Dishwasher Leaking: 5 Causes, Ranked
Door Seal
- 92.3%of repair attention
- —no confirmed part
- 10 minto check
- No toolsDIY
A section that's hardened, torn, or pulled loose won't seal there even if the rest of the gasket is fine — spot damage alone is enough to cause a leak.
Check yours now ↓One cause below (circulation pump) is not a DIY job. Two checks cost nothing — do those first.
⚠ Cut power at the breaker and shut the water supply valve before opening the base or the junction box. There is standing water in the sump under the filter, so work with a towel and a shallow pan.
Two checks that cost nothing
- Check the detergent Look at what's in the dispenser cup. Regular dish soap, or too much dishwasher detergent, oversudses and pushes suds out past the door seal during the wash — that looks exactly like a leak from a broken part. If you've been using the wrong soap or a heavy hand with the pod, that's the fix, and it costs nothing.
- Check the rack loading Open the door and look at whether anything tall — a stray spatula, a warped pan — is blocking a spray arm from spinning freely. A jammed arm can shoot water straight at the door gasket instead of up into the tub, which shows up as a leak at the bottom of the door. Reload and rerun a cycle to test it.
- Check the door seal Run a finger around the entire rubber gasket on the door and the tub opening, feeling for a stiff, cracked, or gapped section, and for food debris stuck to it. Wipe it clean and run a cycle. A gasket that's just dirty is a free fix; one that's cracked or has pulled away from its channel needs replacing, but that's still a cheap part.
Check each cause, easiest first
Ordered by how hard each is to check, not by how likely it is — so the cheap answers get ruled out before you open anything. The badge on each row shows where the smart money is. Percentages are share of repair-video attention, not a measured failure rate.
door seal#1 most-watched · 92.3% of repair videosFree to check —
How to check. Run a finger around the full gasket looking for stiff, cracked, or gapped sections, and check that it's seated correctly in its channel all the way around.
A section that's hardened, torn, or pulled loose won't seal there even if the rest of the gasket is fine — spot damage alone is enough to cause a leak.
We are not naming a part here. This page does not know your brand, and the part that fits a Whirlpool will not fit an LG. The diagnosis, the free checks and the order to work through them are the same on any machine — pick your brand below and we will name the exact part and what it costs.
spray arm#2 most-watched · 3.6% of repair videosFree to check —
How to check. Pull each spray arm off (most twist or clip free by hand) and hold it up to the light — look for jet holes clogged with mineral deposits or food, and spin it on its post to feel for wobble or a cracked mount.
Clogged jets explain streaky or spotty cleaning on part of a load; a wobbling or cracked arm can throw water sideways at the door instead of up into the racks, which reads as either poor cleaning or a leak depending on where it hits.
We are not naming a part here. This page does not know your brand, and the part that fits a Whirlpool will not fit an LG. The diagnosis, the free checks and the order to work through them are the same on any machine — pick your brand below and we will name the exact part and what it costs.
water inlet valve#3 most-watched · 3.4% of repair videos —
How to check. Shut off the water supply and cut power at the breaker, then pull the valve and look for mineral scale blocking the inlet screen; if it looks clear, test the solenoid coil for continuity with a multimeter.
No continuity, or a screen packed with scale, means the valve isn't opening reliably — that shows up as poor fill (weak cleaning or no heat buildup) or, on a valve stuck partly open, as a slow leak.
We are not naming a part here. This page does not know your brand, and the part that fits a Whirlpool will not fit an LG. The diagnosis, the free checks and the order to work through them are the same on any machine — pick your brand below and we will name the exact part and what it costs.
drain pump#5 most-watched · 0.2% of repair videos —
How to check. Access is usually through the base panel or by pulling the machine out — cut power at the breaker first. Check the pump housing and impeller for a lodged object, and test continuity across the pump motor with a multimeter.
A physical obstruction you clear by hand costs nothing; no continuity on the motor means the pump itself has failed.
We are not naming a part here. This page does not know your brand, and the part that fits a Whirlpool will not fit an LG. The diagnosis, the free checks and the order to work through them are the same on any machine — pick your brand below and we will name the exact part and what it costs.
circulation pump#4 most-watched · 0.4% of repair videosPro job —
How to check. This one usually means pulling the machine out from under the counter and opening the base — cut power at the breaker and shut the water supply first. With the pump exposed, check the impeller for jammed debris, and listen or feel for the motor running when a cycle starts.
⚡ This one check needs the appliance plugged IN and running — the rest do not. Keep hands clear of the panel, touch nothing inside while it is live, and unplug again before replacing anything.
A jammed impeller you can clear by hand is a free fix; a motor that stays silent even with power reaching it has failed and needs replacing — confirm power is reaching it before condemning the pump.
We are not naming a part here. This page does not know your brand, and the part that fits a Whirlpool will not fit an LG. The diagnosis, the free checks and the order to work through them are the same on any machine — pick your brand below and we will name the exact part and what it costs.
Can the manufacturer refuse to sell you this part? It depends on your state.
If a circulation pump turns out to be your fault, you may need an official part. Whether a manufacturer has to sell you one is state law, not company policy — and it is not uniform.
| California | covered | SB-244 names major appliances explicitly. Parts, tools and documentation must be offered on fair terms — 7 years for parts wholesaling at $100+. |
|---|---|---|
| Colorado | covered | HB24-1121's 14-item exclusion list omits appliances, so they are covered. Includes a parts-pairing ban. |
| Oregon | covered | Appliances are not excluded from Oregon's right-to-repair statute. |
| Minnesota | likely covered | Appliances are not named as excluded and the definition is broad, but the statute does not name them either — read as covered, not confirmed. |
| New York | excluded | Home appliances are carved out BY NAME from the Digital Fair Repair Act. A manufacturer is not required to sell you this part. |
| Texas | excluded | Appliances are explicitly excluded from the state's repair statute. |
Enforcement is by the state Attorney General in every state confirmed — none of these laws gives you a personal right to sue. Sourced from primary statute text; see our right-to-repair notes for citations.
Is it worth fixing at all?
Most pages answer this with the “50% rule” — spend no more than half a replacement's price. We went looking for the origin of that number and could not find one: it is widely credited to ENERGY STAR, whose actual published guidance is an age-and-condition checklist with no percentage in it. We use your machine's own measured running cost instead. We hold it for 0 Any brand dishwasher models.
We rank every dishwasher we hold certification data for within its own size and configuration class — so you are comparing machines that would actually fit the same space. See the dishwasher rankings →
When to stop and call someone
Leave the appliance alone, ventilate, and call the gas utility. Nothing on this page is worth doing around a suspected leak.
Compressor and refrigerant repairs need EPA certification — that is a legal requirement, not a difficulty rating. A service call runs roughly $75–$150 before parts, so read the repair-or-replace maths above before booking.
Common questions
Share of repair-video views for this symptom across 494 videos. The walkthroughs shown on this page come from PartSelect and RepairClinic.com. It measures what people watch. That correlates with what fails, but video age, channel size and search visibility all influence it, so we publish it as attention and never as a failure rate. Each cause shows the video count and total views behind its percentage.
We only show a part when it comes from a repair on a machine in the same Any brand family. Where we have no family-matched part we say so rather than substitute another brand's. For parts confirmed on one exact machine, use the model page above.
Usually yes for simple mechanical parts like belts, fuses and thermostats; less reliably for control boards and sensors, where tolerances and firmware matter. Every listing is labelled.