Yeah, it has a flapper in the pump for the drain and it holds about a quart of dirty water to carry in to the next part of the cycle. This was really early because of the blue Plastisol and the top rack is the carryover from the bow tie impeller machines. It was not so hard to load those through the opening in the top rack because the middle of the lower rack was open for the impeller, but this was a cheapie model without the upper rack where half lifted with the lid. It is very difficult to load things through that center opening past those pins in the bottom rack and you have to be very careful to load things from the outside in toward the center, because if you put a plate in the center first, you either have to remove it to put something closer to the outside of the lower rack or you have to lift up the top rack to do it. Add to this, very low water pressure and no filtration and you have an excellent machine for someone who washes dishes before loading them in the dishwasher. There was a model cheaper than this one, but this is bad enough for one morning.
