How to reset a washing machine, and what it will not fix

What a reset actually does

A washing machine's control board stores a fault when one of its checks fails: the drum did not empty in the time allowed, the door never confirmed it was locked, the water did not reach the level the pressure sensor expected. Cutting the power clears that stored reading, so the board starts the next cycle with no history. That is the whole of it. A reset does not clear the blockage in the pump, open the tap, or dry the water out of the base tray.

The consequence is worth stating plainly, because it is where most of the wasted evenings go. A code that comes back on the next cycle has not failed to clear. It has been detected again, on a machine that was given a clean start. Every manufacturer whose documentation we have read says the same thing in different words: try it once, and if the code returns, the fault is real.

The procedure, and why the timing matters

Almost every brand publishes a version of the same three steps: switch the machine off, disconnect it from the mains, wait, then reconnect and start a new programme. Two details decide whether it works.

The first is where you switch off. The button on the panel puts the board to sleep on many machines rather than removing power from it, so the reset has to be at the socket. On an integrated machine the socket is often in the cupboard next door; if you cannot reach it, the switch on the wall above the worktop that feeds that socket does the same job.

The second is how long you wait, and the manufacturers give numbers. They are not interchangeable, and a shortened power cycle is the commonest reason people report that a reset did nothing.

• Hotpoint and Indesit say to disconnect from the mains for a minimum of two minutes, reconnect, wait thirty seconds, and then try again. The printed manuals say approximately one minute and apply it to every code; the support pages say two minutes and offer it only for F01 and F18. Use the longer figure, which satisfies both.
• Samsung give a full minute off at the wall as the first step for most of their codes.
• LG say to press Power to switch off, then unplug for about a minute.
• Beko say a minute at the socket for most codes, but ten minutes for their supply-voltage codes and two minutes for their communication codes, and they are specific enough about those two to be worth following exactly.
• Bosch start with the programme selector: turn it to Off, wait a moment, select again. For anything that persists, switch off at the socket and pull the plug rather than relying on the panel.
• Zanussi, AEG and Electrolux, which share one code system, turn the dial to Off and back for most codes, and specify thirty seconds unplugged on their E90 to E94 configuration and communication family.
• Hoover say to switch off, unplug, wait a minute, plug back in and start a programme — and if the same code returns, to contact an authorised service centre rather than keep trying.
• Miele publish a reset for exactly one code. For F41, an electronic module fault, they say to switch the machine off and on again after approximately ten seconds and to call Service only if it recurs. They do not offer that step for any of their other module codes, and the omission is deliberate.

Where a reset is the remedy, and where it is not

Whether a reset is worth trying depends on the code, and the manufacturers are more candid about this than the reset-everything advice online suggests.

Samsung offer an owner action for roughly nine in ten of the display strings they publish, and only six rows send you straight to an engineer. They also publish the one case where doing nothing is the remedy: on their communication codes — 13E, AC, AC6 and AE — they say to wait a few minutes first, because the machine may recover by itself. And on 1C, 4C and LC, their manuals record that the machine drains for three minutes with the power button inoperative before it will respond to anything, so a machine that looks dead in the middle of one of those codes is following its own routine.

Hotpoint and Indesit are the opposite. Of the fourteen codes they publish, ten carry a phone number and nothing else, and the reset is offered on their support pages for F01 and F18 alone. On a code where they have published no reset, repeating one is not going to help.

LG publish something to try on six of their fifteen codes — IE, UE, OE, LE, FF and PF. On the other nine the published answer is to unplug the machine and ring the service centre. One reset attempt is reasonable on any LG code; repeated resets on a code where the manufacturer has published a phone number are not working towards anything.

Bosch reserve a full reset for specific codes and say plainly when a fault cannot be cleared that way. Where they publish an owner procedure instead — cleaning the drain pump, clearing the outlet hose, cleaning the inlet and AquaStop filters — the procedure is the remedy, and a reset will not substitute for it.

The Electrolux group publish the most useful thing in this whole area, and it is not a reset. On a draining fault they say to switch the power off for one to two hours, because a blocked pump switches itself off through a bimetal fuse and runs normally once it has cooled. That is the mechanism behind a machine that fails on Tuesday evening and works on Wednesday morning — and the recovery does not mean the blockage has gone. On their motor and heating codes the published wording is to unplug the machine and leave it unplugged until the fault has been fixed.

Beko say there is no button combination that clears a stored fault. Their table gives the two words "power off" for seven of the eighteen codes on their live-display platform, and on those it is an instruction to isolate the machine rather than an invitation to try again.

The codes you should not reset at all

Seven washing machine codes on this site are rated danger, and they have one thing in common: the machine has either lost the thing that would normally stop water arriving, or has detected heat or current where it should not be. Restoring power asks it to try again.

• Bosch E23: water in the base and the AquaStop system has cut in. Bosch say to turn the tap off immediately and stop using the machine until it is repaired.
• Beko EA2: the water level is abnormally high. Beko print "power off", and on a machine that cannot stop filling that is the right instruction.
• LG AE, a leak, and LG CE, a motor over-current: LG's wording on both is to close the water tap and unplug the washer. They use that pairing on three codes only and it is worth taking literally.
• Zanussi E50, a motor failure, and E60, a heating fault: unplug and do not plug back in until it has been fixed. Zanussi say there is no owner check on E60.
• Zanussi EF3: the Aqua Control leak protection has triggered. Turn the water off at the tap and stop.

The same codes appear on AEG and Electrolux machines, which use the Zanussi table, and the same instruction applies.

Things that look like a fault and are not

A good share of the resets attempted in this category are on machines with nothing wrong with them.

The child lock. Bosch show a key symbol or the letters CL and call it one of the most common problems reported on their machines; hold Start for three to five seconds until it beeps, or hold the spin speed and "finished in" buttons together for about three. LG's CL is cleared by holding Control Lock for three seconds, and they note it is easily switched on by accident. Samsung's child lock is a smiling face rather than a padlock. Beko's is a padlock. Indesit label the button CHILD LOCK and hold it for about two seconds; Hotpoint call the same feature KEY LOCK; Whirlpool hold theirs for three — so a manual for a sibling brand will not match your machine.

Demo mode. A Hotpoint or Indesit machine that turns its drum after you press Start, never fills, and shows no code at all is in shop demonstration mode. Switch it off, hold Start/Pause, press On/Off within five seconds, and hold both for two seconds. Both manufacturers publish that in the manual and on none of their support pages.

Reminders and status displays. LG's tCL is the tub clean reminder, dismissed by selecting any cycle. Bosch's flashing "end" is the balance check having abandoned the spin, and Bosch publish it under E32 and say in terms that it is not a fault. Indesit's H2O means the machine has not filled: tap, hose, pressure or inlet filter. Samsung's UE, HOT, Cb and DDC are all displays Samsung describe as not being faults — and Samsung have printed the remedies for Cb and CE transposed on their own website, so run the calibration cycle for Cb and check the cold fill for CE.

Misread characters. Samsung and LG both warn that a seven-segment display makes 5 and S, 3 and E, and 1 and I look alike. LG treat 1E and IE as one code and P5 and PS as one code for exactly this reason. A code you cannot find in the manufacturer's table is quite often a code you have misread.

Getting the door open after a fault

The door staying locked is a safety measure, not the fault getting worse, and the manufacturers describe the conditions for release.

Hotpoint say the machine will not release the door while there is water above the glass. The Electrolux group document three conditions: the water below a set level, the water temperature under 55°C, and the motor stopped — with a cooling fill first if the water is above 65°C, and a drain of up to three minutes before the door will open. Hoover, on their E7 door code, say to switch off and unplug, wait two to three minutes, and then open the door: that is the interlock's bimetallic strip cooling enough to release, and rushing it is the reason people conclude the door is broken when it is not.

If the water will not go and the door will not open, the way out is the pump filter at the base of the machine, which drains the drum as well as clearing it. Washing machine repairs you can do yourself covers the procedure, and one warning from it belongs here too, because it is Bosch's own: the water behind that filter may be very hot, so do not open it on a machine that has just aborted a 60°C cycle.

Do not force the door. The lock and the catch are parts, and forcing them turns a free drain into a repair.

When repeating a reset becomes a mistake

There is a difference between a reset that confirms a fault is repeatable and a reset that is being used to make the machine work anyway. The first is useful. The second damages the thing the fault was protecting.

On a drainage code, each restart runs the pump against the same blockage, and Indesit's own advice puts the consequence in five words: that is how a blocked pump becomes a failed pump. On the Electrolux heating and motor codes, the machine has been told to stay unplugged for a reason. On any code where the manufacturer has published a phone number rather than a remedy, the second reset has already told you what you needed to know.

And one code deserves a check before any reset at all. Hotpoint and Indesit F06 is a door lock fault, and Whirlpool are running a recall on Hotpoint and Indesit machines built between October 2014 and February 2018 because a component in the door lock system can overheat during a heated wash. If your machine is from that period, run the model checker before you do anything else — the details are in the repairs you can do yourself guide.

Sources

The reset timings and procedures above are the manufacturers' own, taken from the documents recorded on each brand hub: the Samsung UK check-code table and manuals; Hotpoint and Indesit support pages and instruction books; Bosch and BSH support articles; the LG UK owner's manual, under "Before Calling for Service"; Beko UK FAQs and code tables; Electrolux-group platform documentation shared by Zanussi, AEG and Electrolux; Miele's per-code fault pages; and Hoover's error code format page. The recall is described by the Office for Product Safety and Standards. Where a brand's documents disagree with each other, both versions are given above and on the brand's pages.