GE Dishwasher Error Codes List: Every Code Explained

Every GE dishwasher error code we could verify against GE's own documentation — what it means, what usually causes it, and the first fix to try — in one table. Codes differ between model series, so treat your model's tech sheet as the final word.

How to read and retrieve error codes on GE dishwashers

GE dishwashers have a service mode (on most electronic models: press and hold specific pad pairs — commonly the Cooktop/Heated Dry style combinations printed in the service manual for the model) that displays stored error codes (the F-code family such as FTD, FED) and lets a technician run each load separately. Consumer-facing displays only show a few of these codes, which is why some GE codes only appear inside service mode.

The complete GE dishwasher error code list

How to reset / clear error codes on GE dishwashers

GE dishwashers reset most faults with a power cycle: trip the breaker (or unplug) for about 5 minutes, restore power, and start a cycle. Codes tied to water detection or drain faults return if the condition is still present — the control re-checks fill and drain at the start of every cycle.

How to diagnose any GE dishwasher code

Work the problem in this order: (1) record the code exactly, including any flashing tap or salt/rinse-aid symbols shown with it; (2) establish the water story — is there water in the base, is the tub dry, did the cycle stop early or never start — because dishwasher codes split into leak, fill, drain and heating families; (3) run the external checks first: supply tap and inlet hose for fill codes, filters, sump and drain hose for drain codes, and for leak codes, dry the base and watch where water appears on a short test cycle; (4) clear the code and re-run the shortest programme while observing — most dishwasher faults announce themselves in the first ten minutes; (5) replace parts last, in the order the code family suggests. A leak code in particular should never be cleared and ignored: the float that raised it is the only thing between a small leak and a floor.

Two GE dialects: service codes and plain-language displays

GE dishwashers speak two code dialects. The service dialect is the letter-and-number fault list the control stores and a technician retrieves in service mode — the E, F and C codes in the table below. The consumer dialect, on newer models, skips codes entirely and shows plain-language states instead: H2O for a fill problem, FTD ("failure to drain") for a drain problem. Neither dialect is a translation of the other, and a model generally uses one or the other, so search by what your display literally shows — the words are codes too, and GE documents them as such.

Why the same fault wears different labels across GE brands

GE sells the same dishwasher platforms as GE, Profile, Café, Monogram and Hotpoint, and the code list travels with the platform, not the badge — a code list written for a Profile model usually fits the mechanically identical GE model. What changes between badges is the display, which is why a fault that shows as letters on one badge can appear as a stored service code on another. The model number, not the badge, is the reliable key: GE's own support pages ask for it before showing a code list for exactly this reason.

The most searched GE dishwasher codes, in detail

E1 — Platform-dependent GE dishwasher code

GE's mainstream dishwasher fault language is words, not E-codes. Where E1 does appear on a GE dishwasher (specific platforms/regions), period documentation ties E-family codes to the fill/drain system — E1 most often to a fill-side fault (water not entering in time). Because the rendering is platform-specific, this page gives the safe universal route: determine whether the machine's symptom is fill (no water in) or drain (water won't leave), and work that chain — both are short and mostly tool-free on a dishwasher.

Most likely cause: Fill-side (most likely if the tub is dry): supply off, float stuck, valve/screen fault — The H2O chain.

First check: Open the door: dry tub = fill branch; standing water = drain branch.

If it keeps coming back: Recurring E1 with the same symptom branch = the deeper member of that chain (valve or pump) is failing intermittently.

FED — Fill Error Detected (GE's fill-fault rendering on some platforms)

FED is GE's fill fault in letters: the control called for water and the fill didn't register as expected. Its diagnosis is the H2O chain — supply, float switch veto, inlet valve/screen — because GE dishwashers share one fill system regardless of which rendering the display uses.

Most likely cause: Supply off/restricted — Tap, hose kink, low pressure.

First check: Tap open; float lifts and falls freely; listen for fill at start.

If it keeps coming back: Intermittent FED tracks a float that sticks when greasy — clean its stem well.

FTD — Failure To Drain

FTD says exactly what it means: the dishwasher tried to drain and couldn't. GE's drain chain is filter/sump → drain pump → hose → air gap/disposal connection, and the blockages live there — with one GE-era classic: a newly installed garbage disposal whose dishwasher knock-out plug was never removed, which produces a total no-drain on a brand-new setup. It also helps to read FTD as one of two different failures wearing the same word. A total failure - the tub never empties at all, the pump strains or stays silent, and the same water is there at the end as at the start - points at a hard stop in the path: a disposal knock-out plug, a jammed pump, a crushed hose. A partial failure is the subtler and commoner story: the machine drains, but slowly and incompletely, leaving cloudy water and grit behind, and the control, which judges the drain by whether the tub reaches empty in the time allowed, reports the shortfall as FTD. Partial failures belong to restrictions - filter, sump, sink side, hose geometry - and they typically debut on heavy cycles, worsen over weeks, and respond to cleaning; total failures debut suddenly and do not. Naming which kind you have before you start is what keeps a cleaning problem from being treated as a pump replacement, and vice versa.

Most likely cause: Clogged filter/sump — A matted fine filter slows drainage to failure.

First check: Wash the filter assembly; test a cancel/drain.

If it keeps coming back: FTD returning quickly = downstream (house line) restriction or a weakening pump. When FTD returns, its timing is the diagnosis. Returning within a few loads of a filter clean points back into the sump: debris is re-matting the filter quickly because the sump itself was never cleared, or the household's load pattern (heavy scraping skipped, labels and bones going through) is refilling it. Returning only on heavy or sanitize cycles suggests a marginal restriction that ordinary cycles can just push past. Returning after under-sink plumbing work, a new disposal, or the machine being pulled out for any reason points at the installation - hose kinked on the push-back, loop dropped, connection disturbed - rather than at wear inside the machine. And an FTD that arrives together with a slow-draining kitchen sink was never the dishwasher's fault at all: the shared house drain is the common cause, and it will keep re-presenting as an appliance fault until it is cleared.

H2O — H2O error

On GE dishwashers H2O (H20) means the control opened the inlet valve and did not see the machine fill — supply problem, valve problem, or the flood/float switch stuck in the 'full' position telling the control not to fill at all. The float switch is GE's dishwasher-specific wrinkle: a float stuck up (with debris or a fallen utensil beneath it) vetoes filling exactly like a closed tap. The most useful way to hold H2O is as a two-branch report. The control either received no water, or received water it could not confirm - and the two branches have almost no parts in common. No water means the supply chain failed somewhere between the house pipe and the tub: valve closed or partly closed, hose kinked, screen blocked, inlet valve not opening. Unconfirmed water means the fill happened but the machine's level sensing - on GE models, centrally the flood float - vetoed or disbelieved it. Every H2O diagnosis is really the act of choosing the correct branch, and the choosing takes one look into the tub the moment the code appears. Owners who skip that look end up replacing inlet valves for stuck floats and freeing floats on machines whose supply valve was simply off, which is why this code has a reputation for being mysterious when it is actually one of GE's most logical displays.

Most likely cause: Supply tap off / hose kinked / low pressure — Under-sink classics.

First check: Confirm the under-sink tap is open.

If it keeps coming back: H2O returning intermittently can be a float that sticks only when hot/greasy — clean its stem thoroughly, or replace the float switch.

IH — Display fragment, not a standalone GE dishwasher code

GE dishwashers communicate faults in plain words (H2O, FTD, 'Clean'/'Sanitized' states) rather than letter codes like IH. An 'IH' reading is typically the delay-hours display (1H = 1-hour delay start, a normal feature state) misread as a fault — the dishwasher is simply waiting out a programmed delay. If the machine otherwise misbehaves, the real information is the symptom, and GE's word-based fault list (fill: H2O family; drain: FTD family) is where the diagnosis lives.

Most likely cause: Delay Start active (1H) — A normal feature: the cycle starts after the set delay.

First check: Check the Delay Start setting; cancel it and start a cycle — a healthy machine responds immediately.

If it keeps coming back: If the display repeatedly shows garbled characters, the display board may be losing segments — note it for a technician.

Less common and model-specific codes

Search data shows owners also meet these codes on GE dishwashers: AE, CPI, E3, E4, E8, E9, ED, F2, F6D, FBD, FCD, FLD, FRD, FTE, H1, I20, LD, LE, RE, SH. They are not part of the core code list GE publishes for most models — several are series-specific, abbreviated display readings, or codes carried over from a sister platform — so we do not publish meanings for them rather than guess. Treat them by symptom: note what the machine was doing when the code appeared (filling, draining, heating, spinning), run one full power cycle (5 minutes off), and if the code returns, match the symptom to the closest documented family in the table above and check the tech sheet stored inside your machine for the model-specific definition.

Deep-dive guides for the most searched codes

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Facts on this page were checked against manufacturer documentation: products.geappliances.com · www.manua.ls · forum.appliancepartspros.com · www.appliancehelper.net