I did find that after I had done the previous fix it kinda worked but then had issues again. we ended up having to take the pump off, kinda a pain, but found a the previous “stuffing” that we removed from the filter in a ball the size of a superball inside the pump. Our machine does work buttttt we do have a slight drip from the pump now, so for now we purchased a drip/drain pain and put it under the machine and have some newspaper in the pain to help soak up the water since it really isn’t a whole lot, just a nuisance, but at least I am able to use my machine.
They dont mention anything in their manual that there even is a manual water drain. They do not mention that there is a front service on the machine. No mention of a filter that needs to be cleaned from time to time. Just a garbage front loader. CRAP!!
Thank you so much for this info!!! It worked !!!
Wife’s happy beyond belief. :rolleyes: Filter was clogged with a quarter, three small screws, and a two big chunks of lint. :eek: Hosed out the filter chamber, cleaned the fliter and screwed it back in - worked immediately.
Seemed odd that a less-than-2-year-old washer’s drain pump would crap out so soon.:mad: Front access door should have a sticker that says “Clean out the filter behind this access panel every 6-months/year.” :mad:
[quote=tvfixer;3489]Hey Scott,
With all the items you have found in the drain I suspect you more in the pump. First thing you can do take the drain hose can blow into it without restriction. If not take lose the hoses to the pump. You might want to get some pinch off pliers to save water from going ever where or a shop vac to suck out the tub. If the pump is getting warm current is flowing to it and propeller is jammed more than likely. The front should have a couple of 1/4 screws at the corners on the front I think. should pop after removing them.
Good Luck.
Mike[/quote]
[quote=tvfixer;3489]Hey Scott,
With all the items you have found in the drain I suspect you more in the pump. First thing you can do take the drain hose can blow into it without restriction. If not take lose the hoses to the pump. You might want to get some pinch off pliers to save water from going ever where or a shop vac to suck out the tub. If the pump is getting warm current is flowing to it and propeller is jammed more than likely. The front should have a couple of 1/4 screws at the corners on the front I think. should pop after removing them.
Good Luck.
Mike[/quote]
HELP! First, Thank you for your post…it was VERY helpful!
Questions: When I was cleaning the drain, I found black/ gray metal and gray plastic strips. Is this normal? Is my washer falling apart?
Also…How do I test my water pump outside of the washer itself…I read a post where someone mentioned testing their water pump outside of the washer.
Alright I have tried everything here and my washer still does not pump the water out. It was plugged with all kinds of stuff but after I cleaned it all out I tried to run the load again and when it gets to where the pump runs it still does not pump out the water. What is the problem now?? (The pump does run) I did get one of the error codes to come up with error 23.
hey all. ok i did just as you guys said. i cleaned the lent tray. didnt work so i took the pump out and took it apart. really didnt have much in it. i tried to spin it by hand and it was kinda hard. i tried to test it and all it did was hum. does this meen that i need a new pump? any info would great. thanks
first of all id like to say that GE are some rat bastards for not including this in the maint. part of the manual. let me add this…when you take off the 3 screws to the front panel and open it, BEWARE OF THE WATER. there is a great deal of water in the drain that is coming from the TUB! also, once you clean the filter…DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND GO AHEAD AND CLEAN THE PUMP WHILE YOU ARE IN THERE! JUST DO IT! there are 2 screws that hold the pump apparatus inside and they are just directly under the 2 hoses on the floor panel of the machine. the screw on the right is a little tricky whereas i could not see it so i had to FEEL it and do it. putting it back will be much the same way. they (the screws) are not really near the pump itself. note the alignment for reinstallation. also note the wiring attachments. i have a black and a yellow wire. the black is wired into the hole that is closest to YOU as in the front of the washer and the yellow is attached to the hole that is closest to the back of the machine. although you have unplugged the machine itself, please wipe dry in the bottom panel all the water you spilled. its more than you think. when you take the pump out, i removed the 3 screws holding it together and separated the two pump parts. inside was slight lint, however, when i turn the blade a small piece of rock or fingernail popped out which was preventing the rotor from turning and that’s why it would not drain. so, what could possibly be the issue may not be visible to the eye. simply reattached everything back the way you took it out and PRESTO you’ve fixed the problem. if i can do this ANYONE CAN. my mechanical skill level is equal to a gold fish folks. just take your time. you can do it and save yourself a lot of money. - dameon, houston tx 9-1-11. thanks thanks thanks everyone
my motor burnt out. i had to just replace it. was a nightmare finding the motor. really didnt want to pay top price for it. i looked on ******** and found some with diff pumps but they looked like the motor was the same. diff serial numbers but i picked it up anyways to try. bolted right up and is good to go. thanks everyone for all the great post.
This thread was a big help and I did clean out the drain plug. There was only about 3 cups of water and the strainer was clogged. I cleaned the trash out and did a very small test run (rinse and spin) with a towle and short pants. The items were still soaking wet. I noticed that even though the machine was set on the fastest spin setting the drum did not spin very fast. Occassionaly the drum appeared to start accelerating but then, like me when I try to run, gave up and went back to the slow spinning. Could the problem be not spinning fast enough to get the water out rather than pump/clogged strainer problems?
Thanks In Advance
Doug
So, I read the posts on this thread and they were all extremely helpful. I am hoping someone is still checking this though since the last post appears to be 3 yrs ago. i took apart my GE frontload washer and took out the pump. I did not find any clogs or impediments to the fan moving. I tested the washer and the pump made noise but the fan did not move. The fan will manually move about 1 turn in either direction and appears to be locked up after that. Any suggestions?
My GE front loading washer at a rental property would not drain.:mad: I opened up the bottom panel and located the pump. It felt warm like it was trying to pump. Aha, like you advised, it was likely a clogged pump.
I disonnected the electric supply from the wall (i.e., pulled the plug out), I disconnected the clamps on the pump supply and discharge hoses. I then cleaned up most of the water that drained out;o) Then, using a ratchet set, took out two small bolts that secure the pump, then I took the pump out and cleaned it. I found a piece of plastic in it. I also found about $8.00 in miscellaneous change in the pump water supply reservoir, along with a broken plastic drivers license, a gold chain, and a drill bit. I cleaned it out, reconnected hoses, secured the pump with the bolts, plugged in the electric and gave it another try. IT WORKED. That saved me $800 for a new washer. Wow, that was so cool;o) 
This totally worked! we found nothing but some really stinky water in the drain but 30 coins in the pump! thank you so much for the information. My husband is a carpenter but doesn’t feel very mechanically inclined so to fix the washer without calling in a repairman is awesome!
I had a machine full of water to drain. What worked well for me was to drain the water into a heavy duty trash bag on the floor. I put two pieces of a 2x4 on the floor under the bag to make a bit of a wall on each side to keep the water flow contained.
I have a GE WBVH5200J1WW that regarless of the cycle I choose, drains fine, I’ve checked, rotates back and forth but will not high speed spin. When first started the door locks and then unlocks before locking again. It is indeed locked and the display tells me the washer even knows it is locked however, it just drains and drains but never spins (rotates back in forth) but does not spin.
Any thoughts? I just don’t understand if it locks fine and knows it’s locked why the problem would be the lock?
This unit has less than 75 loads on it fwiw.
Thank you in advance.
I was so glad to find this post. I knew about this drain plug thing only because my appliance repair man showed me how to do it after his service call. For the last 10 yrs I have been fixing it myself by using this method when it stops draining or spinning. However, now I am finding that I have water in my drain after each load. It will spin and drain after each load, but if I pull the drain after each load there is water in there, but no blockages. The trap is clean… So why is there water in the drain plug if there is no clog and the cycle still completes??? If I don’t drain each time the water will begin to smell badly.
Thank you for your wonderful advice. My Kenmore front loader washing machine was making a horrible noise and would not drain the water out. With your helpful instruction I was able to remove the front panel and clean out all of the debris and put it back together and it worked perfectly. I will have to say you were correct about the water coming out and I was not able to catch all of it as it is in a very tight space. I am a woman and I was able to do this with very little problem following these instructions. The most time consuming part was cleaning up the water.
Thanks again!
[FONT=Arial]I am so thankful for this site! I was really worried because I noticed my washer didn’t drain completely, and when I turned it back on, it was making a terrible noise. After reading everyone’s comments, we checked the pump, and a sock was in it. My washer is working fine again! WooHoo![/FONT]
Thank you for posting this information. Our washer was not working. It started out recently with every couple of loads being full of water when it was done. We would try a rinse and spin and would have the same results at the end of the cycle. Very soaked clothes. Then yesterday it had water just sitting in it. We would attempt to do a rinse and spin. Even empty it would lock the door, rock a couple of times, and then sit there with water in it. The time was going down but it would not do anything.
With the information I gained here I was able to get my washer working again without having to spend a penny. Following the instructions I found our filter very clogged with lint, coins, charms, rings, rocks, seeds, etc. I also found a bullet in our drain tube. It’s running great now that I cleaned it out.
So thank you so much for your helpful advice.
Not sure what model that you had for this unit…but some newer GE’s in the past 5 years have software issues and they have had us go hook up modems to the units and change the software because they had issues with spinning and draining. Call GE with your model number and see if it was part of the recall.