LG Washer HE Error Code: Meaning, Causes & Fix

Heating error — the washer's heater circuit is not performing (on LG washers with a built-in heater).

HE on an LG washer reports a heating fault: the control drove the heater and the thermistor did not report the expected temperature rise, or reported an abnormal one. The element, the thermistor, and their wiring are the suspects — the same trio as tE, with HE emphasising the heater's performance and tE the sensor's reading. HE sits in a small family that owners meet through searches, so the boundaries are worth drawing. tE is the family's sensor report: LG's manuals treat tE as a control/temperature-sensor error whose owner remedy is to unplug the washer, wait, reconnect and retry, with service if it reappears. HE is the performance report: the heater was driven and the expected heating did not happen. dHE, on washer-dryer combinations, is the drying-side relative — the manuals list it simply as 'does not dry' with a call for service. The three share hardware (the heating element, the temperature sensor and their wiring), which is why their check lists rhyme, but they are not interchangeable reports: a machine that alternates between tE and HE across cycles is telling one consistent story about the same circuit from two angles, not developing unrelated faults. LG's own published remedy pattern for the heating family is deliberately short — a power interruption and a retry; if the same error reappears, request professional service — and LG publishes no owner test values for either the element or the sensor, so this page quotes none.

What causes the HE code on a LG washer?

Failed heating element

Scaled or burnt-open elements are the commonest cause, especially in hard water.

Thermistor fault

A lying sensor makes good heating look failed (see also tE).

Wiring/board output

The heater is never powered, or intermittently.

A fault that only heated cycles can reveal

HE has a hiding place other codes lack: a washer used almost entirely on cold cycles can carry a failed heater for months, because nothing ever asks the heater to work. The code then 'suddenly' appears on the first sanitize, steam or hot wash — the cycle did not break the heater; it was the first witness. An HE with that history should be diagnosed as a long-standing heating fault, not a new one.

Scale burden on the element (hard-water machines)

The element named in the base causes fails two ways: burnt open, and so heavily scaled that its heat no longer reaches the water at the rate the control expects. The second failure is the hard-water special — the element is electrically alive and functionally inadequate — and it is why 'the element tests continuous' does not acquit the heating circuit on a scaled machine.

Checks to run before you replace anything

1. Does HE appear only on heated cycles (sanitize/steam-type)? Cold cycles running fine points at the heater circuit.
2. Element testing is a meter job (machine unplugged): LG publishes no owner resistance value for the element, so an open element is a technician confirmation against the model's service data — not a reading to compare with a figure from the internet.
3. Have the thermistor's behaviour checked before condemning the board — LG publishes no owner test values for it either (the same position as the tE page).
4. Run the cold-cycle test first: a full cold wash that completes cleanly, against an HE on every heated cycle, confines the fault to the heating circuit and acquits the fill, drain and motor systems in one step.
5. Note the exact cycle and stage when HE appears — early in a hot fill, or deep into a long heated wash. Heating faults that appear only late and only on the longest, hottest cycles behave differently from those that trip immediately, and the distinction is free diagnostic information for the service visit.
6. Apply LG's documented first remedy once, properly: unplug the washer, wait, reconnect and retry a heated cycle. A code that survives that reset on a proven supply is, by LG's own pattern, a service case — further resets add nothing.

How to fix the HE error code

1. Replace an open element; descale-recoverable elements are the minority — burnt is burnt.
2. Replace a faulty thermistor; repair wiring faults found.
3. There is no owner repair step for HE in LG's published guidance, and this page invents none: the fix path is the reset-and-retry above, then service, where the element, the sensor and the wiring are separated by tests against the model's service data.
4. If the machine is a washer-dryer combination and the display is dHE rather than HE, stop at the same place: LG's manual entry for dHE is 'does not dry — call for service', with no owner procedure in between.
5. Until the visit, cold cycles that run cleanly remain usable on the base entry's terms; heated settings are the ones to leave alone, since they are the circuit under report.

The part that usually fails: Heating element (thermistor checked alongside)

Element continuity is the primary test; check the sensor before the board.

How to reset / clear the HE code

Power-cycle after repair; HE clears when a heated cycle shows a normal temperature rise.

LG's standard reset is a power cycle: press Power off, unplug the washer for about 5 minutes, then — with the machine still unplugged — press and hold the Start/Pause button for 5 seconds to drain residual charge from the board. Plug back in and run a test cycle. There is no hidden reset button on LG washers; any code that reappears after this procedure is an active fault the control is still detecting, not a glitch that needs a deeper reset.

Why does the HE code keep coming back?

HE after a new element = board not powering it, or a drifting thermistor — live measurement territory. HE that returns after an element replacement, with the new element proven, moves the diagnosis to the two remaining members of the trio: the sensor reporting the rise wrongly, or the control not powering the heater at all — both live-measurement territory, and the reason the second visit should be told the first one's findings. HE alternating with tE across cycles is the same circuit speaking twice; report both codes, with the cycles they appeared on, rather than whichever showed most recently. And HE that appears only in winter on machines in unheated spaces deserves one supply-side check before parts are condemned: a heater asked to raise near-freezing water through a long cycle is working at the edge of its design, and a code that vanishes in spring was partly a conditions report.

How to stop HE coming back

• Failed heating element: Scaled or burnt-open elements are the commonest cause, especially in hard water.
• Thermistor fault: A lying sensor makes good heating look failed (see also tE).
• Wiring/board output: The heater is never powered, or intermittently.

Retrieving stored fault codes on LG washers

LG front-loaders have a test mode used by technicians: with the machine off, a specific three-button combination (commonly Soil Level + Spin Speed + Power held in sequence on many models, and a button-pair hold on others) steps the machine through fill, wash, drain, spin and heater tests while the display shows stored error history. The exact combination differs by model year, so technicians read it from the service manual for the model; if you enter a mode where the tub starts filling or the motor jogs, that is the test mode working — press Power twice to exit.

Other LG washer error codes

See the full list on the LG Washer error codes hub.

Codes HE gets confused with

AE — Two different LG faults share this code, by platform. On LG top-load washers AE is a rotation error: the gears responsible for rotating the drum cannot operate properly. On LG front-load washers (global/EU manuals) AE is a water leakage error: water leaks — call for service. AE is the LG washer code where reading a single meaning off the internet does real damage, because LG itself publishes two.

tE — Temperature sensor error — LG's front-load manuals head this code 'Temperature Sensor Error' and give its cause, in one word pair, as a control error; LG's top-load list describes a problem with the temperature sensor inside the tub. tE is the code LG's documentation treats most tersely, and this page follows LG rather than the internet's expanded version of it.

dE1 — Door error (variant 1) — the door is not closed properly (LG's own wording). The washer cannot confirm the door is fully shut, so it will not start or it pauses. LG splits its front-load door family by which step failed, and dE1 is the first step: the door is not closed properly.

vS (shown as u5 / uS) — Vibration sensor error — LG's code is vS; on the display it appears as u5 or uS. LG: the error may occur if there is a contact issue with the vibration sensor or if the sensor malfunctions. Start with the letters themselves, because they explain most confused searches: LG names this code vS, and its own guides warn that the vS error may appear as u5 or uS on the display — the seven-segment rendering of vS is what owners transcribe as 'U5'.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

Facts on this page were checked against manufacturer documentation: www.lg.com · www.lg.com · lg.com · www.lg.com