Samsung [5C] fault codewhat it means and how to fix it

Samsung word 5C more carefully than most manufacturers word a drain code, and the wording tells you something useful about how the machine decides. Their description is that the control expects the water level to drop but detects no change. So the machine is not measuring the pump, and it is not detecting a blockage directly. It is watching the water level and drawing a conclusion. That matters because it widens the list of things that produce this code. A pump running perfectly into a blocked hose gives no level change. A pump that is not running at all gives no level change. And a level sensor that has stopped reporting accurately gives no level change even when the water is going down exactly as it should — Samsung list a pressure-switch malfunction as a 5C cause for exactly that reason.

Samsung publish 5C2 separately for the drain pump failing to start, running only briefly or stalling, which is their way of distinguishing the pump itself from the outcome. Their checks for 5C are the drainage system outside the machine, the mesh filter at the bottom of the tub and kinks in the drain pipe; their manual puts it as check the filter and drain pipe and clean whatever is jammed. Their dedicated page adds a frozen drain hose, a hose that is bent or clogged, and debris such as broken plate fragments caught in the pump impeller. The installation figures matter too: Samsung want the drain hose connected between 30 cm and 70 cm off the ground, and say a connection above 80 cm can send drained water flowing back.

In practice the causes run in a predictable order and the first two are free to check. The filter assembly in the base of the tub blocks up gradually and is designed to be removed by hand. And where the machine shares a waste with the kitchen sink, a trap thick with grease will stop the dishwasher while nothing in the appliance has failed at all.

1. 1

   Switch the machine off at the wall before reaching inside the cabinet.

2. 2

   Bail out the standing water with a jug, finishing with a sponge, until the base of the tub is visible.

   Water in a machine stopped mid-cycle is hot enough to scald. Let it cool if the programme was interrupted.
3. 3

   Take out the lower rack, turn the filter handle anticlockwise to unlock the coarse filter, then lift out the coarse filter and the cylindrical micro filter beneath it. Clean both under a running tap, refit the micro filter and then the coarse filter, and turn the handle clockwise to lock. Samsung warn that a loose coarse filter reduces filtering.

4. 4

   With the filter out, look into the sump for anything that could jam the pump impeller — Samsung name labels, bones and broken plate fragments — and lift it out.

5. 5

   Run the kitchen tap and watch the sink. If it drains slowly, the problem is the shared waste rather than the dishwasher — clear the trap first.

6. 6

   Pull the machine forward and check the drain hose along its whole length for kinks and crushing, and check where it connects: Samsung want the connection between 30 and 70 cm off the floor and warn that above 80 cm water can flow back. If the hose runs through an unheated space in winter, Samsung’s remedy for a frozen hose is to remove it and soak it in warm water, taking care not to break it.

7. 7

   Restore power and run a short programme to confirm it empties. If it does not, cancel the cycle so the machine forces a drain and listen for the pump: silence or a brief stutter points at 5C2, the pump itself.