Kitchenaid KDTM354DSS4 fails to fully drain

Dishwasher Repair
1

Hi, I’m a relatively technical user and am capable of following technical directions and replacing parts.

I have a Kitchenaid KDTM354DSS4 that doesn’t fully drain. After the cycle ended, there was still water inside of the dishwasher that hadn’t fully drained.

I manually drained all the water out of the bottom of the dishwasher, then disconnected the hoses from the drain and the drain pump, and was able to blow air through - the hose is not blocked. There was quite a bit of soap build-up, but nothing I saw that was especially obstructive that I believe would have prevented the dishwasher from draining properly.

I then started a “cancel drain” cycle, where I can see the impeller spinning inside of the drain motor. It sounds normally once it starts spinning.

Is it possible the drain motor works, but is not sufficient to completely drain the dishwasher?

2

Just for completeness, this turned out to be a plugged drain hose. It was filled with undissolved detergent. I used a small brush taped to the end of an aluminum rod to brush out what I could, then took the hose to the back yard and used the garden hose with a spray attachment to blast out the gunk.

Got really lucky.