The short answer
A SHV dishwasher that leaks tells you where the fault is if you watch it. With thirty-four codes in the table, this family spans several build generations and a wide range of ages in service — which is why wear causes rank higher here than they do on the brand-generic page.
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.
- Water appearing under the toe-kick only during a cycle — Something under the tub is wet while pressurised: a hose clamp, the pump seal, or the sump gasket.
- A slow puddle that is there even when the machine has not run — That is the supply side. The fill valve or its compression fitting weeps whether or not the machine is working, and it will not stop on its own.
Causes, most likely first on the SHV family
- The door seal is hardened, torn or out of its channel — Ranked high on a family whose codes span several generations, because the seal is the part that ages fastest on any dishwasher: it goes hard, takes a set, and stops closing on the tub lip.
- Over-sudsing from the wrong detergent — Checked early because it is free, instant and common: hand dish soap in the cup, or a heavy dose in soft water, foams until the foam finds the door.
- The sump gasket, heater seal or pump seal is passing water — Moved up on an older family: these seals are under the tub, they leak only under pressure, and their symptom is a wet toe-kick during a cycle and a dry floor afterwards.
- The fill valve or its supply fitting is weeping — A compression fitting under the sink relaxes with age and vibration, and an inlet valve seat wears.
- The tub seam or a spray arm feed has split — Last and least common, but it is the cause that ends the machine: a corroded seam or a cracked feed cannot be sealed and the repair is rarely economic.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Check the supply fitting under the sink dry — Wipe the valve and the compression nut, then come back to them after a cycle.
- 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 SHV family — Some codes here are pinned to a single build and the rest are patterns covering several, so match the longest entry that fits the tag inside your door frame. The thirty-four codes fall into fourteen leading groups, and that spread is the reason this page is written for the family rather than for one machine.
Reference| Model number | Family key |
|---|---|
| SHV41DB** | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV41DB3N | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV41DB3N/01 | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV4AEB** | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV4AT5### | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV4AT5*** | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV4ATB*** | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV53CM** | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV53D7*** | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV53EM** | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV53T5### | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV53TB*** | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV53TL### | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV68T5### | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV68TL### | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV78B7*** | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV78CM** | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV78DM** | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV7ER5#UC | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV7PT5### | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV863WB** | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV863WD** | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV865WG3N | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV878WD** | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV878ZD** | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV88PW5** | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV88PZ5** | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV88PZ6** | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV89PW5** | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV89PW7** | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV8PT5### | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV9ER5#UC | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV9PCM** | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
| SHV9PT5### | bosch:dishwasher:shv |
Before you open anything
Safety
Switch off the breaker before anything goes under the machine, and close the supply valve under the sink before you disturb a fitting. A capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off.
When to call a technician
Call once you have located the leak below the tub, or if you cannot locate it at all after a watched cycle. A wet toe-kick with a dry sill is a sealed-side leak and it needs the machine 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
SC
Sarah Chen
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
EPA 608 UniversalNASTeC Certified
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
