Door seal holding water
Hi, my Samsung Ecobubble machine holds water in the bottom of the door seal. I assumed there would be some sort of drainage back into the drum but I can't see one (there are three small dimples but I can't get a pipe cleaner through them). Over time this water gets quite stinky. The seal isn't actually leaking water. Is there anything I can do to stop this happening?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Solution Summary
AI-generated from this discussion
This thread was marked as solved. Here's a summary of the problem and the fix, generated from the discussion below.
Water remaining in Samsung Ecobubble door seal is usually normal rather than a leak fault
- The problem
- A Samsung Ecobubble washing machine was retaining around 50-100 ml of water in the bottom of the door seal, causing stale smells over time. The seal was not leaking and the machine was otherwise reported to be working normally.
- Likely cause
- The discussion supports that a small amount of water can remain trapped in the bottom of the door seal because the seal sits below the drum lip and the small drain holes may be above the water level or only minimally effective. A possible secondary issue mentioned was partially blocked drain holes from limescale, but no blockage was confirmed.
- What fixed it
- Recommended action was to inspect the small seal drain holes for blockage, such as limescale, and clear them if physically blocked. If the remaining water sits below the holes, it will not drain fully and should be wiped out after use. Leaving the door open after washing was also recommended to help the seal dry and prevent smells. The exact effect of descaling or further clearing was not confirmed by the original poster.
- Checks to try
- Confirmed the seal was not leaking
- Observed three small drain holes in the door seal
- Compared the water level with the height of the drain holes
- Considered whether limescale might be clogging the holes
- Pump filter was suggested to be checked if drainage seemed poor
- Parts or tools mentioned
- Pipe cleaner
- Descaler
7 Answers
Hello there. All washing machines do this, unfortunately. Some are worse than others, but essentially the bottom of the door seal is always below the lip of the drum because it has to be oversized in order to allow for all the movement of the drum during spin. There are usually around 3 small drain holes at the bottom of the door seal but they can't drain the water that is below them.
The only way to deal with it properly is to wipe out the excess water after using the washing machine and/or leave the door open after to allow it to slowly dry out.
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Thank you for your response. It's not something we have noticed before and there are indeed what appear to be three small drain hole but they aren't draining. I will have another go.
Hi there. If the washing machine is otherwise working perfectly okay it's hard to think of any possible fault. Sometimes the holes can get clogged up with limescale, so check for that. But have a close look at the water that is left inside. Is it underneath the drain holes? If it is then it cannot drain through these holes.
Have a look at the picture I just took of my own washing machine. It's likely to be slightly different to yours as they all vary. You can see that there are 3 drain holes, but there is water underneath them, which is impossible to drain away through these holes. Therefore, we always have this amount of water left at the bottom of the door seal. Over time this causes discolouration, and even deterioration of the door seal if it is not wiped away after each wash. In fact there is usually a little bit more water than shown in this photo, but the washing machine was last used a couple of days ago, so some may have already evaporated.
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Mine is filling above the holes, I will put some descaler down there and see what happens. Thanks for your help.
How much water is being left there? Also, if there are 3 holes you should be able to see if they are blocked physically or not. It should be really easy to clear them by poking something through them. I'm wondering if there is a lot of water there could be a problem with the washing machine drain the water properly. Have you checked the pump filter?
Need Professional Help or Spare Parts?
It's about 50 or 100ml I guess. I can see the holes but I can't get a pipe cleaner down them. I'm just about to have another go.
Hi. The holes are usually only a few millimetres deep. Sometimes they just press up against the plastic outer drum below the inner drum is lip and therefore are relatively useless. I would estimate that hardly any water drains through them at all as the overwhelming majority of water will just run into the drum by itself.
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