What is the cause of dishwasher vent leak?

Question

My dishwasher has a vent in the top of the door which I suppose is opened during the dry cycle to allow steam/moisture to escape. Recently, after running a load of dishes, when I open the door, about 2-3 oz of water leak from the vent and form a puddle on the floor.

What could be causing the leak, and can it be repaired?

This dishwasher has a "quiet" feature which involves a solenoid-operated value (that's too generous a description -- it's more of a flap) which blocks closes off the vent drain to reduce noise during the wash cycle. I removed the door control panel to inspect the valve/vent system. There is no crud clogging the drain, and the solenoid seems to be normally open (to the drain).

(See the part labeled "5" here)

Answer 1

Does the water appear clear/clean, or does it have food bits and/or detergent in it?

My guess is one of two things:

• The seal on the flap has degraded and the high-pressure jets are now able to force water in under the flap.
• There is some "ledge" in this assembly in which water can collect and puddle, and doesn't dry during the dry cycle (possibly because of the extremely humid air passing by it; there's no capacity in the air to hold any more water).

Answer 2

Just had this happen to me on a Kenmore Elite dishwasher built by Whirlpool. The vent assembly is very similar to this one, except that part #5 looks different but still serves the same purpose. The seal (part #6) seats onto the outside of the door panel, white part #7 is on the inside of the dishwasher and screws into part #5, holding the assembly snug and water tight. Mine was loose and not seating well with the door panel. This let water make its way past the seal and drain down between the door panels to the floor. The solenoid operated flap inside part #5 was working fine, tightening up part #7 fixed the issue.

Answer 3

My whirlpool dishwasher was dribbling on the floor when I opened the door during use. I popped the vent cover off from the inside and found a ton of nasty thick crud in there. Lime had built up not allowing water to drain from the vent to the interior of the door. This caused the area to overflow and leak dirty water between the layers of the door onto the floor. Cleaned it up good as new and soaked the vent cover inside the door in a bowl of vinegar. Problem solved, no more leaks or spills after digging the crud out. Since I had the whole door apart I put the whole inner panel in the bathtub and scrubbed it within an inch of it's life. Some covers require disassembling the door to get them apart. Wish I had not torn the whole door apart before I realized mine pops off easily. But, now I can say I tore it apart and put it back together and it's clean.

Answer 4

My Whirlpool dishwasher was leaking from the bottom leftside of the door. Turned out that the problem was with the worn out seal in the air vent on the door. Water was getting in between the inner panel and the door through the air vent and dripping under the door. Replaced the seal on the air vent and cleaned the clogged vent. The dishwasher is working fine now. No leaks !!

Answer 5

Same thing happened with my Kenmore 665.13594K600 Dishwasher. Water was coming through the steam vent into the inside of the door assembly and then out the bottom onto the floor. I popped out the vent on the door inside the washing area with a flathead screwdriver. Then I was able to pop out the vent on the inner side of the door where the electronics are and both vents were filled with what looks like paper or cardboard that became a mesh of light gray gunk. I cleaned it out by hand and then with Q-tips to get the gunk stuck in the corners. When I put it back together it ran with no leaks. I'm happy this thread is here because it helped me a lot. Hopefully more people can fix theirs without replacing the whole unit. I would have been pretty disappointed in myself if I had replaced the washer because of some dirt buildup. Cheers to everyone. Matt-

Answer 6

If you have a leak from under the left side of the door during the dry cycle, another thing to check is the exhaust vent fan. When drying, My Kenmore 665.12873k312 vents under the door on the left side via a small plastic duct port. There is a small fan inside the door that runs during the dry cycle to move the hot humid air in the tub down and out the chute where it normally vents and evaporates harmlessly. If the fan fails (as mine did) the vent does not function, the hot humid air is trapped inside and seeps into the door, where it condenses and drips out the bottom left corner. The fan is easy to replace but is ridiculously expensive domestically. The exact replacement can be bought on Ebay for about ten bucks (including shipping) from sellers in China, but that will generally take a month or more for delivery.

Answer 7

I found the air vent was clogged with some weird gunk on mine. I cleaned it out and it hasn't leaked since.