Coming home to your kitchen floors covered in water can be devastating, especially when it’s caused by your dishwasher – a machine that was supposed to be your partner in crime. More than just a modern convenience, the dishwasher cleaned up dirty dishes and helped you complete chores faster than if you were on your own. They’re not supposed to add to the list of your responsibilities or damage your flooring, yet here you are with a flooded kitchen. What may come to a surprise is that dishwashers are amongst our most serviced appliances, and the majority of those service calls are due to leaks. What follows are the most common problems our team of repair technicians see when they answer our clients’ calls.
If your leak consists of a whole lot of suds, then you might already know what the culprit is. At the sight of soapy water you probably recognize that something involving the detergent you used went wrong. Sometimes, it’s simply a case of using far too much soap for the amount of water running through the machine. More often, when our team of technicians answer a call about a soapy leak, it’s because the wrong type of soap was used. Hand and dish soap should never be used in a dishwasher machine because their ability to lather and create suds is far greater than that of dishwasher detergent. Dishwasher detergents are specially formulated so they won’t over foam and smother the water, leading to an overflow.
Another simple (but no less frustrating) cause of your leak could be due the machine’s spray arms. These are the rotating pieces found at the bottom of the machine that squirt water during a cleaning cycle. If these arms are obstructed, they can’t operate normally and water collects in unusual places. Fixing this problem could be as uncomplicated as checking the arms before you turn on the machine. Large plates, fallen cutlery, and other dishes can block the arms’ rotations, so be sure nothing is sticking out in inappropriate places when you load your dishwasher.
When neither soap nor obstruction is the cause of your leak, it could be the fault of your door. As the only barrier between your floors and the water world that is your machine on rinse cycle, anything that hinders a proper seal from forming can allow water to find its way onto your hardwood. Any problems with the latch or hinges can affect how well the door shuts. The gasket (the piece of rubber running along the edges of the door responsible for the seal) can also be responsible for a leak. Torn, cracked, or misshaped gaskets fail to create the intended seal, and water finds its way through the opening and onto your floors.
Soap, spray arms, and doors are not the only factors that can cause a leaking dishwasher. Internal malfunctions or damage to valves, hoses, and the tub can cause a mini flood in your kitchen too. Instead of trying to field the reasons why your dishwasher is experiencing a leak on your own, you should give our expert repair technicians a call as soon as you see water on the floor. It doesn’t matter if you discover the leak after a night out or if you notice water collecting in the middle of the day, our licensed and certified repair professionals are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our round-the-clock service is a rarity these days. In an emergency, our clients really appreciate that we can be at their door when they need us, as you can see by the reviews on our Google+ page. A member of our repair team will be happy to meet with you to locate the cause of your leak and expertly repair it. Once the cause is identified and fixed, your dishwasher can go back to being your little helper in the kitchen, and you’ll settle into your dishwashing routine like the leak never happened.
