Last Updated on October 4, 2026 by Umar Farooq
Samsung washer error codes are families, not diagnoses. One fill code covers a tap somebody turned off and an inlet valve that has failed, and the display cannot tell them apart. The code narrows the machine to a quarter of itself. What narrows it the rest of the way is the thing the panel never shows you — the point in the cycle where it stopped.
That is why this page is a table of links rather than a list of definitions. Samsung calls these information codes rather than error messages, and the wording attached to each family is a category heading, not a repair instruction. Below, every family gets three things: Samsung’s own wording where it exists, what the fault usually turns out to be, and a link to the full diagnosis.
Two things before the table, because they cost more afternoons than any individual fault.
Samsung reuses characters, and the code list admits it
4C and 4E are the same fault. So are 5C and 5E, OC and OE, LC and LE, dC and dE. Samsung changed how codes are rendered between display generations — older panels used E for error, newer ones use C for check — and both sets are still running in kitchens today. If you are trying to work out whether your 4E is somehow a different problem from the 4C on a support page, stop. It is not.
Then there is the character set. Samsung’s own code list contains OE and 0E, LO and L0, 1E and LE — letter O and number zero, letter L and number one, sitting side by side as the same fault. On a seven-segment display those characters are near-identical, which is exactly why the list treats them as interchangeable. Do not squint at a panel deciding which one you have.
There are exactly two places where a character genuinely changes the answer, and both are worth naming up front:
8E2andBE2are not sensor codes. They sit withE2,bE2and6E2in the jammed-button family — a panel button reading as permanently pressed.8EandBEwithout the trailing2are the vibration sensor. Opposite ends of the machine.dCappears in two families. On most models it is a door fault. On some front-loaders it means an unbalanced load. The cycle stage separates them, and nothing else does.
A code is a family. The stage it stopped at is the diagnosis
This is the part every competing code list leaves out, and it is the most useful habit on this page.
Take the drain family. 5C covers a drain that is merely slow and a drain pump that is dead — different repairs, one costing nothing and one costing a part. The code is identical either way, because all the control board knows is that the water level did not fall far enough in the time it allowed. The machine tells you which one you have anyway, through behaviour rather than characters: a pump you can hear running while water creeps away is a restriction, and a pump that is silent when it should be working is not a restriction at all.
So before you look anything up, write down two things — the code, and the exact stage it appeared at.
| The code appeared… | What that narrows it to |
|---|---|
| Before the cycle starts at all | Door lock, water supply, or Child Lock. The machine never got permission to begin |
| During fill, or fill never completed | Supply side: tap, hose, valve, or the pressure system reading the level |
| Mid-wash, water still in the drum | Drain, heater, motor or sensor. The machine was running and chose to stop |
| At the drain-to-spin transition | Almost always drain or suds. No washer will accelerate a drum it believes still holds water |
| As spin ramps up, repeatedly | Balance. The load, not the machine |
| Randomly, at different points on different cycles | Communication, voltage, or a sensor that is intermittent |
A reader who arrives knowing “5C at the end of the wash, pump was audible” is most of the way to an answer. A reader who arrives knowing only “5C” has a family of four.
Write the code down before you reset anything
A reset erases the stored code. That is not a side effect. That is what a reset does.
Samsung is unusually direct about the limits of this: “Resetting your washing machine will clear out all the error codes in its memory, but this won’t automatically fix whatever error is occurring” (how to reset your Samsung washing machine). Which makes one reset worth doing after you have recorded the display, and worth nothing at all before.
Photograph the panel. Not because you will forget the characters, but because you will not remember whether there was a trailing 2 on the end — and on this brand that single digit is the difference between a control panel and a vibration sensor behind the tub.
Samsung’s documented procedure is also longer than the thirty seconds most code lists repeat: “Unplug it (or turn off power at the circuit breaker), wait some time for the electrical charge to clear out of the washer (usually 1 to 5 minutes at most), and then power it up again.” The wait is what discharges the board, and cutting it short is why some resets appear not to work. The full procedure is in how to reset a washing machine.
If the same code returns at the same stage, the reset worked perfectly. It cleared the state, the machine re-tested the condition, and the condition is still there. That is a result, not a failed attempt — and the moment to stop resetting and start diagnosing.
The full Samsung washer error codes table
Grouped by fault family rather than alphabetically, because that is how the machine is organised. Quoted wording comes verbatim from Samsung’s washing machine information and error codes page. Rows without quotation marks are plain-language descriptions, not Samsung’s phrasing.
| Family | Codes | What it means | What it usually is | Full diagnosis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fill | 4C 4E 1 4C nF | “Water is not entering the washer correctly.” | A tap not fully open or a kinked hose far more often than a failed valve | 4C or 4E error |
| Hot/cold crossed | 4C2 4E2 CE 14C2 nF1 | “The water from the cold water supply is extremely hot.” | Hoses on the wrong taps. An installation fault, not a machine fault | 4C or 4E error, not filling with water |
| Drain | 5E SE 5C SC 1 5C nd | “Water is not draining from the washer at the correct speed (or at all).” | Pump filter or a restricted hose. A dead pump is the minority case | 5C or 5E error |
| Overflow | OE 0E OC 0C 1 OC 1 0C | “There is too much water in the washer.” | Water arriving faster than it leaves, or a pressure sensor reading high | OC or OE overflow error |
| Water level / leak | 1E LE 1C LC LC1 1 1C 1 LC | “Moisture is detected somewhere it doesn’t belong, or there is an issue with the sensor itself.” | Often the sensor rather than an actual puddle. A dry floor does not clear it | LC or LE leak error |
| Door | dS d5 FL LO L0 dE dE1 dE2 dC dC1 dL 1 dC 1dC4 1dC1 | “The door is not detected as closed and locked.” | Laundry caught in the seal, an overfilled drum, or a latch that stopped reporting back | dC or dE error |
| AddWash door | ddC dC3 SDC 5DC | The auxiliary AddWash door is open, or its lock has not confirmed | Almost always the small door itself, not the main one. Easy to miss on a glance | AddWash door won’t open |
| Unbalanced load | dc Ub U6 Ur UE 1 Ub 1U6 | “The current load in the washer is unbalanced inside the tub.” | A load too small as often as one too big. Levelling comes second | UE or Ub error |
| Suds | SUd 5UD Sd 5d SUdS 5Ud5 | “The washer has detected an over-sudsing condition.” | Detergent dose. Samsung says this “does not indicate that service is needed” | Sud or 5d error |
| MEMS / vibration sensor | 8E 8E1 8C 8C1 8C2 BE BE1 BC BC1 BC2 1 8C 1 BC 18C1 1BC1 18C2 1BC2 | “Mems Sensor Error” — Samsung names the sensor and publishes no further meaning | A real sensor or board fault. Level and load are the only variables you control | 8C sensor error |
| Jammed button | E2 bE2 6E2 BE2 8E2 | “A button on the panel is detected as stuck or continuously pressed.” | A button not returning, or moisture behind the panel. Not a sensor fault | Control panel not responding |
| Motor | 3C 3E 1 3C E3 | “Motor Error” — two words, with no cause or procedure attached | Frequently something jamming the drum rather than the motor itself | 3C motor error |
| Voltage | 9C1 9C2 PF 3E 2E 9E1 9E2 UC | “There is an irregularity in the electrical current being supplied to the washer.” | Supply side: a surge protector, a shared circuit, or a genuine interruption | How to reset a washing machine |
| Communication | AE AC AC6 ACb AE6 AEb AC3-5 1AC6 AC7 | Communication error | Two boards that stopped talking. Usually a connector, not a board | AC communication error |
| Temperature sensor | tE tE1 tE2 tE3 tC EC | The thermistor reading is outside the range the control expects | A sensor or its wiring. Not a heater fault, despite how it reads | Stops mid cycle, then service |
| Heater | HE HE1 HE2 HC Hr 1 HC | The water did not reach temperature in the time allowed | Only relevant on models with an internal heater. Often shows up as very long cycles first | Super Speed cycle taking too long |
| Pressure / level sensor | PC PE PC1 PE1 | The water-level sensor is not giving a usable reading | Sits behind both fill and drain symptoms, which is why it gets misdiagnosed as either | OC or OE overflow error, won’t drain |
| Self-diagnostic / other | SF 5F SF1 SF2 SF3 Sr 5r bE 6E 7E IE Lr 9C6 9C7 9C8 Cb C6 dn | Internal self-check codes with no consumer-facing procedure | Record the exact string and the stage. These are service codes, not DIY ones | Stops mid cycle, then service |
One deliberate inconsistency left in that table rather than tidied away. 3E appears twice — and so it does on Samsung’s own page, which files it under the voltage family and again under the motor family, then hands the question back to you: “To determine if a 3E error is a Motor Error or a Voltage Error, see the user manual for your model.” If your display shows 3E, take the motor route first — a drum that will not turn is the more testable of the two — then look at the supply. No other code list mentions that the manufacturer files one code under two families.
No display? The blinking lights are the code
Plenty of Samsung top-loaders have a row of cycle indicator lights and no screen at all. With no display code to read, those machines report faults by blinking specific combinations of the lights they do have, because that is the only vocabulary the panel owns.
The same rule applies, harder: record the pattern before you reset. A video, not a photo — a still image cannot tell you whether two lights blink together or alternate, and on these panels that distinction is the entire message. There is no universal light-to-fault mapping, and patterns do not transfer between Samsung product lines, so a general chart will mislead you with confidence. The method is in washing machine blinking lights, no code.
When a code means stop rather than troubleshoot
Most Samsung fault codes are the machine refusing to proceed, which is a safety system working correctly. A few are not, and they are worth separating out plainly.
- Any burning smell, or scorching at the plug. Stop at the breaker, not at the plug. This outranks whatever the display says.
- A breaker or GFCI that trips again after being reset. It is doing its job. Re-arming it repeatedly is the wrong response every time.
- Water on the floor near a live outlet. Power off first, diagnose second.
- A voltage-family code appearing alongside lights dimming elsewhere in the house. That is a supply problem in the building, not in the washer.
- The same code, at the same stage, after one documented reset, twice. Not a stop-use condition, but the point at which more resetting only costs you the afternoon.
Codes and lights that are not faults at all
Three things get looked up as Samsung washer error codes regularly and are not faults at all:
CLon the display. That is Child Lock. Samsung notes you “may see CL flash on the machine’s display while trying to operate it,” and — the part that catches people — “Restarting the washer or dryer will not disable Child Lock.” The reset you were about to perform will not touch it. The button pair is printed on your panel.- The Self Clean reminder. A counter, not a sensor: Samsung sets it at 20 washes on a top-loader and 40 on a front-loader, so it arrives on schedule whether or not anything is wrong. See Samsung Self Clean light stays on.
- A cycle time that keeps climbing. Usually load sensing or suds — adapting, not failing. See Samsung Super Speed cycle taking too long.
Samsung faults that never produce a code
Some problems never reach the display, because the machine does not classify them as faults:
- Samsung Active WaterJet not working — the top-load jet has its own supply path, separate from the main fill
- Samsung washer Auto Dispense not working — off by default on more models than anyone expects
- Samsung washer SmartThings not connecting — an app and Wi-Fi problem, unrelated to the
ACcommunication family - Samsung VRT Plus washer still shaking — shipping bolts before anything else
- Samsung top load washer calibration failed — the routine the unbalance codes send people to
FAQ
Is 4C different from 4E?No. Same fault, different display generation. Samsung moved from E codes to C codes and both are still in the field. The same holds for 5C/5E, OC/OE, LC/LE and dC/dE.
Is that a letter O or a zero?It does not matter. Samsung’s own list includes both spellings for the same fault, because a seven-segment display cannot draw a difference you could rely on.
Why does one code cover two completely different repairs?Because the board reports a failed condition, not a cause. It knows the water level did not drop in the time allowed; it has no idea whether that is a blocked filter or a dead pump. The cycle stage fills that gap.
Should I reset the washer first?Only after photographing the display. A reset clears the stored code, and Samsung says plainly it “won’t fix the underlying issue.” One reset, then diagnose.
The code cleared, then came back on the next wash.Then the reset worked and the fault is real. A code returning at the same stage twice is a confirmed condition, not a glitch.
My machine has no screen, just blinking lights.The light combination is the code. Video the pattern before resetting, then find your own model’s table — general charts do not transfer between Samsung product lines. Start at washing machine blinking lights, no code.
My code is not on this list.Samsung washing machine codes vary by region and product line, so no single list holds all of them. Check first for a leading 1, which Samsung prefixes on some multi-unit models, and for a trailing digit, which frequently moves a code into a different family entirely. If it is still missing, check Samsung’s own information and error codes list against your exact model number.
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A code narrows the machine to a quarter of itself. The stage it stopped at narrows it to a component. Write both down before you touch the power, and the rest is following the right link.
