The short answer
A leak from the Almison ASDW dishwasher is most often at the door, and a surprising share of door leaks are foam rather than water. The codes in this family carry a wildcard block the record does not expand, so two machines can share the code printed here and still differ in trim. Start by establishing where the water lands first, because the front, the middle and the back of the machine are three different faults with three different fixes.
What you observe
- Water at the toe panel during a cycle — The classic door-seal pattern: it arrives while the machine runs and stops when it does.
- Foam visible through the door, or on the floor — Detergent, not a fault. The machine is pushing out what was put into it.
- It leaks on some loads and not others — A load-dependent leak is a spray arm being blocked, not a seal that has failed.
- NEAR MISS — water standing inside at the end of a cycle — That is a drainage fault and it has its own page for this family.
Causes, most likely first on this family
- The door seal and the door itself — First. Most dishwasher leaks arrive at the front, and most front leaks are the seal. Gaskets take a set, collect grease at the bottom corners where they seal worst, and tear where the door has been leaned on. Water then runs down the inside of the door and appears under the toe panel. The same check covers everything from ASDW12F**A5A to ASDW12T**A5A; the record gives no reason to treat those codes differently here.
- Too much detergent, or the wrong detergent entirely — Second. Hand dish soap in a dishwasher produces foam that fills the tub and walks out of the door seal, and it will do it on a machine with nothing whatever wrong. Over-dosing a normal detergent in soft water does the same thing more slowly.
- Fill and drain connections at the back — Last. A hose that has been kinked or lifted against a wall stops draining, and the water finds its level inside the cabinet instead. This fault almost always dates from the last time the machine was moved, which makes it the first thing to ask about.
- Body: Two codes stand behind this page, each with a block the record leaves unexpanded. The door seal is where a dishwasher leak arrives on every build of this kind, and it is the one cause that needs nothing but a finger and a cloth to test, so it leads.
First, second, third
- Run your finger round the gasket, corners first — Look for grease, for a section that has gone hard, and for a lip that no longer stands proud. Clean it before condemning it: a greasy gasket leaks exactly like a failed one. Identical on every code from ASDW12F**A5A to ASDW12T**A5A.
- Look through the door window, or open it mid-cycle — Foam against the glass settles it at once. Run the machine empty with no detergent to clear it, then dose to the water hardness rather than to the mark on the cup.
- Body: Work these in order rather than picking the one that sounds most likely. Each check below removes a whole branch of the list above, and none of them needs a panel off or a tool in hand.
Before you open anything
Safety
Switch the machine off at its breaker and shut the supply valve before working behind it — a capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off, and the fill line is under mains pressure. Dry the floor before standing anything back on it, and keep the circuit off until the area under the machine is dry. Wash water is hot and carries detergent: wear gloves and keep it off your skin.
Models this page covers — The two model codes recorded for this family; the record carries no column separating them.
Reference| Model number | Family key |
|---|---|
| ASDW12F**A5A | almison:dishwasher:asdw |
| ASDW12T**A5A | almison:dishwasher:asdw |
The line between a fix and a service call
Cleaning a gasket, correcting a dose, re-loading the baskets and levelling the machine are all owner work, and they account for most leaks on this type of machine. Call when water is arriving from the middle of the machine, when a fitting at the back leaks with the machine idle, or when the leak has been running long enough to reach the cabinet or the floor beneath it. A leak into a floor void costs more to put right than the appliance repair does, so it is not worth watching for another week.
The rest of this family
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
