Just over a year ago, we bought a new G.E. Adora front loading washer (WHDVH626FWW to be exact) and, for the most part, it’s been a great unit. Very quiet except during the fastest spin cycles.
Twice in the last year it has stopped in the middle of a load and failed to drain the water out of drum.
The problem is that the drain has plugged. There’s a coarse “screen” that traps lint and clothing, preventing them from getting into the drain pump (and thus, causing much more serious problems). Both times this has happened, there was a small article of clothing that slipped past gap at the front of the washer drum, thus finding its way into the trap and, eventually, clogging it completely.
The fix is remarkably simple thanks to GE placing the screen in an accessible location.
- First, remove the 3 screws holding the lower front panel in place.
- With the front panel off, locate the lint trap as shown below.
- Place a large bowl underneath to catch the water that drains out. Note that the bowl pictured was barely large enough. I suggest getting a bigger one. If you don’t have the pedestal, you’ll have to be creative to find something to catch the water.
- The drain simply threads out with normal threads (lefty loosey). It should be hand tight. Be prepared for a fairly disgusting mess of junk to come out with the screen — lint, toothpicks, 2 (!) baby socks, etc. in my case.
- Clean up the screen and thread it back into place. Re-install the cover and you’re done.
I’ve found that leading up to the wash load stopping without draining, that the wash times get much longer than normal — like 3 hours. So, if you’ve determined that the cycle length is too long you probably have a partially plugged screen that the washer is struggling with.
Thank you for this very well illustrated post. I had the same problem. Now, my washer is working, I’m about $3 richer from found change, and found the spare key to my car.
Thank you so much! I had the same problem and fixed it myself while my husband was at work. I only dared to do it because of the great explanation and the picture. I also found a spare key and some change, along with a key fob. I’m also a service call richer.
Thanks, you saved me rooting around for the clog. Without your help I would have started at the back and wasted my time looking for the clog.
Had everything from pens to tiny stars and batteries in the mess!
Thank You, THANK You, THANK YOU!!!!!!!
So easy! I was dreading the phone call to the repair man (and the bill). I decided to do a quick internet search first, and I found this! Your posting is extremely appreciatied!
I would have been perfectly happy with lousy illustrations and translated-from-korean instructions, but this is great. I have exactly the same washer and problem.
The Web has obviously become a peer-to-peer distribution systems for useful particles of knowledge that used to be uniquely held in human heads.
Peter — I couldn’t agree more. It’s exactly the reason I started doing this.
To the rest: Glad to have helped
Thank you so much for this information. You just saved me from making a phone call to the repair service and whatever bill was associated with that one!
Thank you again…
Thank you so much! My washer was only a little over a year old and I was getting really mad. I thought I had to buy a new washer. I will share this article with everyone I know!
I am so happy to have found your blog. My husband wanted me to call the “Maytag Man” because he thought it was going to be a tough job. But before I did, I tried a search…and low and behold..your blog was the first that popped up!!
Thank you for your clear directions and your insight into putting this in your blog!
I will be presenting my husband with the bill..LOL…I think a massage and facial would pay for my services!!
Jen — my wife & I got a good laugh out of that, but I’m affraid she just might take it a bit too seriously
I just wanted to Thank You. My washer is less than a year old and I have already had one service call and am working on my second in a month. The first gentleman could not figure out what was wrong. My washer ran for hours on the same load and overflowed out on to our floor. Needless to say they are in the process of fixing the damaged floor as well. We are currently waiting on them to find another servicer to come and repair the washer as it only worked for 1 month after the previous one was out. You have saved me the trouble of locating a service provider as they can not find one in our area. The last guy must have canceled his contract. I have spend over $50 at laundry mats, been with out my washer for a cumlative 3 weeks and have damaged more than $100 in clothes at the laundry mat. You have no idea how much you have helped me. A family of 5 can go through a lot of laundry. Thank you again.
L. Howell
Thank you very much for this posting, couldn’t figure out why the clothes were still soaking wet, short of a phone call, we looked it up on the internet and waahh lah – what a great deed you have done, by reading the posts I can see this has helped out so many. Found my daugther’s hair clips and about two bucks in change!!!
add our family the list of people finding weird and wonderful things in that trap and putting the washer back into service using your blog page as a resource. We found $2.12 in change, two kid’s necklaces, a glass car fuse, some stones and a pile of crud. I’m very glad for the smart engineering on this product and a customer friendly decision to put the drain in an easily accessible place. And this over a year since you posted it! -Regards -Ken
This was great. My washer smelled, wouldn’t drain, and kept shutting off during cycles. Now, after cleaning the trap, we appear to be like new. Thanks for the tips!
Thank you for these awesome, easy to understand, yet detailed instructions! I just “repaired” my washer and probably saved myself a couple hundred bucks. This is the 2nd time our washer has become clogged, and that is with me being very careful about emptying pockets. I am so thankful that you posted these instructions and pictures, it made it so simple! Thanks again! Happy washing!
Mine was only 3 months old, but the little bit of coinage( 4 pennies, 2 nickles, and a dime) and a rubber band that had snaked throuth the filter up to the pump impeller blades in the exhaust hose
were enough to stop the spin cycle.
Seems to work now!
Thank you for the tips and pix!
Regards, Terry
thank you thank you thank you thank you….to infinity.
Perhaps you deserve some thank you cookies, since there are no words that seem to fit my gratitude!!
Thank you thank you!! It was so easy! It took 10 mins tops…and it solved all the issues. AND my husband thinks I’m a genius!
Thank you so much for this post. I was preparing to call the repair service and knew we would probably have to wait a couple of days. We found Mongolian coins (from my son’s summer internship), earrings, hair pins and assorted other stuff. This is a wonderful thing about the internet. Thanks again!
Thank you for the post. Did not see anything in the troubleshooting area of the owners manual??
I found about .50, a baby washcloth, and a decapitated action figure!!!Awesome!!!
Thanks again
GREAT POST!!! Worked right away!
Just Awesome! I’d take you out to lunch if you lived in my area! (downriver michigan)
Thanks so very much.
Great post! Thanks. I can’t wait to wash my next load. I don’t have a pedestal so I used a 1 inch cookie sheet and just did a little water at a time, when the pan filled, dumped water into a roasting pan. Bunch of dimes and a couple of golf tees were our highlighted finds.
Great blog, great picture. Thanks so much, I was ready to call the repair man when I saw this. Had all the same problems listed here, and they are gone now!
yes thank you so much!! I found a quarter, a penny a small screwdriver, a paperclip and much nasty hair.
Thanks now i dont have to pay someone $100 to come and do it. My wife is gonna be so happy!! woo hoo
Thank you so much I almost paid 250.00 for service to come and do what you showed us here. Thanks thanks thanks thanks
i cleaned the trap, i have unplugged it and tried again. it spins a few times and then just sits there. ?? help!
Nobody is happy unless momma is happy. We are now happy. Thanks a mil.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! Living in a small town, the service call was going to be $$$$$. NO WHERE IN THE MANUAL DOES IT EVEN SHOW THIS.
I’ll just add to the millions of thank yous! THANKS!!!! Found a bunch of crap along with batteries (of all things)!
Thank you sooo much ! I was about to call a plumber to check my house drainage pipe ( $$$ ) It took me just a few minutes to fix the problem… I found a toy cow, earings, pen, and 2.78 in change, and a bunch of lint.. Thanks again.. easy easy easy fix..
Great instructions! FOund a $10 bill, 5 $1 bills and a bunch of change… came out ahead instead of paying for a service call! Thanks loads!
This is great. The washer has not been right for months. Was about to call the repair man figuring I needed a new control board. We found $3.35, necklace, cloth and a bunch of lint. Than You.
YES! You are the man! I figured, after restoring a century home, this is something I should be able to handle, but had no idea where to look. A simple internet search and your very well explained article, 10 minutes of my time and it’s as good as new! ALSO, if you don’t have a pedistal, a plastic lid from one of those LARGE tupperware storage containers hooked right under the drain spout will do the job nicely!
Thanks again
Just want to add to the thank yous. The washer has not been working right for quite a few months and I was about to give up. This is one great site,you gave a great description and it was the perfect fix. It was a cheap fix and I got a reward from it $1.64 in change, 2 pencils, 2 small nails and lots of lint out of the trap. Now that I know where it is and that this model has one (a lint trap) now I know what to check first. Thank you again.
More huge THANK YOUS. My washer is only a little over a year old and I couldn’t understand why the cycles were taking so long and the clothes were soaked when the cycle final ended. Last Sunday was the final straw as the washer kept adding water, but none would drain out. I had a mess. Over 6 gallons of water to empty out of my GE front load washer. Calling a repairman hurts so much on a new washer…$$$$. I found this site and your solution and it took all of 30 minutes. The toughest part was putting the front back on as I don’t have a pedestal. Thanks too for the warning about the water coming out of the drain. I was ready with shamwows and a small bowl. I opened the drain a little bit, gathered water, then tightened down. It took about 5 minutes and I had all the water drained out. The culprit in the filter was a piece of duct tape about 5″ long perfectly wrapped inside the filter to clog it up. I used the washer this AM and it worked perfectly. Again, thank you so much.
Nice!!! Found 1.87, my kids missing sock, and now have a happy washer. Many thanks!!
I was so excited to once again solve an appliance problem when I read these posts. I was hoping to strike it rich and find tons of change. What I got was 26 cents, tons of hair, crayons, rocks, leaves, more hair, hair clips. The washer works great and I wholeheartedly agree that the absence of this procedure from the manual is certainly meant to make naive homeowners call the repair man. Thanks to all who share their successes. It took me 5 minutes to do this. I also decided to run a bleach only (no clothes) cycle as the stupid manual recommends to do. My wife left me with this one thing to do today on my “honey list”….she’s gone for the next 8 hours….yeehah!!!! Playstation 3 time. When she gets home I plan to show her the picture of the crap I pulled out over the past 8 hours….she’ll believe it!!!
This is great info. I found $3.87, 2 lost locker keys,lots of hair, and a small keychain. I hope that everyone reads this before they call for repairs. This is a simple task after you do it the first time. I do not have my washer on a stand so I only unscrewed the plug a little bit at a time and let it drain slowly. Using a smaller bowl I just kept filling it up. It took about 4 fill ups and before I could pull the plug all the way out and clean it.
oh my God, I was at a lost as to what I needed to do to get my washer draining again. Could not find anything on the GE web site, all they said was to clean the plug but no info on how to do it. This web site along with the detail pics were a life saver. Thank you so much for the info :<)
Thank you so much! I spent all evening trying to deal with the idiots over at Sears and then I saw your posting. You made it so easy! I wish there were more people like this. Thanks again!
Melanie
OMG, thank you so much, I thought it was time to buy a new washer, I was actually researching new washers n dryers when i found ur website. What a God send, I think my washer still has a few years of life left. God Bless u and yours. : )
What if you cleaned the trap and it still not running thru the cycle. Starts turns left 2 x’s and right 1 x and stops! Have any suggestions! Please help!
Thanks for the instructions. My Maytag washer was having a F21 error. Thanks a bunch for teh instructions. I don’t know why this is not in the manual. I found a few color catchers, and a small cloth.
FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!! I have been searching for these exact instructions. I was getting very frustrated not finding how to do this. I couldn’t even find how to open the door and the screws are hidden. Then I found your post, WITH Pictures!!!! THankyou, Thankyou, Thankyou! Now I can do my laundry.
excellent post!!!! thanks much
Just an update for those of you that own this “fun” washing machine. First of all shame on GE for such a lousy design and very little help with solutions. Moving on, if you clean the filter as shown here in wonderful detail and the clothes are STILL damp and the cycles STILL way too long. Here’s another place to check. Sorry, no photos, but it’s fairly easy.
1. Open the front door
2. Gently pull back the large rubber gasket surrounding the drum at the bottom or base of the drum. Mine is a light gray and about 4 inches wide. Behind this gasket are 3 drain holes. If you see crude in them, they are probable clogged.
3. Gently pull back the small rubber gasket covering these drain holes. You will probably find a few goodies there.
4. Gently remove crude. (I took a paper towel and wiped the area down. I can see why these washers can start smelling with wet, nasty stuff just sitting there).
5. Gently let go of both gaskets.
I did my 6 month cleaning of the large trap last night and still had wet clothes. So further net surfing find this solution. Yes, it is now working nicely again.
Thanks again for this great site!!!!
I have done all these things and now I see items BEHIND the drain plug in the black part connected to the back of it. How do I get those items out? How do I unclamp this accordian hose looking thing to clean IT out?
Thank you.
If the clothing is not to large, you can try un-threading the filter plug in the front and fishing it down through the back of the filter housing.
Otherwise, isn’t there a clamp on the accordion pipe that you can use to (carefully!) remove it from the washer drum housing?
Connecting your washing machine drainage outlet pipe to the U bend under a sink can cause back flow of dirty water into your appliance and this can cause both flooding and a foul smell to build up in your washer, also it could mean that part of the water in your wash could be dirty, the dirty back flow water from your sink can also cause the interlock to lock the door, this could happen even if there is no electrical supply to the machine, the locking system can often detect even small amounts of water.
Looking at it, i think GE Adora loading washer is a great unit. Thought if sometimes it does not drain, I think it is only because of plugged. If that is the case, there’s a lot of solutions regarding plugging. Just look and search for the best. Thanks for posting!
Thanks to everyone who posted here our washer did this today during a wash what a mess big blanket had to hand wring it out not clean then had to scoop out water. Showed my husband this and we are going to try to fix tomrrow after work.. wish us luck on our fixed imcome I would hate to pay a repair man. but I guess he needs a pay check too… thanks everyone.
Another way to keep the drain clean when you clean the filter. My husband takes his shop vac and sucks everything out this works wonders. Also they make products that clean the machine once a month. I still wish I had bought the cheap top loader after having this thin for years now.
Tried all of these thing also. Machine still stops when the tmer reaches 13 minutes to go. I cab only finish the load by moving the selector knob to th drain and spin position. Sooooooo confused with this machine ready to give up. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated…….
How can this collection of water in the small drain be prevented? Is there a blockage elsewhere? Machine is several years old and only begun this 6 mos. ago.
It makes me feel sick to think about how close I was to calling a repairman and to ditching my 2 year old front loader for the tried and true top loader. For some reason, I googled “water won’t drain from fronter loading GE washer” and up popped your site. I found enough change to clear half the national debt, a small plastic bag, nails and enough lint to cover a Chia pet. And disgusting water! Many thanks for your post. It was an easy fix and now the washer is perfect! It’s interesting that no one told me to do this when I bought the washer at the big box store. Insurance for future service calls?? Hum?? Many thanks.
Thank you for posting this! I am usually excited to take things apart and put them back together, but for some reason my front loader was intimidating! I have found some socks, some junk and lots of hair!!!!! I have not put it back together yet, but I know this solved a problem! Thanks again for sharing!!!!! Oh and my large Turkey pan was almost the right size to catch all the water!
Thank you so much!!! That was exactly the problem!
Great article! To prevent washer problems, checking your clothes’ pockets for loose objects help. Also, use a mesh bag when running smaller laundry loads. Socks, handkerchief and undergarments might get stuck in the pump propeller.
http://www.washingmachineadvisor.com
Thanks a lot for the well illustrated and really useful post. Had exactly the same problem!
First of all I want to say THANK YOU THANK YOU! We have done all the items listed above and our washer still will not drain. Any suggestions???
Thank you so much. Excellent post.
Well I think the post is excellent. We have owned our washer for years and only recently added a pedestal to the bottom of it which I thought was adding to the machines problem. But now after doing the fix the machine cycled faster than I can remember. I told my wife that I was going to fix it, she said it should wait until the weekend when there would be more time available. It was so easy, I am glad I didn’t wait. 3 quarters, 3 nickels, 1 dime and 2 pennies along with lots of lint and one bolt later and we now have it all clean. Again now it works like new. The post so old is still helping people out. Thanks
You are the answer from heaven! Looked everywhere on the web but nobody had the answer. Thank you so much!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
yep, thanks again, several years later. Only wish that a) I had googled “GE adora won’t drain” sooner and b) GE had included these instructions in the user manual. Would’ve saved me some time for sure…I took apart the drain and drain pipe in the back before resorting to an internet search. Oh well, still so glad to have found this and to now have a working washer again.
What do I do if this doesn’t fix it.. ?
I can hear the pump straining to start.. I tap it with a screwdriver
and it would start.. now it doesn’t start anymore..
Can I pretty much assume that it’s a new pump that is needed?
Is it hard to change? thanks Dwight in New Orleans
My lint trap didn’t have much in it, a penny and a button, but just up inside the pipe was a 3″ swag hook. Still, it wasn’t enough to stop the flow. It turns out that one of those cable ties made it all the way to the impeller inside the pump and stopped it. Start by taking off both hoses on the other side of the lint trap connected to the lint trap/pump manifold. There is a large black one and smaller gray one. Undo the two electrical connections on the far right and top of the pump. Mark the black connect point with a Sharpie or tape to ensure you put the leads back on the same way. The pump/manifold assembly is held down on the base by 2 screws. The one on the left is easy to see but the one on the right you’ll have to feel for. Once the screws are out you can push the assembly away from yourself toward the back of the washer to free the little nubs that insert into the front bracket. At that point you can maneuver it out of the washer toward the left. Undo the 3 screws that hold the pump to the manifold and it will easily separate. The impeller will now be visible. Anything large enough to impede its movement should be easy to see. It’s possible that something could get past it but I didn’t have to go any farther than I did. Clean up the o ring and seats before reassembling. Why not clean up anything you can while you have it apart? It smelled like stagnant water in mine. Good luck!
I just called big appliance service company about 2 hours ago. they wanted to charge me $125 per visit plus parts…then, I googled and found this site and followed the post. I just saved a bundle and found $2.51 as well. many thanks. my washer is 5 years old this is the first time i cleaned the filter…
Thank you for the help! We have been fighting with the washer not working properly for months. Thank you!!!
THANKS A MILLION!!!!! My husband just cleaned out 3 broken pencils, a baby sock, 2.50 in change, a golf tee, a guitar pick and something we couldn’t identify!!! Good times!
Thanks so much for the info..I myself didn’t know this filter existed either..Definitely should be in the manual, although I assume this is how they make their money on service calls. I would love to go to someones house and do this easy fix for $100+ dollars. Well I found much change too as well as those color guard sheets, which seemed to be my problem of plugging. Thanks a million!!!