Cause · small, hidden, cumulative

Washing machine, dishwasher and fridge leaks: the slow ones that cost the most

Appliance leaks are the least dramatic cause on this site and, per dollar of damage, among the most annoying. A dishwasher does not flood a kitchen. It wets the same 30 centimetres of subfloor twice a day for a year, and then the cabinet base comes apart.

Three appliances account for most of it in Canadian homes: the washing machine, the dishwasher and the fridge with an ice maker or water dispenser. Each fails in a specific, predictable place.

Where each one actually fails

The washing machine: the supply hoses. Not the machine. Two rubber hoses under mains pressure, permanently, for the life of the appliance. When one lets go it does not leak — it sprays at full line pressure until somebody turns off a tap, which is why this is the one appliance failure that can genuinely flood a floor. Braided stainless replacements cost very little. Rubber hoses in their second decade behind a machine nobody has pulled out since it was installed are the definition of a known risk.

The washing machine, second failure: the drain hose. Comes adrift from the standpipe, or the standpipe backs up because of lint. This one announces itself as a small flood during a cycle.

The dishwasher: the door seal and the drain connection. Both produce slow leaks that go straight under the cabinet run and into the subfloor, where nothing is visible until the flooring lifts or the cabinet base softens. A dishwasher sitting on a hidden wet patch is the archetypal slow loss.

The fridge: the water line to the ice maker. Usually a small plastic tube run behind the unit and under the floor, frequently fitted quickly, and behind an appliance that is never moved. Ice-maker line leaks are famous among restorers for the same reason: the damage is discovered when the hardwood in the next room cups.

Why the slow ones cost more than the fast ones

A hose burst is loud, obvious and dealt with in an afternoon. A dishwasher weeping into a subfloor is silent and dealt with in a rebuild. The reason is the interaction between time and the standard the work is done to.

Water that starts clean is Category 1 under ANSI/IICRC S500. But the category describes the water's condition, not its origin, and clean water that sits in an unventilated cavity, warms up and works through building materials does not stay Category 1. Meanwhile Health Canada's window — mould begins to grow in an area with excessive moisture within 48 hours — expired on day two of a leak nobody knew about.

The insurance consequence follows the same logic. IBC lists “sudden or accidental water damage caused by indoor plumbing, heating or air conditioning” among what a standard policy covers, and water damage from an appliance malfunction with it. The operative word is sudden. A hose that burst is an event. A seal that has been weeping since the appliance was installed is closer to maintenance, and that is where arguments start.

What a Canadian policy does about the appliance itself

Consistently, and slightly unfairly: it pays for what the water ruined, not for what failed.

IBC's own wording on appliance malfunctions puts the repair cost of the appliance outside the cover. So a burst washing machine hose that wrecks a laminate floor and the ceiling below is a claim; the $18 hose is yours. That asymmetry is worth knowing before you phone, because it changes what you are actually claiming for.

Two further points people get wrong.

First, damage to the unit below. Water from a second-floor laundry goes through a ceiling. In a condominium or a semi-detached that is somebody else's property and possibly somebody else's insurer, and the conversation is different from the start.

Second, your deductible. For a small appliance leak the repair may land close to, or under, what you would pay before the policy responds at all. Our page on deductibles sets out how that arithmetic works and what the two-cheque problem is on a larger loss.

Finding one before it finds you

All three of these live behind something that never gets moved, which is the whole problem.

Pull the machines out once a year. Washing machine, dishwasher, fridge. Look at the floor under and behind them, and at the wall behind. Dry, dark staining is a leak that has already happened.

Feel the cabinet base beside the dishwasher. Soft or swollen chipboard is the tell, and it shows up long before anything is visible.

Replace rubber washing machine hoses. On a schedule, not on failure.

Put a leak sensor behind each one. Cheap, battery powered, and they sit exactly where you cannot see.

Shut the laundry taps if you leave for a while. The one failure that can run unattended for a week is the one worth closing a valve against.

When it stops being a plumbing job

The honest line is roughly this. If the water is confined to a hard floor, was clean, and you found it the same day, drying it yourself is a reasonable thing to attempt.

If any of the following are true, it has become a restoration question: the water has gone under a floor covering, into a wall cavity or through to a ceiling below; the affected area is larger than a single sheet of drywall; there is a smell; or you do not know how long it has been leaking. The last one is the most common and the most decisive, because “I do not know” means the 48-hour window cannot be relied on.

Health Canada's thresholds are a usable proxy once mould is visible: a single patch larger than 3 square metres is where it recommends bringing in a qualified professional.

Questions people actually ask

Where to read next

• If it is the tank rather than a hose
• Deductibles and who pays the difference
• When a slow leak becomes remediation
• Every cause, side by side