How to Reset LG Washer Error Codes

LG's washer reset is a step more deliberate than most brands': a full power cut plus a button-discharge sequence that drains the control's residual charge. This page gives the LG procedure exactly, then the honest part — which LG codes a reset cures (the electrical one-offs) and which it merely reports again (everything with a physical cause).

The LG reset procedure

Unplug the washer. With it unplugged, press and hold the Power button for about 5 seconds, then press and hold Start/Pause for about 5 seconds (this discharges the control). Plug back in and run a test Rinse+Spin. LG's own support uses this sequence; it genuinely clears latched glitch states that a brief unplug doesn't.

What it cures

Post-surge communication and sensing glitches, a PF (power failure) state awaiting acknowledgement, and one-off LE events caused by a single overloaded load (once you've taken the load out — the reset isn't what cured that one, the laundry basket was).

What it reports again (by design)

OE (drain — the filter is still full), IE (fill — the tap is still off), UE (balance), dE (door lock), tE (thermistor circuit) — these re-measure every cycle and will reappear within minutes if their cause stands. Their pages on this site carry the fixes.

LG's documented resets, in LG's own forms

LG does not publish one master reset for its washers; it publishes reset wordings attached to specific situations, and using the right one matters more than using a strong one. The fullest sequence in LG's support guidance is the control reset: press POWER to turn the washer off, unplug it from the outlet (or turn the circuit breaker to the unit off), then — with the power disabled — press and hold the START/PAUSE button for 5 seconds, before plugging the washer back in or turning the breaker back on. LG prints that sequence in its guidance for codes such as LE, where the reset is genuinely part of the remedy alongside reducing the load. The manuals carry a shorter form for the control-error family: unplug the washer and wait 60 seconds, reconnect power and try again — with the printed rider that if the error reappears, you call for service. And PF needs no reset at all: it is acknowledged with Start/Pause (or the cycle simply resumes on models that recall the last operation). Treat any reset recipe longer or more theatrical than these — repeated button choreography borrowed from other brands' service procedures — as folklore: LG's versions are short because the discharge they perform is simple, and extra steps add theatre, not effect.

Which codes a reset genuinely clears, in LG's own examples

The reset-cures list is short and specific, and LG's documents draw it themselves. A control glitch of the tE family is the manuals' model case: unplug, wait 60 seconds, reconnect, try again — some of those displays are transient upsets and never return. LE is the support guidance's model case: the reset is printed as the remedy, but the same guidance attaches the condition owners skip — reduce the load, because a large or heavy load is what strained the motor, and if the code then displays on every cycle, the unit requires a repair service. PF is acknowledged rather than cured, as the code is a report of an event that has already ended. What these three share is that the reset is the last step of a remedy whose first step fixed something — time for a control to settle, weight removed from a motor, power restored after an outage. A reset performed as the only step, on a machine whose condition is untouched, belongs to the next section's list instead, however satisfying the cleared display feels.

The codes that re-measure, and therefore return

Most LG washer codes are not stored opinions; they are live measurements repeated every cycle, and a reset cannot argue with a measurement. IE measures the fill: if the faucet is still closed, the hose still kinked or the inlet filter still clogged, the next fill times out identically and the code returns within minutes — LG's IE guidance is a list of supply checks, with a valve repair at the end, and contains no reset step at all. OE measures the drain the same way. FE and PE carry the strongest manual wording in the whole family: close the water faucets, unplug the washer, and call for service — a reset attempt on those codes is not merely futile, it delays the exact response LG prescribes for a faulty valve or a failed level sensor. The door family clears only when the door state changes (dE1 by a proper re-close, dE2 by LG's off-open-restart-close sequence), not when the power cycles. The diagnostic rule that falls out of this is useful: a code that returns at the same cycle stage after a correct reset has given you its answer — the fault is physical, present and measurable — and further resets only repeat the experiment at the cost of the load sitting in the machine.

Displays a reset should never be aimed at: CL and tCL

Two of the most-reset displays on LG washers are not errors, and LG's manuals say so in terms. CL is the Control Lock function: the code indicates the function is on, deliberately preventing anyone from changing cycles or operating the controls, and the remedy is to turn the function off at the control panel — press and hold Control Lock for 3 seconds, per the manuals. Owners who 'reset' a CL machine by unplugging it meet the same CL on power-up, because a lock setting is a preference, not a fault, and it survives exactly as it should. tCL is the Tub Clean alarm: the manuals state plainly that this is not an error code — it indicates the Tub Clean cycle is running, or that the drum needs cleaning and the cycle should be run (empty tub, bleach in the detergent dispenser, Tub Clean selected). Selecting a different cycle can defer the message, but it returns until the clean has been done a few washes later. Neither display belongs in a reset workflow; both belong in the category of the machine communicating a state it intends you to act on directly.

When resetting has to stop

LG's own texts draw the stopping line in the same place every time, and it is earlier than most owners expect: the remedy is tried once, properly, and if the error reappears the instruction is service. The tE manual entry says it in one breath — unplug, wait, reconnect, try again; if the error reappears, call for service. The LE guidance says it the same way — reset, with a reduced load; if the code displays on every cycle, the unit will require a repair service. Build your own rule on theirs: one correct reset, with the code's own first fix applied alongside it (load reduced, door re-closed, supply restored), then a test cycle watched to the stage where the code appeared. A return is a result, not a reason to reset harder. Note what the returning code did at each stage — the pattern across attempts is the most valuable thing you can hand a service visit, and it costs only the discipline to write it down. Fifty unlogged resets hand the technician a machine with a fault and no history; one logged reset hands them a diagnosis half-made.

Proving the reset: the test cycle, and what to watch

A reset is a claim — 'the fault was transient' — and a claim needs a test. LG's own procedures end in test runs more often than owners notice: its freeze-recovery steps, for instance, close by powering the washer on and performing a cycle of Rinse (once) plus Spin to see whether it operates without issue. Adopt that as the standard proof after any reset on this page: plug back in (or breaker back on), power up, and run a short Rinse and Spin — empty, unless the code's own remedy involved the load, as LE's does, in which case the test is a real wash with the load reduced as LG instructs. Watch the test to the stage where the code originally appeared, not just to its first cheerful minute: an IE machine proves itself at the fill, an OE machine at the drain, a door code at the lock and again under spin. A test that passes the stage is a reset that worked, and the episode can be closed with a note of the code and the date. A test that fails at the stage has converted your reset from a remedy into evidence — the fault is present, physical and reproducible on demand, which is the single most useful condition a machine can be in when a technician arrives. What a test cycle should never be is a load of laundry you cannot afford to have stranded: the machine under proof gets a forgiving load or none at all, because a fault that returns mid-test leaves its water and its laundry exactly where the proof found them.

Cutting the power properly, and what a reset does not erase

LG's reset wording offers two ways to cut power — unplug the washer from the outlet, or turn the circuit breaker to the unit off — and they are equivalent for the control's discharge, so choose by access: a plug buried behind a stacked pair is a legitimate reason to use the breaker. Two cautions travel with the manuals' power sections and belong in any reset routine. First, fuse discipline: if a blown fuse is part of the story, replace it without increasing its capacity, and treat a repeat as a circuit problem for an electrician — LG's manuals state the point directly, because a fuse that keeps blowing is reporting, not malfunctioning. Second, know the boundary of what you have cleared: a reset clears the latched display and the control's temporary state, which is why it cures glitches — but the machine's recorded fault history, the data a Smart Diagnosis session transmits, is not yours to wipe with a power cord, and should not be. That asymmetry is deliberate and useful: you can clear a display a dozen times in an evening, and the diagnosis a technician pulls still carries the pattern. It is one more reason the honest workflow on this page — fix first, reset once, test, log — loses nothing against reset-spamming: the record survives either way, and the only variable is whether your own notes match it.

Key takeaways

• CL on the display isn't a code to reset — it's Child Lock; hold the marked buttons ~3 seconds.
• A reset that 'works' for exactly one cycle then faults at the same stage is the machine pointing at that stage's system.

Resetting the LG washer

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.

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