Washer Drain Hose Foaming

This has been driving my wife nuts. Our washer started foaming at the end of the drain cycle which results in suds coming out of the drain tube and down the wall. It has already hurt our sheetrock. Nothing has changed! We use the same soap and much less trying to eliminate the problem. We have rinsed the machine with water several times and vinegar and water twice. The machine has never shown or smelled dirty inside. I cleaned out the softener dispenser. My initial thought was our water seemed softer than usual. You can definitely tell in the shower. I have been keeping the salt fuller than usual the last year. I just turned down the grains setting last week to match the city’s chart. What else could it be? Where could there be soap residue in the machine that manifests itself at the very end of the drain cycle? Or is it something else? The drain tube?
Any ideas or first hand experience welcomed. Thanks.

Snake the drain tube and make sure it isn’t getting clogged. Not sure if the same or not but on ours it wasn’t that the end of the cycle changed it was just that a slowly developing blockage made it finally overflow right at the end. Foam is going to come out top first because it floats on the water in the drain.

I agree with Reef. Lint starts plugging the line and you get water & suds backing up. They make screens you can put on the end of discharge tube to prevent this.

One thing I have noticed as an appliance service technician is if the detergent has oxy in it or if you are using it separately this can cause an over suds error on some washers. Also if the water softener isn’t working properly that can cause issues.

reef hit it. my pee trap was full with lint. cleaned out and started using screen on drain tube. has worked fine since

I was going to suggest a possible change in water softness.
As mentioned by you also, softer water creates more suds. Try .75 or even .5 of the amount of soap as a test.

Foam party at Suzuki’s house?
DT

Are your toilets “burping “ when you flush them? It may be very subtle, but does air come up just before water goes down?

I’ve had a few homeowners run into an issue with suds coming back up washer drain. Usually a restriction as mentioned above. If your getting that and air coming up it can be a restricted or blocked vent

Randy Wieland wrote:

Are your toilets “burping “ when you flush them? It may be very subtle, but does air come up just before water goes down?

I’ve had a few homeowners run into an issue with suds coming back up washer drain. Usually a restriction as mentioned above. If your getting that and air coming up it can be a restricted or blocked vent

I dont think so Randy. That did happen several years ago. We got a new roof and the roofers noticed one of the vent pipes was still capped!!

Well shoot. I went out and bought a snake but found nothing after going to and past the elbow. Not one scrap of goo. I even snaked the drain hose. Nothing.
We’ll just keep adding less and less soap for now. The worst thing about it is the inconsistency.

suzuki wrote:

Well shoot. I went out and bought a snake but found nothing after going to and past the elbow. Not one scrap of goo. I even snaked the drain hose. Nothing.
We’ll just keep adding less and less soap for now. The worst thing about it is the inconsistency.

The joys of home ownership!