This is one of the most-searched washer questions, and the honest answer depends on which machine you own. Front-loaders have a filter you should be clearing every couple of months. Most top-loaders don’t have one you can reach at all. Here’s where to look on each, how to clean it without soaking the floor, and why a clogged one sits behind so many drain and smell complaints on Samsung, LG, Whirlpool, and GE machines.
Front-loaders: the drain pump filter
On a front-loader the filter you want is the drain pump filter, sometimes called the coin trap. It’s the screen that grabs everything rinsed off your clothes before it can reach the pump: coins, hairpins, lint, the odd sock corner.
Look behind the small door at the bottom front, usually a lower corner. Pop it open with a coin or a flat tool. Inside you’ll find a round cap, the filter, and on most models a short hose or spout tucked alongside.
That hose matters, because the drum holds water that drains through this filter. Before you unscrew anything:
- Put a shallow pan and towels under the door.
- Pull the small drain hose, take off its cap, and let the water run into the pan. Figure a couple of liters. Re-cap and empty the pan as it fills.
- Once it stops, back the round cap off slowly. The last cupful always rides out with it.
- Pull the filter, clear the lint and junk, rinse it, and check the housing for anything stuck on the impeller you can now see.
- Screw it back snug, re-seat the hose, close the door.
Skip step two and you get a flood. So don’t skip step two.
Top-loaders: usually nothing to clean
Most standard top-loaders have no removable filter. The pump pushes lint and debris straight out with the drain water, so there’s nothing to pull and rinse. If a top-loader drains slow and you can’t find a filter, you’re not missing it. The pump or the drain hose is the problem.
Two exceptions are worth a look. Some older agitator top-loaders keep a lint screen in the top of the agitator post that lifts out. And a lot of newer high-efficiency top-loaders copy the front-loader layout, with a drain pump filter behind a lower front panel. If yours is an HE model, check low on the front for the same little door.
Why the filter is worth finding
A clogged drain filter is one of the most common reasons a washer won’t drain, leaves clothes sitting in water, or flashes a drain code. It’s also a quiet source of smell. Lint and standing water at the filter go sour, and people swap a door gasket or run cleaning cycle after cleaning cycle when a two-minute filter clean would’ve handled it. On a front-loader, putting this on a one-to-three-month schedule kills most no-drain calls before they start.
When to bring us in
Filter clean and it still won’t drain? Now it’s downstream: the pump itself, a kinked or clogged drain hose, or the control that runs the pump. Got a top-loader with no filter and a dead drain? That’s a service call, not a cleaning. Both need the machine opened and the pump tested, which is quick work for a tech and a wet guess for anyone else.
This is part of our laundry repair service. If your washer won’t drain even with a clean filter, see our guide on a washer that won’t drain, and if the smell’s the real gripe, our notes on front-load washer mold and odor.
Book a washer repair
Bay Area Appliance Repair Service is the everyday-appliance side of the same San Ramon crew behind adriumservice.com. Licensed CSLB #1136642, EPA #1279674151528, BEAR #50788, A+ with the BBB. The visit is a $75 diagnostic, credited to the repair. Once we find the fault you get a written repair-or-replace call and a price before any work starts.
Call (925) 999-4095 or email [email protected], or schedule a visit.