The time my dishwasher flooded because I ignored a rubber gasket for 4 years

I was standing in my kitchen last Tuesday morning, barefoot in a puddle of warm, soapy water that had crept under the laminate. I yanked the dishwasher out and saw the leak was coming from where the drain hose connects to the disposal. Turns out there's a little rubber gasket that costs about $3 at the hardware store. I had been hearing a faint drip for like a year but just assumed it was normal settling or something. After I replaced the gasket and ran a test cycle, the whole thing was bone dry. Now I'm wondering how many other people have a slow leak they're just ignoring because they don't want to crawl under the sink. Has anyone else had a tiny part fail and cause a huge mess like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

amy_martin16d ago

Blame the gasket but maybe check your water pressure before you start bragging about a cheap fix.

grant15512d ago

@smith.elliot that garage story hits close to home... my neighbor had the same thing with an old fridge ice maker line. Drip drip drip for like two years behind the fridge, nobody saw it. One day the plastic line split completely and water ran under his whole kitchen floor, warped the laminate bad. The replacement line was a couple bucks at the hardware store but he had to rip up half the flooring to dry it out. That little rubber gasket sure brings up a lot of bad memories for people.

smith.elliot16d ago

My dad had a similar thing with the washing machine in the garage. He kept putting off fixing a tiny leak from the hose for months, said it was no big deal since it was on concrete. Then one night the hose fully burst and flooded half the garage, ruining a bunch of old boxes of Christmas decorations and some tools. The replacement hose was like eight bucks and took five minutes to swap out. Is there anything more annoying than realizing a cheap fix could have saved you hours of cleanup?