Start behind the machine. The two rubber supply hoses are under mains pressure every hour of every day, whether the washer is running or not, and they are the most common leak source on any washer. They perish from the inside, so a hose can look sound and still be near failure. Age is the risk factor — anything past five years is living on borrowed time, and a burst supply hose is the failure that floods a house rather than dampening a floor. Replacing them is cheap, and braided stainless hoses are a genuine upgrade.
The inlet valve is where the supply hoses meet the machine, and it fails in two directions. It can leak from the body or the connections, giving you water at the back of the cabinet. Or it can fail to close fully, letting water trickle into the tub when the machine is off — which does not look like a leak at all until the tub overflows. If your washer fills itself while switched off, that is the valve, and it needs attention before it costs you a floor.
The seal where the transmission shaft passes through the outer tub keeps water inside the tub and out of the drive components. When it fails, water runs down onto the transmission and out under the machine, typically during the wash rather than the fill. It is the more involved of the common leaks, because reaching it means getting into the tub. It also tends to announce itself with rust or water staining on the components underneath, which is a useful thing for a technician to see.
The drain pump and the internal hose connecting it to the tub both leak, usually at the connection points where the clamps have relaxed over years. This shows up as water appearing underneath during the drain phase specifically, which is a helpful clue — a leak that only happens while the machine is emptying points strongly at the pump side.
A machine that fills past where it should and spills over the tub is not leaking in the ordinary sense — it has a pressure switch or water-level sensor problem, or a blocked air dome tube, and it is telling the machine the tub is emptier than it is. The water on the floor is real but the fault is upstream of anything you would normally call a leak.
Turn off the taps behind the machine. Pull it out far enough to see the hoses and connections, and run a short cycle while watching where water actually appears and at which phase — fill, wash, or drain. That single observation narrows the diagnosis more than anything else you can do, and it is genuinely useful to tell the technician when you call.
Supply hoses are inexpensive and worth replacing on age alone. An inlet valve is a low-to-middle repair. A pump or hose connection is similar. A tub seal is the expensive end because of the labor to reach it, and on an older machine it is worth weighing against replacement. The technician we connect you with quotes a flat price before starting.
Tell us the brand and what it is doing. Free quote, no obligation.
What the machine does, and at which point in the cycle.
A local technician gives you a flat price before any work starts.
Depends on your local partner's schedule — we'll give you a straight answer.
They're an independent business. If it's not right, we'll send another partner at no extra cost.