So, while I was in Indiana helping with grandkids and awaiting the birth of the next one, my husband messaged me to say that the dishwasher wasn’t draining.  Of course, there wasn’t much I could do about it being several hundred miles away at the time. Since he was batching it while I was away, he didn’t mind washing his own dishes the old-fashioned way for a few days.  (And, yes, he did wash them!)

I guess I hate washing dishes by hand more than he does.  When I got back home, I did a web search for “GE dishwasher not draining.”  I was hugely fortunate to come upon this page:

http://www.johntorrance.com/dishwasher/

The pictures looked exactly like the interior of our GE dishwasher, so we followed his directions to get to the sump and try to clear it. His directions are extremely clear, well-Illustrated and easy to follow.

Although there was a nice collection of gook in the sump, the real problem appeared to be a large bit of broccoli stem blocking the outlet.  Since the piece was too large to have gone through the openings on the sump cover, we can only guess that the disposal must have flung it at just the right angle to push it back into the drain pipe.  (Like yours, our dishwasher drains into the garbage disposal.)

Whatever the reason it was there, Once we removed the piece of broccoli, the dishwasher began to work normally again.

I don’t know Mr. Torrance, but I am very grateful to him for taking the time to post this. It undoubtedly saved us a hefty repair bill.