LG [OE] fault codewhat it means and how to fix it

OE is LG’s drainage code, and there is a detail in their manual that saves a lot of wasted diagnosis. LG list OE in two separate places. It appears in the main troubleshooting table as a drainage problem, and it appears again in a short table headed Installation Check Error Codes, where the causes given are a drain hose kinked or pinched during installation, or a clogged waste spigot under the sink. That second table is doing something useful: it distinguishes a machine that has drained fine for two years and stopped from a machine that has never drained properly since the day it was fitted.

If your OE has been there from the first cycle, nothing has failed. The hose was crushed when the machine was pushed into its housing, or the spigot on the sink waste still has its knockout in — LG’s main table says it outright, "Remove knockout on waste spigot", a genuinely common installation oversight where the plumber connects the hose to a waste outlet that was never knocked through.

LG UK’s online drainage article adds the installation figures the manual’s table does not: the drain hose must be no more than 3.6 m long and its end must sit 30 to 100 cm above the floor. For a machine that has been working and stopped, LG’s checks are the ordinary ones: a clogged, kinked or frozen drain hose, the waste spigot, and cleaning the filters, which LG say to do every one to two weeks.

1. 1

   Establish which kind of OE you have. If the machine has never drained since it was installed, treat it as an installation problem and check the waste connection before anything else.

2. 2

   Switch the machine off. If it has just stopped, LG say to wait about 30 minutes before reaching for the filter because the tub is hot enough to burn. Then bail out the standing water with a jug and a sponge until you can see the base of the tub — or use LG’s force drain first: power on and hold Start for at least three seconds, and the pump runs for two to three minutes.

3. 3

   Clean the filters LG’s way: take out the lower rack, turn the inner filter counter-clockwise and lift out the assembled inner filter and stainless steel filter, separate them, clean both with a soft brush under running water, reassemble them, then fit them back into the holder and turn the inner filter clockwise until it clicks into place.

   LG: be cautious of sharp edges when handling the stainless steel filter.
4. 4

   Close the water valve before you handle the drain hose, as LG’s article says, then check the hose along its full length under the sink and behind the machine for kinks and crushing by whatever is stored around it. Feel for a soft blockage where it meets the waste.

5. 5

   Check the spigot on the sink waste. If the machine is newly installed, make sure the knockout has actually been removed, and that the hose end sits between 30 and 100 cm above the floor — LG say an end lower than 30 cm lets sink water and drain smells back into the machine.

6. 6

   Restore power and run a short programme to confirm it empties. If it still shows OE after the filter, hose and spigot have been checked, LG’s guidance is that a part may be faulty and to contact them.