Maullar
Premium Member
- Model Number
- 665.15983990
- Brand
- Sears Kenmore
- Age
- More than 10 years
Hey everyone,
First off: thanks for offering and maintaining this forum.
We have a ~25+ year old Kenmore dishwasher which has recently started to leak water under the door and onto the access panel cover. It's probably been doing this for a bit, but it's been particularly bad lately. It appears to be leaking from the two bottom screws on the door itself, leading me to believe that the water is getting between the inner and outer door pieces.
The water leak appears to start from the screws themselves. This could be deceiving though, given how water can travel.
We replaced the lower door seal and spacers, mostly because our first inspection made us think it was just getting out below the door and that part was one of the easiest quick repairs we could do. However, we're still getting a pretty decent leak. We pulled the inner and outer door panels apart and noticed some pretty good calcium/crud buildup below the air vent near the top inside the door panel and the gasket was covered in crud as well. It's also worth noting that I'm not positive this vent is closing at all (since we feel air/movement from it throughout the whole wash cycle– we don't really know when this vent should be open vs when it should be closed to test that), but we're not certain on that statement yet. A complication here is that the air vent assembly appears to be discontinued with no replacement part, so our only option would be the gasket.
There was definitely some buildup of something below the vent inside, leading us to believe that this could be the source of our leak. Finally, we noticed that the detergent dispenser has a small gap on one side on the inside. We're not sure if that's normal or could be contributing to the issue.
We were just wondering if anyone has ever heard of a leak similar to this? Most of what we've read seems to imply that it's usually the door gasket, but I think our leak is presenting itself from the middle of the door itself first and not traveling from around the sides. We also hear that it could be the lower wash arm; however, our arm itself doesn't appear to be plastic or seem to exhibit any of the signs that we've read about (more than willing to check though). Any tips on diagnostic steps to track the leak are also welcome!
We appreciate any insight! It may be time to finally retire this old thing, but it's been doing too well otherwise for us to give up on it too easily. I think this may even be the first ever issue with this dishwasher.
First off: thanks for offering and maintaining this forum.
We have a ~25+ year old Kenmore dishwasher which has recently started to leak water under the door and onto the access panel cover. It's probably been doing this for a bit, but it's been particularly bad lately. It appears to be leaking from the two bottom screws on the door itself, leading me to believe that the water is getting between the inner and outer door pieces.
The water leak appears to start from the screws themselves. This could be deceiving though, given how water can travel.
We replaced the lower door seal and spacers, mostly because our first inspection made us think it was just getting out below the door and that part was one of the easiest quick repairs we could do. However, we're still getting a pretty decent leak. We pulled the inner and outer door panels apart and noticed some pretty good calcium/crud buildup below the air vent near the top inside the door panel and the gasket was covered in crud as well. It's also worth noting that I'm not positive this vent is closing at all (since we feel air/movement from it throughout the whole wash cycle– we don't really know when this vent should be open vs when it should be closed to test that), but we're not certain on that statement yet. A complication here is that the air vent assembly appears to be discontinued with no replacement part, so our only option would be the gasket.
There was definitely some buildup of something below the vent inside, leading us to believe that this could be the source of our leak. Finally, we noticed that the detergent dispenser has a small gap on one side on the inside. We're not sure if that's normal or could be contributing to the issue.
We were just wondering if anyone has ever heard of a leak similar to this? Most of what we've read seems to imply that it's usually the door gasket, but I think our leak is presenting itself from the middle of the door itself first and not traveling from around the sides. We also hear that it could be the lower wash arm; however, our arm itself doesn't appear to be plastic or seem to exhibit any of the signs that we've read about (more than willing to check though). Any tips on diagnostic steps to track the leak are also welcome!
We appreciate any insight! It may be time to finally retire this old thing, but it's been doing too well otherwise for us to give up on it too easily. I think this may even be the first ever issue with this dishwasher.
