Do this first
- Electrics before water. Switch the machine off at the socket or the fused spur and pull the plug, provided you can reach it without kneeling in the water and your hands are dry. If you cannot, switch that circuit off at the consumer unit instead. Do not reach behind a wet machine to find a plug.
- Turn off the inlet valves on the wall behind it, usually a blue one and sometimes a red one. A quarter turn closes them.
- Stop the cycle and let it drain if it will. A machine full of water is heavy and it will empty onto the floor when you move it.
- Do not pull the machine out yet. Look first: where the water is relative to the machine is most of the diagnosis, and dragging it destroys that.
- Photograph the puddle before mopping, especially if you are above another flat.
- Check the floor at the front edge of the machine and under the units either side. Kitchen water travels under plinths and sits on the floor out of sight.
Front, back, or only on the pump-out
Where the water appears, and at which point in the cycle, identifies nearly all of these before anything is dismantled.
| Where and when | Cause | Whose job |
|---|---|---|
| At the front, while filling or washing, often with suds | Door seal perished or fouled, or too much detergent | Appliance engineer, or a new seal |
| At the back, present even with the machine off | Inlet hose connection, or the wall valve itself | Plumbing |
| Only as the machine pumps out | Waste hose connection, the trap spigot, or the standpipe | Plumbing |
| Under the centre of the machine, during a cycle | Internal: pump, sump, drum seal or a split internal hose | Appliance engineer |
| At the detergent drawer, overflowing forwards | Blocked drawer or dispenser, or a restricted inlet | Cleaning, usually yourself |
The distinction that matters commercially is simple: the machine is an appliance and the connections are plumbing. An appliance engineer deals with door seals, pumps and drum bearings. We deal with everything the machine connects to, which is where a large share of these leaks actually are, and which is also the part that damages the building. An inlet hose connection at mains pressure leaks around the clock, including while you are at work, and it is the version of this that ends up on a neighbour's ceiling.
Two practical notes. First, braided inlet hoses have a service life; if the braiding is rusting anywhere, replace both hoses whether or not they are leaking. Second, a machine that leaks only on the pump-out and also makes the sink gurgle is telling you the waste is restricted rather than the connection being loose: see a leaking pipe under the sink, because the trap spigot is usually shared.
What the repair involves
On the supply side, the inlet hoses and the wall valves are replaced, the connections remade with new seals, and everything pressure tested with the machine reconnected and running rather than just turned on. On the waste side, the standpipe height and the trap connection are checked, because a waste hose pushed too far down a standpipe siphons and a hose clip that has been on and off three times no longer grips. The geometry is corrected, not just the clip.
The floor is the expensive part in a kitchen. Water under a plinth sits on the substrate and swells chipboard and laminate from underneath, and under a machine you cannot see it until the floor lifts. We lift, dry and reinstate the floor, plinths and carcass panels along with the plumbing, which is what water leak repair covers here. If it has already reached the flat below, start with water coming through a ceiling.
When it is not us
- Suds pouring from the door. Too much detergent, or the wrong type for the machine. Run an empty rinse and use less.
- A perished door seal, a failed pump or a leaking drum. That is an appliance engineer, and on a machine in warranty it is the manufacturer's to fix.
- The waste hose had worked loose from the standpipe. Push it back, clip it, done.
- A blocked detergent drawer. Pull it out, wash it, clear the dispenser housing. Five minutes.
- The machine is old and this is the third fault this year. Weigh the repair against a replacement rather than paying to keep it going.
- You rent and the machine belongs to the landlord. Report it in writing. If the machine is yours but the plumbing is not, say so clearly, because they are two different responsibilities.