Brand: Whirlpool Model Number: WDT970SAHZ0 Main Symptom: Water on the floor What happens & when: Intermittent, not every time it runs, but frequency and volume are increasing over time
I don’t see any signs of plumbing leaks in hose connections underneath the machine. I assumed it was around the door but replacing the lower door seal didn’t change anything. It is getting progressively worse so maybe I’ll be to see where it comes from eventually.
How can I determine where the leak is coming from? How can I run the machine through different cycles manually?
Take the outer door panel off, start the DW, and with a flashlight, watch it go through the cycles. If you are not seeing a water trail underneath, it is coming from the door area, just like you thought. It could be that the diverter is not working correctly and shooting water at the front door seal, or the door tub seal is bad.
Thanks for the response, David! I did what you said. With the outer door removed, almost immediately we could see water intruding past the lower door seal. However, I now believe this is normal. With no gasket, the lower door “seal” is not a true water seal but perhaps stops food particles from moving under the door.
Throughout the cycle, we could see water filling and draining the part of the tub that actually extends under the door without leaking onto the floor. I suspect we get a leak on the floor when the tub overfills which it barely did one time and there was a dribble.
Next, I examined the float switch. I was able to determine the microswitch is working by manually opening and closing it during one portion of the cycle and I could hear the fill valve open and close correspondingly. Also, the float itself does not seem to be stuck. It seems to move freely.
What else could cause an overfill situation? It seems to drain fine.
It’s a little aggravating that I spend $60 on a lower door seal that does nothing to seal water from getting past the door when the APP video seemed to suggest it could solve the problem, or at least is common solution! My advice to others is do not replace the lower door seal.
I took a short video clip showing the machine running with the outer door removed and water standing in the tub below the lower door seal.
Most people have not done what you have done and don’t realize there is water moving around like that. The float switch is just a safety feature to keep it from overflowing or adding too much water. There is really no way for the inlet valve to add too much water as long as the float is working. Make sure the door and the tub are square to each other. In other words, when you close the door, one side of the door does not scrape the tub, but closes with equal distance on each side. This can cause the door gasket that goes around the tun to be out of alignment and leak. Another thing is the diverter valve. It redirects water from one spray arm to another. If the spray arm stops where it is positioned toward the door, it can cause a wave to run at the door when it is energized again. Not much you can do about that, and it would be very random.
Well, surprisingly, it hasn’t leaked since I put it back together. Perhaps the float valve was stuck, and I loosened it but fiddling with it.
I forgot to mention that we also removed the upper and lower spray arms. We could tell there was some debris inside - we could sometimes see it through the holes and around the edges and we could hear it rattling inside. So I shook them vigorously and some debris flew out of the center hole, then another piece, then a couple more. Finally, I couldn’t hear any more rattling so we assumed it was all gone. The debris was just small pieces of plastic, or other broken particles, I assume.
I’ll take another look at the door and tub to ensure they’re square, but I don’t recall them being misaligned. Thanks again for helping!
In conclusion (for now) I suspect the float valve was stuck. But if it leaks again and I can rule that out, I’ll probably turn to the diverter valve next.
It’s weird that you would mention that! After (2) loads of dishes with no leaks I now have a different problem: the water never fills the machine. I can hear the pump running. I’m suspecting a faulty valve. Any ideas?
Oh - and I checked the float valve. It drops and doesn’t stay up on its own. I presume this is the intended and proper expected behavior.
The float should stay down so there is a complete circuit to the water valve; it is when it rises up too far that it opens the circuit to shut off the inlet valve. Unless the water to the DW has been shut off, make sure it is getting voltage when it is supposed to be filling. There will not be voltage at the valve all the time, only when it is supposed to be filling. Use your tech sheet to run a diagnostic to turn the valve on. If there is voltage and the valve does not open up, replace it. To answer your last question about the damper, AI has been updating our website, and it gets confused sometimes. We are correcting these as we run into them. tech-sheet-w11427962-reva.pdf (1.2 MB)
