The short answer
A leaking SBT dishwasher needs its leak located before it needs a part. The table below carries a single model code for this family, so everything on this page describes one build: the panel layout and the part positions do not shift under you.
What you observe on these models
- Water at the door sill, on the floor in front of the machine — The seal, the door alignment, or suds. Look for foam at the sill: foam means detergent, not a part.
- Foam or suds visible at the bottom of the door — Hand dish soap, or far too much detergent, or a rinse-aid spill.
- The leak only happens on longer or hotter cycles — Heat and time expand seals and raise water level. A seal that is marginal leaks on the long cycle and passes on the short one.
- NEAR MISS — water standing inside the tub, floor dry — That is drainage, and it has its own page for this family.
Causes, most likely first on the SBT family
- Over-sudsing from the wrong detergent — First on the list, and the most common cause in a household that is new to the machine.
- The door seal is hardened, torn or out of its channel — Second. Run a finger round the whole seal: a section standing proud of its channel, a tear at a corner, or a flat spot where the door has sat closed for years all leak in the same place.
- The door is out of alignment or the latch is not pulling it in — It ranks here on a narrow family because misalignment is usually introduced at installation — an out-of-square cabinet opening, or a panel fitted without resetting the hinge tension.
- The drain hose connection or the air gap is overflowing — Worth checking early despite its rank, because it is entirely outside the machine and the water it produces looks exactly like a tub leak once it reaches the floor.
- The tub seam or a spray arm feed has split — Last, and genuinely rare on units of this age. Reach it by elimination, never by assumption.
Check in this order, and why
- Dry the floor completely and put paper down — A sheet of kitchen paper across the sill and another under the toe-kick turns an invisible weep into a dated map.
- Look for foam before you look for a part — Foam at the sill means detergent. Run one rinse-only cycle with nothing in the cup and confirm the floor stays dry before you buy anything.
- Work round the door seal with a finger and a light — Feel for hard sections, tears at the corners and any length that has lifted out of its channel.
- Run a short cycle and watch the first ten minutes — Stay with it. A leak that starts at fill is the supply side; one that starts at the wash is the door or the sump; one that starts at the drain is the hose connection.
- Only then look under the toe-kick — Power off, panel off, torch in. A wet clamp, a wet sump seam or a stained pump body names the part — and names a job that needs the machine unseated.
Models in the SBT family — One code stands for this family, so the table is a single line and there is nothing to cross-check beyond it.
Reference| Model number | Family key |
|---|---|
| SBT8ZC801A | bosch:dishwasher:sbt |
Before you open anything
Safety
Shut the supply valve under the sink and switch off the breaker before anything goes under the machine; a capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off. Water that has been sitting under a cabinet reaches places that are meant to stay dry, so treat the area as live until the power is isolated.
When to call a technician
Detergent, the door seal, the door alignment and the fittings under the sink are yours on these models. Anything that only shows itself as a wet toe-kick during a cycle is not: that is the sump, the heater seal or the pump seal, and the machine has to come out of the cabinet.
Sources — The symptom-report corpus recorded in this snapshot is what put this symptom on the page for this brand and appliance.
Documented- amazon-reviews — amazon-reviews, fetched 2026-09-02
Other symptoms covered for 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.
