The answer first
Where the water comes from decides everything: the door, the tub or the connections underneath. On a Café dishwasher the door seal and the fill connection cover most of it. That puts a door seal that has hardened or come loose at the top of the list here and an overfill — a float or pressure switch not stopping the fill at the bottom.
What the machine is doing
- Water on the floor directly in front of the door — A door seal or a door that has dropped out of alignment.
- A damp cabinet side with no visible puddle — A slow weep at a hose clamp finds the cabinet before it finds the floor.
- NEAR MISS — standing water inside the tub — That is drainage, and it has its own page.
Causes, most likely first on this unit
- A door seal that has hardened or come loose — The gasket runs around the tub opening and it takes a set. Once it stops touching at one point, every cycle puts water on the floor. Built-in doors are heavy and are hung on adjustable hinges, so a door that has dropped is a real cause on this line and not a throwaway check.
- Foam from the wrong detergent — Hand dish soap in a dishwasher generates foam that pushes past the door. It reads exactly like a seal failure and it is not one. How the machine is loaded produces symptoms that read exactly like failures, so habits are checked before parts.
- The inlet hose or its fitting — The connection under the sink and at the machine are both candidates, and both weep before they burst. Plumbed premium units carry a filter, a valve and a long internal tube run, every one of which is a candidate the moment water appears.
- An overfill — a float or pressure switch not stopping the fill — The machine fills past its level and the excess leaves wherever it can.
The order of checks
- Dry the floor and run a short cycle while watching — Seeing the first drop appear is worth more than any other test.
- Run a finger round the door gasket for hard or missing sections — A gasket that has come out of its channel is visible and free to fix.
- Look under the sink at the inlet connection during a fill — A supply weep shows itself while the valve is open and not before.
What to try yourself
- Stop using the machine and dry everything — A leak that has reached a cabinet base or a timber floor is a same-day problem.
Tools: towels
- Clean the door gasket and reseat it in its channel — Warm soapy water, then run it back into the groove all the way round.
Tools: cloth
- Close the supply valve under the sink if the water is on the fill — It isolates the leak immediately and confirms which side it came from.
- STOP before pulling the machine out from under the counter — It is plumbed and wired in place, and dragging it breaks the connections you are trying to inspect.
Safety
Safety
Turn off the water at the valve under the sink and the power at the breaker before doing anything beyond drying the floor. Do not run a cycle to reproduce a leak once water has reached electrics or timber.
When to stop and call
Call when the door seal and the detergent are ruled out, when the water comes from under the machine, or when the leak shows during the fill. Call the same day if water has reached a cabinet base, a timber floor or the junction box under the tub.
Comparable pages
Scope of this page
Generalized information: this describes the dishwasher class, not your serial number. Anything tied to a chassis — pinouts, part numbers, diagnostic key sequences — is absent by design. A family- or model-level page, where one exists, is linked below and takes precedence. The brand overview page linked below covers the other problems on this machine.
Links: - [Common Café Dishwasher Problems](/blog/caf-dishwasher-problems) - [Café Dishwasher: Abnormal Noise or Vibration](/blog/caf-dishwasher-abnormal-noise)
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
