The short answer
Water around a SMP machine usually comes from the door, from a connection or from foam, and only rarely from the tub itself. The three codes in the table share the family stem and sit close together in build, so the layout described here holds across them.
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.
- 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 SMP 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 fill valve or its supply fitting is weeping — Ranked here because a fitting disturbed during installation is the classic source of a leak that has been there since the machine arrived.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 SMP family — Each code here is pinned to a single build, so match the tag inside your door frame character for character. The three codes fall into two 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 |
|---|---|
| SMP4HVI01A | bosch:dishwasher:smp |
| SMP6HCB01A | bosch:dishwasher:smp |
| SMP6HCS01A | bosch:dishwasher:smp |
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
Detergent, door seal, door alignment and the connections under the sink are owner territory on these models — none of them need the machine moved. The line is the toe-kick: a leak that only shows under the tub during a cycle means the sump gasket, the heater seal or the pump seal, and reaching any of them means unseating the machine with the supply and the power still connected.
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.
