. If water draining has been slow and then you had the issue with the drainage not happening in the middle of the washing programme then you are likely facing a blocked water drainage system. Remove the U-bend under the sink where the sump hose connects to the drainage system. Check for foreign objects or sludge build-up and remove it.
If the sink is still draining slowly then use a snake to get any obstructions from further down in the drainage system.
Using too much detergent
Human error is one of the most common causes of many household appliances that fail or don’t work correctly. The Candy machine owner’s manual is quite explicit about not using too much detergent to use because when it is too much it can cause problems with the solenoid valve due to too much soap suds. This will disrupt the machine in its washing cycle and cause the water to not drain properly as you have a filter blocked as a result. The answer is to go through the process of draining the water manually and then running a cleaning cycle to rid the machine of any build-up of soap or sludge in the drain filter pump or the home’s drainage line avoiding an excessive amount of detergent in the future.
At the same time, take a look to make sure that your washing cycle settings are correct and that you don’t have the machine in the ‘anti-crease’, ‘stop water in drum’, or ‘night’ cycles.
Final Word
Since human error is one of the most common causes of the problems household appliances experience, it is also up to us as owners to be able to fix those problems. Luckily, troubleshooting the Candy washing machine drainage problems is not complicated and recommend contacting a technician to make a service call and fix it until you have tried to look for an object stuck in the filter or foreign objects in the inner part of the machine. In other words, you don’t need to be a trained technician to handle fixing many of the frequent offenders that end up causing you headaches.
FAQ
When do I need to call a technician when the final drainage doesn’t happen?
After all of the above descriptions of troubleshooting methods have been exhausted and you will have water not draining from the drum correctly then it is likely to be a faulty drainage pump. If you are handy then you could take care of it yourself but it is better to have a trained professional take care of it to avoid a warrant inspection that nullifies itself in case you make a mistake. Take care of the frequent offenders that cause these drainage issues and leave the more significant problems to a trained technician.
What does error code E3 mean?
This is an important error code to pay attention to since it indicates future problems with the water drainage system of the washing machine. It lights up on the display when the washing machine is not emptying quickly enough. It usually means that there is a drainage hose that is kinked, a blocked sump hose, a filter blocked with small objects, or a faulty solenoid valve that interrupts the spin cycle. There may even be an object stuck in the home’s drainage line that slows the flow to expel water.
Why does it stop mid-cycle?
The possible cause for this is usually that the setting is not correct and the cycle stops when it should. Check your settings to make sure that you have selected the full wash cycle that will fully drain the drum. Otherwise, look for flashing error codes on the display that will indicate a possible problem with the machine.
