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
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!
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!
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.
Thanks for sharing the information on the pump. We had trouble
With it pausing and it wouldn’t finish washing. We had cleaned the
filter and it still wouldn’t work. So last night I found this site and
Seen the info on the pump, so my husband and I went back at it
Taking the panel off on the bottom removing filter/pump and found
a dime and a pellet stuck in the propeller on the pump, removed it
put it back and it works great… Actually is spinning out like it did
When we first purchased it. I’m so happy we didn’t have to
hire a repair guy! Thanks for the help
We have a GE WBVH624HWW washer that had a similar issue. It would stop during the drain cycle and flash the stop/start button. Hitting start again usually continues the cycle, for a while, and it tended to stop again.
I pulled off the lower service cover, drained the water and removed the front drain, found small rocks, lots of lint, even bandages. We have kids that leave anything and everything in their pockets. After cleaning, it still wasn’t draining.
I removed the drain pump assembly, disconnected the pump, and reconnected the leads. On a drain cycle, the pump spins as expected. When I attached it to the assembly and connected the hoses, it tended to lock up and get hot instead of turning and pumping water.
I can’t see anything in the assembly that could prevent it from spinning, and now it seems to be working fine. A new pump assembly is maybe $150, though our home warranty deductible is only $75. If the issue isn’t consistent, I’ve thought that maybe the pump motor is going out and working intermittently.