If your washer isn’t draining until you lower the drain hose and use gravity to drain it, then it is a good indicator that your drain pump as gone faulty. If you can use gravity to get the water to run out of your drain hose, it means it is not clogged, but rather the drain pump isn’t pumping water out. If this is your problem, here is how you can replace it.
In front load washers, the drain pump is accessed from the front through the access panel at the bottom. To remove this panel, you will need to unthread the screws at the very bottom of your washer. You may want to tilt it back so you can undo these screws and so you can pull the access down off the locator pins.
Once the panel is removed, you may want to drain any excess water out of the button trap by turning the knob and letting the water out. The button trap knob can then be put back, or not, as you are replacing this whole assembly anyway.
Now, with a pair of pliers, squeeze the two clamps that connect the drain hose and the intake hose to the drain pump and slide them back. Unlike in top load washers, the drain pump isn’t actually mounted in by screws. Instead, you have to lift up a small retaining rubber flap at the bottom. It can be pried loose with a screwdriver and then the drain pump should be pulled to the right to thoroughly uproot this flap. Once that has been done, you can pull the drain pump right out. Once done, you simply need to remove the wire harness and it is completely free.
If your new model comes with new clamps, the old clamps will need to be removed from the hoses. To begin the installation, you will want to connect the wire harness, slide on the new clamps to the hoses then position the new drain pump so the new retaining flap goes into its inlet. Once the hoses are attached, you can place the access panel back on.
