How to Reset Samsung Dishwasher Error Codes

Samsung dishwashers reset two ways: the cancel/drain function (hold the Start/Cancel or use the Drain button where fitted) for cycle problems, and a full power cut for control glitches. Codes themselves are condition reports — they clear when their condition clears. This page sets out both procedures and the behaviour of the codes owners reset most (5C drain, 4C fill, LC leak).

Cancel & drain (the cycle reset)

Press and hold Start (or the Cancel/Drain control per your panel) for ~3 seconds: the dishwasher cancels the cycle and runs its drain pump to empty the tub. Use it whenever you interrupt a cycle, before any filter or pump work, and as the clean slate before a test cycle.

The power reset

Breaker/unplug for 5 full minutes for panel glitches and post-surge oddities. Restore and run a short cycle as the test.

Code behaviour

5C/SC returns if the drain path is still blocked; 4C returns if water still isn't arriving; LC cannot clear until the base is dry and stays dry. A code surviving both resets with its condition verified fixed (drain proven into a bucket, supply proven at the tap) graduates to the sensing branch on its code page.

Samsung's reset, in Samsung's own terms

Samsung US publishes a dedicated answer for exactly this page's question (ANS10004788, 'How to reset your Samsung dishwasher'), and its procedure is shorter than the folklore around it: unplug the dishwasher (or turn off power at the circuit breaker), wait some time for the electrical charge to clear out of the dishwasher — 'usually 1 to 5 minutes at most' — and then power it up again. 'That's all it takes to reset.' Samsung frames the reset's legitimate use narrowly: weird electronic glitches, such as those that might occur after a power outage, might be cleared with such a reset. Two facts from the same page discipline everything else on this page. First, resetting the dishwasher will clear out all the error codes in memory — which is why the code should be photographed or written down before the breaker is touched, because the reset erases the evidence along with the display. Second, a reset is a memory operation, not a repair: it tells you nothing about whether the condition that produced the code is still present, and Samsung's own guidance orders the work the other way round — troubleshooting first, reset second, which is the subject of the next section.

Reset after the troubleshooting, not before: Samsung's ordering

Samsung's reset answer is unusually direct about sequencing, and it contradicts the reset-first habit: 'So when should you reset? Only after performing all the troubleshooting first. Some error codes will stay on the dishwasher even after you have done what it takes to fix them, so that's when resetting the dishwasher is the next logical step.' The reasoning is printed on the same page — most error codes signify an issue you need to address, and performing a reset without the troubleshooting will likely result in the code coming back soon, if not immediately. Samsung gives three worked examples of resets that cannot help, and they are worth printing because they cover most reset searches. If the dishwasher doesn't start, it could be because the door is not completely closing, and a reset won't fix that. If the dishwasher won't turn on at all, especially if it is recently installed, it is likely an installation issue, to be reviewed preferably with a professional installer. And if there is a drain issue — Samsung names error codes 5C, 5E, OC and OE — it is often something to do with the way the drain hose is installed, and a reset won't fix it if you don't take care of the drain hose first. The page's endpoint is equally plain: if a reset doesn't clear the code, and you tried all the troubleshooting steps first, you'll have to request service. So the honest shape of 'how to reset a Samsung dishwasher error code' is a three-step order — read the code and do its troubleshooting, then reset to clear the memory, then treat a returning code as a service case — and any version of this guide that starts at step two is starting in the middle.

The per-code power steps: Samsung does not use one magic duration

Owners searching for a reset duration usually expect a single number; Samsung's own dishwasher documentation gives a different number per code, because the power-off step is printed inside each code's own solution. Samsung UK's dishwasher information-codes page — the second manufacturer source for this guide — specifies, among others: for 1C (the low-water-level presentation, where the dishwasher keeps trying to drain), complete its filter, detergent and loading checks, then 'turn the dishwasher off and back on after 5 minutes'; for the 3C/3E motor presentation (fills but never begins washing), 'power the unit off for one minute and retry'; for AC (powers on but won't start or run cycles), power cycle with more than a minute off at the wall or breaker, after which a cleared code 'was likely a temporary glitch'; for AC6 (the electronically locked-out presentation), power off at the breaker or unplug for 10 minutes 'to discharge fully' — the longest duration Samsung prints on the page; for 9C2 (the low-voltage sibling of the voltage family), 'unplug the machine for 5 minutes and then turn it back on', repeating after 5 minutes if it persists, alongside moving the machine to a proper dedicated circuit; and for the 6C1 dispenser-motor code, reset by unplugging for 5 minutes after confirming the tablet is not stuck in the dispenser. Read as a set, these reconcile with the US answer's '1 to 5 minutes at most' for the plain reset: Samsung's durations are properties of individual codes, not of the dishwasher, and the correct duration for your reset is the one printed in your code's own row — which is one more reason the code, not the reset, is where this work starts.

Force a drain: the cycle-level reset for standing water

A reset question on a dishwasher full of water is usually a drain question, and Samsung UK's page gives the drain code 5C2 a procedure that begins with a cancel rather than a power cut: 'Try to force a drain (for example, by cancelling the cycle) and listen.' The listening is diagnostic — 5C2's own symptom line is that the pump either fails to start, runs only briefly or stalls — so a cancel-and-drain tells you whether the pump runs at all before anything is opened. The same row then gives the powered-off inspection: with the power disconnected, remove the lower rack and the filter, and inspect the sump for debris — the page's list is objects, food sludge, labels or bones — that could potentially jam the impeller. This is the correct relationship between this guide's base sections and Samsung's text: the cancel/drain hold empties the tub as a working step (before filter or sump work, and as the pump test), while the breaker reset clears the control's memory — two different tools that reset searches habitually merge into one. The leak code draws the boundary from the other side: Samsung UK's LC/LE row describes a dishwasher that won't start or stops mid-cycle and 'immediately begins draining continuously while beeping and won't accept a new program'. A machine in that state is not awaiting a reset — it is executing its leak response, and the row's remedy is a leakage check (door area and gasket debris, detergent type, toe-kick puddles, a sink or disposal backing water into the machine), because the continuous drain ends when the leak condition ends, not when the memory is cleared.

The reset as a test: what a code that clears is telling you

Samsung UK's voltage rows turn the reset into a diagnostic instrument, and the logic generalises across this guide. For 9C1 — the dishwasher's abnormal-voltage code, which the page notes often appears after a power flicker, surge or breaker trip — the instruction is: if there was a surge, flicker or breaker trip just before 9C1 first appeared, turn the dishwasher off at the wall or breaker, wait at least 1 minute, power it back up and immediately try to start a normal wash; 'if the code clears and it runs, it was a temporary line disturbance and the control recovered.' The same row then prescribes the control experiment: plug the dishwasher into a good, dedicated outlet or circuit — no extension leads, no multi-adapters, nothing heavy sharing it — because 'if the code disappears on a clean circuit, the issue is the original supply, not the dishwasher.' The AC row draws the matching conclusion from the other side: power cycle with over a minute off, and 'if AC clears, it was likely a temporary glitch.' This is the one situation where a reset is genuinely informative rather than merely cosmetic — a code with a known external trigger (a flicker, a surge, a shared circuit), a controlled change, and an immediate re-test separates a one-off disturbance from a developing fault in a single run. It is also why the experiment has to be controlled: resetting into the same shared circuit, the same extension lead, the same unresolved drain hose proves nothing either way, and a code that returns through a clean-supply test has given you its answer — Samsung's pages route that case to service, with the test result as the evidence you hand over.

The other reset Samsung documents: the network reset (Wi-Fi models only)

Samsung's reset answer closes with a second procedure that shares the word 'reset' and nothing else, and confusing the two wastes a Wi-Fi setup. A network reset erases all Wi-Fi and network information from the dishwasher; it addresses connection problems, not error codes. Its steps, for dishwashers with Wi-Fi capability: hold Smart Control until 'AP' displays (about 3 seconds); hold Hi-Temp Wash until the dishwasher chimes (about 7 seconds); then turn off the dishwasher. Nothing in that sequence touches the control's error memory, the drain system or any fault condition — an owner who runs it against a 5C or LC display has only disconnected their dishwasher from the app that might have reported the code. The two procedures are worth keeping in separate mental drawers precisely because they are both documented and both called resets: the power reset (breaker or unplug, 1 to 5 minutes, after troubleshooting) is the error-code tool; the network reset (Smart Control to AP, Hi-Temp Wash to the chime, power off) is the connectivity tool. If your actual problem is a dishwasher that has dropped off SmartThings, Samsung's sequence above is the whole of it — and if your problem is an error code, the network reset is not a preliminary step, a fallback, or a stronger version of the power reset.

Key takeaways

• Always cancel-drain before opening filters — the tub empties itself instead of your floor.
• Photograph codes before resetting; the reset erases your best evidence.

Resetting the Samsung dishwasher

Samsung dishwashers clear most codes when you cancel the cycle (hold Start/Cancel for about 3 seconds so the machine drains), then cut power at the breaker for 5 minutes. Restore power and run a short cycle. Leak-related codes (LC) will return immediately if water is still sitting in the base pan — the reset cannot clear water that is physically still there.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

Facts on this page were checked against manufacturer documentation: www.samsung.com · www.samsung.com · www.samsung.com · www.samsung.com · www.samsung.com · www.samsung.com · mans.io · www.notice-facile.com · www.notice-facile.com · manuals.plus · downloadcenter.samsung.com