How to Reset Samsung Washer Error Codes

Samsung washers have no reset button and no button combination that clears error codes — anyone selling you a secret sequence is wasting your time. The Samsung reset is a proper power discharge, and codes clear when the fault is gone. This page gives the correct procedure, what it can and can't cure, and the codes owners most often try to reset away (which happen to be the ones with real causes to fix).

The Samsung reset procedure

Unplug the washer (or turn off its breaker) for a full 5 minutes. Restore power and run a test cycle — Rinse+Spin for drain/motor questions, a small Quick Wash for fill questions. A code that does not return on a clean test cycle was a transient; a code that returns is reporting a present fault.

Codes a reset legitimately clears (once)

Post-power-event oddities (AC6 communication hiccups, a 9C-family supply complaint during a storm) and one-off sensing glitches. Their signature: single occurrence, electrical weather nearby, clean test cycles afterwards.

Codes that laugh at resets

5C (the filter is still clogged), 4C (the water is still off), UB (the load is still one wet blanket), DC (the lock is still tired) — condition codes re-measure on every cycle. The reset isn't failing; it's reporting honestly.

What Samsung itself says a reset is — and is not

Start with Samsung's own wording, because it ends most of the folklore in one paragraph. On its US reset page, Samsung says there really isn't a way to reset the washing machine; what you can do instead is power cycle it — 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 — and that this is the closest you can get to a reset of the washer. Its Canadian page gives the same procedure with a shorter wait, about 1 minute, by either unplugging the washer or using the circuit breaker, noting that both methods achieve the same result. That is the whole documented procedure. There is no Samsung washer button combination, dial sequence or hidden menu that clears fault codes, and any source selling one is selling you another brand's ritual or an invention. Everything else on this page is about using that one honest procedure correctly: when it helps, when Samsung tells you not to use it yet, and what it deliberately does not do.

Do the troubleshooting first — Samsung's explicit order

Samsung's reset page gives an instruction owners usually read past: you should perform all the troubleshooting first before you reset your washer, unless a reset is part of the troubleshooting process. The reasoning is stated on the same page — resetting your washing machine will clear out all the error codes in its memory, but this won't automatically fix whatever error is occurring. Samsung's own example is a fill fault: a 4E or 4C error indicates that water isn't filling into the washer, and one documented cause is a washer not connected to a hot water line that then tries to use hot water. Performing a reset may temporarily get that washer working again, Samsung says, but the code will eventually come back because the problem actually hasn't been fixed. So the correct sequence for any Samsung code is: read the code, photograph it, work its checks from its page on this site, fix what you find — and only then power cycle, as the confirmation that the machine now agrees with you. Resetting first and troubleshooting second throws away the code, the history, and sometimes the evidence (a filter's contents, a hose's position) that the diagnosis needed.

If the code comes back, do not clear it again

Samsung's stopping rule for resets deserves its own section because it is the opposite of the internet's advice. If you do try a reset but the code comes back, Samsung instructs: don't try to clear it again. Resetting will wipe the unit's error code history, which makes it harder for a technician to diagnose and correct the issue — instead, request service to help resolve the error code. The Canadian page repeats the same discipline from the other side: a reset can clear stored error codes but won't fix the underlying issue, only reset once unless your troubleshooting steps say otherwise, and if the same error returns after a reset, consider requesting professional service. Treat this as arithmetic, not attitude: one power cycle after a fix is a verification; a second reset of the same returning code is the destruction of diagnostic evidence. A machine that has been reset six times arrives at its service visit as a machine with no past, and the technician starts from zero at your expense.

The Samsung washer hard reset question, answered honestly

The phrase owners search — Samsung washer hard reset — promises a deeper procedure than the power cycle: a factory reset that returns the machine to an as-delivered state and clears faults with it. Samsung documents no such procedure for washer faults, and the pages that carry 'factory settings' in their titles deliver the same power cycle when you read them: unplug, wait for the charge to clear, power up. What does exist, and is worth not confusing with a reset, is calibration — Samsung's Cb mode, which recalibrates the washer's weight detection on an empty tub via a model-specific button pair from the manual. Calibration corrects a machine that misjudges its loads; it does not clear fault codes, and running it to chase a 5C or a DC treats the wrong system. Likewise, Child Lock and Control Lock are settings, not faults: a panel that ignores buttons because a lock is on needs the lock's own documented release for your model, not a power cut performed in hope. If a seller, video or forum post names a button sequence as a Samsung washer hard reset, the test is simple — ask which Samsung page or manual prints it. For fault codes, none does.

Before any reset: photograph the code, write down the pattern

Samsung's warning that a reset wipes the washer's error code history has a practical corollary worth stating as a procedure: before you power cycle anything, capture what the reset is about to erase. Photograph the display — the exact letters, any prefix, and the remaining time beside them — and note the three facts no photograph holds: what stage the cycle had reached, what the load was, and what else was happening in the house (a storm, an outage, plumbing work, a machine just moved). A single code with that context is most of a diagnosis; the same code bare is a riddle. Keep the notes with the machine rather than in your head, because the pattern Samsung's discipline is protecting only becomes visible across events: a 4C that returns every month on wash day, a DC that appears only with bedding, a 5C slowing down across a season. If the machine eventually goes to service, that dated list is what you hand over in place of the history a reset removed — and on the evidence of Samsung's own pages, it is the difference between a technician confirming a diagnosis and a technician starting one.

When a power restart IS the troubleshooting step, not a shortcut

There is one family of Samsung codes where a restart is not a shortcut around the fix but a documented step inside it, and Samsung's own manual tables draw the line. For the communication family (AC/AE in the manual information-code tables), Samsung's printed solution begins: turn the machine off, and restart the cycle — and only if the information code remains does it send you to a customer service centre. The power-error family gets the same structure in Samsung's Lebanon code table: switch the appliance off at the mains, wait 30 seconds, switch it back on and start a new programme; if the problem persists, call customer support. The overflow family in the same table is answered with a power restoration that has a job to do — switch off, wait 30 seconds, switch back on, and the drain pump should operate to drain the washing machine. Notice what these three have in common, and how they differ from folklore resetting: each restart is prescribed for a named code family, each carries a stated wait, each has a stated observation to make afterwards (the code is gone, or the pump runs), and each ends at service if the observation fails. That is the template for every legitimate Samsung washer restart. If the restart you are performing has no named code, no wait, and no observation attached, it is not one of Samsung's procedures — it is the generic power cycle from the top of this page, entitled to exactly one attempt.

The network reset is real — and it is not an error reset

One genuine hold-the-buttons procedure does exist on Samsung washers, and it is routinely mistaken for a fault reset: the network reset on Wi-Fi models, which erases the washer's stored Wi-Fi and network information so you can connect afresh. Samsung documents it identically on its US and Caribbean pages: hold Smart Control until AP displays, about 3 seconds; then hold Temp until OK displays, about 7 seconds, after which the display returns to AP; then turn the washer off, and the next connection attempt starts with refreshed network information. Use it for a washer that will not connect, will not stay connected, or is moving to a new router or a new home. Do not use it for an error code: it touches nothing in the wash, drain, fill or motor systems, and a 4C treated with a network reset is a 4C plus a washer that has forgotten your Wi-Fi. Keeping the two procedures in their own lanes — power cycle for controls and codes, network reset for connectivity, calibration for weight detection — is the whole of Samsung washer resetting, and it is enough.

Key takeaways

• If you must reset twice for the same code in a month, stop resetting and open the brand's code page for it.
• After any internal repair, the test cycle IS the reset — a full clean cycle is the control's all-clear.

Resetting the Samsung washer

On Samsung washers most fault codes clear with a power reset: switch the machine off, unplug it (or trip the breaker) for at least 5 minutes so the control board fully discharges, then restore power and run a short Rinse+Spin or a small test load. If the code was caused by a one-off condition — a kinked hose, an unbalanced load, a suds spike — it will not come back. If it returns on the next cycle, the control has detected the same fault again and the reset has only cleared the message, not the cause. Samsung does not use a button-combination 'master reset' on most models; the power cycle is the reset.

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