Hotpoint [F3E3] fault codewhat it means and how to fix it

Hotpoint’s wording for this is brief and unusually practical: the probe is not well connected or may not be making contact properly, and their instruction is to check the probe first and to call service only if it is inserted correctly and the error persists. That order is the right way round, because the common cause really is the connection rather than the part. A food probe is a thermistor on a lead, and the control reads it by resistance across two contacts.

Anything that interrupts those contacts — a plug pushed in but not seated, food residue in the socket, a lead pinched by the door — presents as an infinite resistance, and infinite resistance is indistinguishable from no probe at all. This is also one of the few codes on a microwave where the appliance is telling you about something you can reach without any risk, because the probe and its socket are inside the cavity. Everything else works. Microwave, grill and convection cooking are all unaffected, and the only thing you lose is the ability to cook to a core temperature. The wider reason this code matters is what it proves about the rest of the group’s documentation.

Whirlpool, who own Hotpoint, publish F3E3 in the United States as the oven meat probe. Hotpoint publish it in a UK manual for a combination microwave as the probe not connecting. Same code, same part, two brands, two markets. When a Hotpoint code has no meaning in a Hotpoint document — which is most of them — the group’s Whirlpool material is a defensible place to look rather than a guess, and that conclusion rests on this code.

1. 1

   Pull the probe out and push it back in firmly until it stops rather than until it feels connected. Hotpoint ask you to check the probe before anything else and this is what they mean by it.

2. 2

   Look into the socket with a torch for food debris, a splash of something dried on, or moisture. Clean it dry with a cotton bud rather than wet with a cloth.

3. 3

   Run the lead through your fingers from plug to tip, feeling for a kink or a flattened section. The damage is usually within a few centimetres of the plug.

4. 4

   Cook something without the probe to confirm the rest of the appliance is fine. It should be — nothing about this fault affects microwave, grill or convection cooking.

5. 5

   If the code stands with a clean socket and a sound lead, get a replacement probe for your model number before booking a visit. It is a plug-in part and the cheaper thing to try first.

   Buy the probe specified for the appliance. Probes for different cavities are calibrated differently, and one that fits mechanically can still give readings that are consistently wrong.