# Bosch Dishwasher leaking along bottom seal of door



## mtbdudex

We bought our Bosch dishwasher May2002, it's been a very reliable dishwasher, there was 1 service recall 1-2 years ago and a board was replaced for free.

Periodically and random it leaks along the bottom seal.
Checked all the obvious, garbage disposal is clear (for drain pipe flow), bottom screen is clean and so is center filter.
















This is the dishwasher, you can see it leaked along bottom seal.









I say bottom seal of door, because when I stopped the dishwasher the water was up to the red line shown here:









Bottom door seal view from outside:









Door Seal view from inside the dishwasher:
















Any ideas on whats going on here?


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## mtbdudex

No thoughts from anybody?

My best guess:
Is there some water timer that if random going bad may let too much H20 into the cycle, the bottom H20 line gets to high and then leaks once above the base pan level?

Obviously the door seal is not a true H20 seal meant for water pressure against it, so if the H20 level is too high it will leak.

This happen infrequently, but when it does the H20 drips on ceiling tile below it (the basement area), which looks crappy now but I don't want to replace until this is fixed.
The ceiling tile is above the sun in pict below, pict taken before stain.


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## mtbdudex

*status update*

The Bosch Dishwasher over 2010 Christmas holiday would NOT complete its cycles, after the prewash it would sit there and "hmmmmm". 
I took it out from the cabinet, took off the side panels, and observed the action of the various parts, H20 flowing, etc. 
All filters were un-clogged, not sure if a relay or circuit that triggers the cycle went.










This dishwasher is 9 years old, rather than service it for the won't complete cycles we are getting a new one (on order already).

Upon removal noticed the rather crude and crappy install job the plumber did who installed, here is the "hole" he cut out for the return and supply hose, notice how sharp and jagged it is?









That caused - over time and vibrations of the hose due to dishwasher working - 2 wear cracks in the hose at contact points









Which definitely leaked......and made a mess


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## Thurman

I don't have your answer, but funny you should post this a week or so after my sister called to ask about the same thing on her Bosch dishwasher. She says her three year old unit is leaking around the bottom of the door as it nears the end of the cycle. It's not much, just enough that she has to put a towel down before she starts a cycle. My only suggestion, being as she is 240 miles away, was to make sure the gasket and door's sealing area were clean.


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## mtbdudex

Thurman said:


> I don't have your answer, but funny you should post this a week or so after my sister called to ask about the same thing on her Bosch dishwasher. She says her three year old unit is leaking around the bottom of the door as it nears the end of the cycle. It's not much, just enough that she has to put a towel down before she starts a cycle. My only suggestion, being as she is 240 miles away, was to make sure the gasket and door's sealing area were clean.


Agree:
-make sure all door seals clean
-Make sure bottom strainer is clean
-Make sure garbage disposal (where return tubes commonly exit) is clean


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## TryHard

Thurman said:


> I don't have your answer, but funny you should post this a week or so after my sister called to ask about the same thing on her Bosch dishwasher. She says her three year old unit is leaking around the bottom of the door as it nears the end of the cycle. It's not much, just enough that she has to put a towel down before she starts a cycle. My only suggestion, being as she is 240 miles away, was to make sure the gasket and door's sealing area were clean.


I don't know the Bosch. I have a Kenmore, but it had the same slight-leak problem at the bottom of the door. The solution turned out to be fairly unbelievable. The leak wasn't through the gasket. The problem was that the hot-water-vapor release vent (on the door) was clogged with the orange/gray gunk that dishwashers seem to produce. Lifting the lid (on the inside of the door) off that vent and cleaning out most of the gunk opened up the vent and completely cured the leakage problem.

There is no gasket-seal along the bottom of the door. As a safety feature (!) high internal pressure will release itself by pushing water out the bottom edge of the door (if the vapor vent is clogged).

I apologize if this doesn't apply to the Bosch.


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## cSquall

*Same problem with Maytag*

I have the same problem. After reading all these posts, I got to looking and found a small tab-like seal at the bottom-right corner of the door that was bent very much out of shape and had a small tear in it. 

The right tab seal is the problem child. The numbered photo shows the tab from the back side (i.e., when the door panel has been removed).

Just found where I can order the tabs--- a cool site that shows your model broken down in parts so that you can find the part even if you don't know exactly what it's called. https://www.appliancepartspros.com


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## sdewitt

*A fix for leaking Bosch dishwashers*

We bought a Bosch dishwasher about 3 years ago and it started intermittently leaking from the bottom of the door a couple of months ago. This has screwed up the floor, which is another issue.

My wife searched the boards for a solution. Nothing fit our circumstance; the seals are good, the port on the side of the interior was not blocked by anything loaded into it.

So my wife, who has a very fine eye for detail, examined the thing carefully and she noticed that the top slide rails for the upper rack were not being pushed into the interior completely when the top rack was pushed into the machine. These rails sometimes protruded 2 or three millimeters beyond the seal. We ensure that before we start the machine that we push these rails into the dishwasher completely and we have had no more leaks.


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## drh146

Also make sure that the dishwasher is level, or the front is alittle higher than the rear. If the front is lower, the level of the water along the inside front of the bottom of the door is too high and get past the seals.

This has solved the problem for a few people i know


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## Texflix

I had the same problem and thought it was due to a leaking seal as well. However, I found it was the copper pipe water connection at the front of the machine. To inspect this, simply remove black panel at the bottom front of the machine with a 7/64 hex wrench. At the lower left of the washer is the copper connection, if dripping gently tighten with an adjustable wrench. This did the trick for my unit.


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## rhkelly

*This fixed the leak for me! Free too!*

http://www.applianceblog.com/mainforums/bosch/11810-fixed-bosch-leaking-dishwasher.html

It's about where you load your cutting board/cookie sheet/large flat objects. Big flat things loaded to the right blocks an important [but mysterious] hole on the right side of the dishwasher. Seriously! I was absolutely shocked how simple the issue and solution was! UNBELIEVABLE! Easy. Free. Worked for me! w00t!

It's all in the above link. Read the follow-up posts too. Surprising how many found this to be their solution.


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## md2lgyk

I have this same problem with my LG dishwasher that's only two years old. I'm amazed at how many have it regardless of appliance brand. This thread does give me some ideas of where to look.


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## b0nes

*Bosch dishwasher leaking from the bottom of the door.*

Several unsuccessful visits by appliance "engineers" did not solve this problem, they suggested that it was because I WAS using the recommended brand of dishwasher tablet and they were too soapy!!! This in spite of the fact that the box was mostly used and the problem had just started.

This seems to be the solution, hope this is of some help:-

http://www.applianceblog.com/mainforums/bosch/11810-fixed-bosch-leaking-dishwasher.html

damnn those chopping boards!!


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## notmrjohn

Interesting, thread is form April two years ago and dishwashers all over America are still leaking from all sorts of places for all sorts of reasons. You'd think manufactorers would have solved some of that by now. But OP is an engineer and it took him a while to figure it out, now he oughta tell the makers what to do. 
Didn't see anybody mention the float, or did they? It can get stuck in down position or something pokes down and holds it. Washer over fills. Some just lift straight up out of tube, stick your finger in there and clear out " the orange/gray gunk that dishwashers seem to produce." That's a strange combination of grease, mineral deposits, undisolved detergent, and just plain stuff. Oddly enuff some liquid detergents build up faster than powders. Run a cup or two of cheap white vingar thru a short cycle in empty washer once a month to clean that out, don't want it breeding and creeping out of the kitchen some dark and stormy night. I dunno if vinegar removes red lines drawn inside dishwashers.
Lots of pretty pictures, usually the first response is "Do you have a picture?" Some folks even have that as their sig line or even member status. Didn't see a pic of the "important mysterious hole." I looked in my washer, don't have a hole, that's mysterious, wonder where it went. mtbdudex must be an awful small engineer, to be able to climb inside and take that picture of the red line and all, and he had to climb over those colorful dishes too; hope he got out OK and didn't get drownded. Woulda left a clean and sparkling, streak free corpse though.


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## djgman

*bosch leaking at door - wet insulation*



rhkelly said:


> http://www.applianceblog.com/mainforums/bosch/11810-fixed-bosch-leaking-dishwasher.html
> 
> It's about where you load your cutting board/cookie sheet/large flat objects. Big flat things loaded to the right blocks an important [but mysterious] hole on the right side of the dishwasher. Seriously! I was absolutely shocked how simple the issue and solution was! UNBELIEVABLE! Easy. Free. Worked for me! w00t!
> 
> It's all in the above link. Read the follow-up posts too. Surprising how many found this to be their solution.


i just checked mine and low and behold...a flexible cutting board was laying right over the outlet on the right side. also cleaned the seals which were quite gunky. will still check the bottom and the vapor vent on the door but this looks like an easy one (i hope)


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