zero degrees out - dishwasher won't drain

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zero degrees out - dishwasher won't drain

David C.
Real Estate Professional · Mechanicsburg, PA · Member since 2012 · 319 posts · 167 votes

OK, we had our kitchen redone in our primary residence this spring.

a few weeks ago when we got the first 'polar vortex' our dishwasher failed to drain overnight. Since it was still under the 1 year warranty, we had the GE guy come out to look. He got here Thursday, the polar vortex was gone, and it looked fine to him and drained fine. He said: the drain line must have frozen.

Well a couple days ago it happened again, again it was zero degrees. The dishwasher is on an 'outside wall' and its the wall the gets slammed with wind when we have storms.

We never had this problem with our old dishwasher which was in the same location.

Is the drain line freezing a good explanation for this?

Would you uninstall the dishwasher and try to add insulation behind it, or route the drain line differently?

We attempted running a space heater under the sink(next to the dishswasher, where the drain line arrives to feed the water into the garbage disposal, but even after a few hours of that, we ran the dishwasher and it failed to drain?

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Sean Kuhn
Minooka, IL · Member since 2013 · 353 posts · 85 votes
12y

I'd call another appliance guy and see. Mine had the same problem but it was the solenoid that went bad not the drain freezing. It is possible that it did freeze. Usually they drain out the side though and go through the wall of the sink cabinet. I'd change that.

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  • Sean Kuhn
    Minooka, IL · Member since 2013 · 353 posts · 85 votes
    12y

    I'd call another appliance guy and see. Mine had the same problem but it was the solenoid that went bad not the drain freezing. It is possible that it did freeze. Usually they drain out the side though and go through the wall of the sink cabinet. I'd change that.

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  • David C.
    OP
    Real Estate Professional · Mechanicsburg, PA · Member since 2012 · 319 posts · 167 votes
    12y

    @Sean Kuhn

    it does go through the side of the cabinet - but its far in the back of the cabinet, very close to the outside wall.

    If it was the solenoid, would it be intermittent? in between occurrences it worked perfectly for about 2 weeks.

    Thank you for your response. The guy didn't charge us, so I'll just keep calling GE.

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  • Sean Kuhn
    Minooka, IL · Member since 2013 · 353 posts · 85 votes
    12y

    If its not actually in the wall I would say there's no chance it froze. Unless there is zero insulation in that wall behind it? I'd see what another person says.

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  • Steve Babiak
    Real Estate Investor · Audubon, PA · Member since 2009 · 13k+ posts · 8k+ votes
    12y

    Are the water lines to the sink freezing? Have you tried leaving the cabinet doors open to allow more heat to enter?

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  • David C.
    OP
    Real Estate Professional · Mechanicsburg, PA · Member since 2012 · 319 posts · 167 votes
    12y

    sink works fine, no freezing, those pipes are in the same wall. But they are real pipes, the drain form the dishwasher to the garbage disposal is a very flimsy looking plastic tube, so I thought that might freeze more easily then the copper that feeds my sink.

    Good question though. We do use that kitchen sink a lot though, while the water in the 'trap' in the line from the dishwasher sits still all day and night, until its once daily 'drain' duty is called on.

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  • Pat L.
    Rental Property Investor · Upstate, NY · Member since 2012 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    12y

    Some new GE installs have an air gap that can get blocked on & off with debris & that's an easy clean out.

    GE drain pipes run back from under the middle/front of the dishwasher into the rear of the machine & then it snakes up to exit through the cabinet wall. (We have seen the wall board cut out & insulation removed to squeeze the unit in.) So if it is freezing it must be the standing water in the piping at the rear of the machine.

    To test this I would pull the DW out when you suspect freezing & feel the plastic piping for ice. If affirmative, I would use electric pipe wrap to keep the drain pipe from freezing until you can get in there & at least insulate the area, or redirect the drain pipe.

    If not, a bad solenoid/pump would be my next bet.

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  • Adam Johnson
    Rental Property Investor · Holley, NY · Member since 2011 · 507 posts · 347 votes
    12y

    I have a couple wild guesses for you -

    1. hot lines freeze before cold, possibly the warm discharge line is freezing but flowing water tends to take longer to freeze up so I am going to say this is a wild shot

    2. if the dishwasher is not running on the nights that it is freezing up (but is just sitting idle), it is possible that the PUMP is freezing, not the drain line. These tend to have pretty tight tolerances so even a little frost/ice inside could be preventing the pump from pushing the water out. Your older dishwasher may have had a different pump set up or the previous installer may have had strategically placed insulation and nobody paid any attention to it when it was removed to install the new machine. Since dishwashers pump out wastewater and don't gravity drain, I would put some attention to this theory. If you can, while you are experiencing a problem, pull the dishwasher out and blow on the pump area with a hair dryer for a couple minutes and see if it starts working again. If it does, you have found the problem and just need to figure out how to prevent it.

    3. since this is an outside wall, you have a draft that is getting to where it shouldn't. If you can figure out where it is coming from, do as much as you can to block it. Maybe wrapping some insulation around the pump/lines (check with the installer for safety) might help. Your draft could be coming from the wall OR if this is on the first floor from the basement/sill area up through the floor or any openings in the floor.

    Wind and cold are a wild combination. The wind seems to literally blow the cold deeper into objects. Take a hill for example in the same 10 degree air, the frost will be deeper into the ground on the windy side than on the sheltered side. Same idea with your pipes. You either need to find the draft source (which can really be a challenge in some places) or you need to prevent it from getting to sensitive areas.

    Good luck and stay warm!

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  • Michael B.
    MN · Member since 2013 · 35 posts · 2 votes
    12y

    I live in Minnesota. The polar vortex had us at -28 degrees and over -60 wind chill, and even in my old drafty house nothing froze. Id lean more toward the dishwasher being faulty. Call a different service guy out as soon as it happens next. Good luck.

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  • David C.
    OP
    Real Estate Professional · Mechanicsburg, PA · Member since 2012 · 319 posts · 167 votes
    12y

    Well it got up to a steamy 24 degrees today and the dishwasher worked again. So I seem to consistently have 0 degrees = no draining, once it get warms It drains again. I guess we'll run it during the day when its crazy cold, and try to get back there and insulate it some day.

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  • Michael B.
    MN · Member since 2013 · 35 posts · 2 votes
    12y

    The kick plate for the dishwasher should come off with two screws and then some air can flow beneath the unit. This might help if you get really cold again.

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  • David C.
    OP
    Real Estate Professional · Mechanicsburg, PA · Member since 2012 · 319 posts · 167 votes
    12y

    @Michael B.

    thanks for that idea, I have the kick plate removed, and we are running the dishwasher right after dinner, rather than scheduling it for around 2 am, and so far its working through this latest polar vortex.

    The kick plate had a lot of foam on it, I guess its mainly for sound insulation, but I suppose it was keeping the heat out from under the dishwasher, and the cold air from the outside wall was enough to stop the pump from operating?

    Thanks!

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