Definitely sounds like a gasket to me as well. How handy are you/DH? Do you have the owner's manual? Does it look like something one of you (or a really handy friend) might be able to manage? Otherwise, sounds like a call to the repair shop is in order. If it's an older model and otherwise is cleaning dishes well, I'd advise against getting rid of it. The new ones take forever and don't clean worth a fig in my opinion. We replaced ours about 2 years ago with a mid-range KitchenAid. Had great consumer report reviews. It's horrible. The use next to no water - which would seem a great thing from an environmental perspective but doesn't clean well at all. Plus, with all the phosphates taken out of all the cleaning products, it doesn't help. OK - rant over! Sorry.