How to reset a dishwasher, and why most codes have no reset

Two things called a reset

Ask how to reset a dishwasher and you will get answers to two different questions. The first is how to cancel a programme that is running or has stalled, and every manufacturer supports that, because it is how you change your mind about a cycle. The second is how to clear a stored fault by cutting the power, and here the manufacturers are far more selective than the internet is. Most publish that procedure for a small number of codes, or for none, and the pattern of where they do and do not offer it is the most useful thing in this guide.

Cancelling a programme

On a Bosch, and on the Siemens and Neff machines built alongside it, the GB manual calls this "Terminating the programme (Reset)": press and hold the Start button for approximately three seconds until all the displays go out, then allow about a minute for the machine to pump out the residual water. Some panels print "Reset 3 sec" under the button for this reason. The manual adds a detail worth knowing on a machine that stopped hot: if you opened the door mid-programme, leave it ajar for several minutes before closing it, because the pressure from expansion can otherwise spring the door open or push water out.

LG have you correct the cause and start the programme again rather than perform a sequence, and one LG display is not a fault at all: CL means the control lock is on, and it clears by holding Half Load and Energy Saver together for three seconds. Lamona machines, which have no codes but three light patterns, get one published reset and it is for the no-water condition: press the start button twice. Baumatic's phrasing is to switch the dishwasher off, deal with the cause and reset the cycle. CDA say to correct the cause and cancel the programme. None of that clears a fault the machine can still detect; it lets a machine that has stopped on a cleared blockage carry on.

The power cycle, brand by brand

This is the one people mean when they say "reset", and it is where the corpus is honest in a way the search results are not.

• Bosch, Siemens and Neff publish one power-cycle reset and attach it to a single entry in their fault table, the catch-all "a technical fault is present": switch off, unplug or switch off the fuse, wait at least two minutes, restore power and switch on. Siemens' web page gives the same procedure with "a few minutes" for the electronics codes. Both deliberately do not offer it for the water protection codes, and both say that if the fault recurs the next step is to turn off the water tap, pull out the mains plug and contact customer service quoting the code. Note the order Siemens use: water first, then power.
• Hotpoint and Indesit publish exactly one reset in their dishwasher documentation, and it is not in the owner action for any code. It sits in the engineer's checklist under F12, the board-to-display communication fault: disconnect from the electrical supply, wait two minutes, reconnect and test. Of their fourteen codes, only the drain fault F03 and the fill fault F06 come with a check they invite you to make; everything else is answered with a phone number.
• AEG, Zanussi and Electrolux, which share one code system, say to switch off at the socket, wait and restart. Their manual then closes its whole fault table with a blanket instruction: do not use the appliance until the problem has been completely fixed, unplug it, and do not plug it in again until you are certain it operates correctly. The support articles are more discriminating than that, and the code pages here follow the articles.
• Miele publish no reset for any technical code. For a blockage or a consumable, clearing the cause and restarting the programme is the whole procedure, described step by step with photographs; for everything else, the article is one sentence and a booking link. That is a policy, not a gap: where Miele have decided a fault needs Service, they do not give you a way to dismiss it.
• Samsung have you clear the cause and restart, and on their leak and overheating codes the manual has you isolate first: close the water valve and switch the dishwasher's breaker off at the consumer unit.
• Beko describe an "error algorithm" running and the cycle ending, rather than a reset you perform, and on their two serious codes say to cut off the electricity, close the valve and contact an authorised service agent.
• Candy and Hoover say to switch off at the socket and restart, and if the machine breaks down or stops working properly, to switch it off, turn off the water and not tamper with it.
• CDA and Baumatic publish no button sequence. Baumatic's general instruction before any maintenance is that the appliance should be disconnected from the mains first.

If you want a single rule from all of that: where a manufacturer publishes a power-cycle reset, they publish it for electronics and communication faults, and they give a wait long enough for the boards to actually lose power. Two minutes is the figure most of them use. Ten seconds at the wall is not a reset on these machines.

Know what you are resetting

Three things about dishwasher displays cause more wasted resets than any fault.

Display generations. A Bosch, Siemens or Neff fault renders differently depending on the machine's age. Older machines have no numeric display and signal by lamp: a steady "check water supply" light covers the whole inlet and drainage family, the same light flashing means a technical fault, and a flashing salt light on an old machine means the heating element has furred up. Middle-aged machines show two digits with a colon, E:15. Most current UK machines flick between two pairs, E:31 and 00. The newest text displays show one string, E:3100. Those three are one code. Siemens also confirm that an F prefix is the same fault as an E, so F15 is E15.

Two code systems with the same letter. Hotpoint and Indesit use two-digit codes with a leading zero, F01 to F15, shown on a display-less machine as a steady binary pattern on four numbered lights. Many Whirlpool-badged machines use single digits, F1 to F9, shown by counting flashes of the Start lamp. F01 on the first system is anti-flood overflow. F1 on the second is a frost warning, and the manufacturer's remedy for it is to pour half a litre of warm water into the bottom of the machine. Doing that on a machine with water already in its base would be a poor afternoon. If you are counting flashes of one lamp, you are on the second system.

Compact versus full-size. AEG full-size machines use i-codes. Their compact and tabletop machines use E-codes, an entirely separate scheme, and on compacts the meaning shifts between freestanding and integrated models: E3 is a heating fault on one and a water leak on the other.

The codes with no reset for a reason

Every dishwasher code rated danger on this site means water where it should not be, and none of them should be reset. They come in two families. The anti-flood codes mean the float in the base tray has lifted: Bosch, Siemens and Neff E15, AEG i30, Miele F70, Hotpoint and Indesit F01, Beko E01, Samsung LC, LG AE, Candy and Hoover E4, CDA F1, Baumatic E4 and the Lamona internal leak pattern. The fill codes mean water is still arriving when the machine has told it to stop: Bosch E16, Hotpoint F02, Candy E21 and CDA F3. On all of those the answer is the same and it is not a button: tap off, power off, then the phone. The leak and flood guide goes through it.

One behaviour that looks like a fault getting worse is worth naming here because it is the reason people reach for the plug. On an anti-flood trip the machine shuts off everything except the drain pump and runs that pump continuously to keep the tray empty, so the classic presentation is not a puddle but a dishwasher that will do nothing except hum, indefinitely. AEG list that hum as a symptom. Miele explain that the pump stops once you disconnect the power, so an owner who unplugs and hears silence knows the protection worked rather than that something broke. The hum is the machine doing its job.

When restarting becomes the mistake

A drainage code is the one where repeating a restart does real harm. Bosch E24, Hotpoint F03, AEG i20, LG OE, Samsung 5C and Miele F11 all mean the water did not leave in the time allowed, and every restart drives the pump against whatever is stopping it. The fix is a filter, a hose or a sink trap in most cases, and it costs nothing; the drain and fill checks cover it in the order the manufacturers publish. A machine that shows the same code on the second attempt has told you what it knows. Stop asking it again and go and look at the filter.

Sources

The programme-cancel procedure and the "transport upright" instruction are from the Bosch GB dishwasher instruction manual; the power-cycle reset and its scope are from the Bosch, Siemens and Neff manuals and Siemens' UK web page, as recorded on the Bosch and Siemens brand pages. Hotpoint's F12 procedure is from the Hotpoint UK error-code page's engineer checklist. The AEG manual's blanket instruction, Miele's per-code articles, LG's owner's manual, Samsung UK's information-code page and manual, Beko's manuals, Candy's manuals, CDA's fault table, Baumatic's manuals and the Howdens Lamona manual are each recorded on their brand pages with the wording used above.