Samsung Washer SE Error Code: Meaning, Causes & Fix

No drain — the washer is not draining (Samsung lists SE in its nd, 5E, SE, 5C, SC no-drain family). It is not a sensor error on washers.

SE is a spelling Samsung itself prints for its washer no-drain fault: Samsung's US/Caribbean washer information page groups the family as 'nd, 5E, SE, 5C, SC, 1 5C: No drain error — water is not draining from the washer at the correct speed (or at all)', and its published fix sequence is to turn the washer off and check the level, inspect the drain hose, clean the pump filter (front loaders only), then turn the washer back on and start a cycle. Owners often confuse SE with 5E because a 5 and an S look alike on a segmented display, and the two spellings do belong to the same family — but SE is not merely a misreading: Samsung lists it as a member of the family in its own right. On washers, SE therefore means the machine failed to drain in time: clogged pump filter, blocked hose, or a failing drain pump. (On Samsung ovens SE is a completely different, shorted-key code — this entry is for washers only; do not cross-apply the two.) (Corrected 2026-10-28: an earlier version of this entry called SE a 'drain/sensor error' and explained it only as a 7-segment rendering of 5E — Samsung's own grouping lists SE as a no-drain spelling, with no sensor meaning on washers.) Washer error code SE is best understood by the company it keeps in Samsung's own table. Samsung's US washer page does not give SE a row of its own; it prints one row — 'nd, 5E, SE, 5C, SC, 1 5C: No drain error — water is not draining from the washer at the correct speed (or at all)' — followed by one shared procedure: turn off and check the level, inspect the drain hose, clean the pump filter (front loaders only), turn back on and start a cycle. SE is a full member of that family as Samsung prints it, not a footnote and not a rendering error, even though the 5/S resemblance on segmented displays explains why owners (and many third-party lists) merge it with 5E. The practical consequence is liberating: there is no SE-specific part, no SE-specific reset and no sensor branch to chase on a washer. There is one drain investigation, and SE is simply the spelling of it that your machine's display generation uses.

What causes the SE code on a Samsung washer?

Clogged pump filter

The front debris filter is the first check, as with 5C.

Blocked drain hose or standpipe

Kinks and lint plugs slow the drain past the limit.

Jammed or failed drain pump

Debris in the impeller or an open pump winding.

An unlevel machine — the first step of Samsung's no-drain procedure is the level check

Samsung's published sequence for this family begins somewhere owners do not expect: before the hose and before the filter, its US/Caribbean page instructs you to turn off the washer and check the level. A machine sitting tilted pools its water away from where the pump draws and the level sensor reads, and a machine that rocks on its feet also walks its drain hose out of position a little with every spin, compounding the problem across weeks. SE that began after the washer was moved, after new flooring, or in a machine with a foot visibly off the floor belongs to this branch until the level has been proven — it is Samsung's step one because it is the cheapest step, and skipping it sends owners to the pump for a fault that lives in the floor.

Drain hose installation outside Samsung's specification

Samsung's US no-drain guidance for this fault family calls incorrect drain hose installation the most common reason drain issues happen at all, and its specification is exact: the hose belongs 6 to 8 inches into the standpipe or sink, secured so vibration cannot walk it deeper, not sealed airtight, not kinked or damaged, standing at least 18 inches high (24 inches for a wash basin) and no more than 96 inches (35 inches for a basin), and never lengthened with an extension kit. Every item on that list is an SE mechanism: too deep or airtight and the machine siphons or air-locks; too low and water leaves when it should stay; too high and the pump pushes against a head it cannot beat at the speed the control expects. A hose can migrate into this list by itself, slipping deeper spin by spin, which is how a machine that drained for years earns an SE with nothing broken inside it.

Checks to run before you replace anything

1. Drain via the emergency tube and clean the debris filter.
2. Check the hose run and standpipe.
3. Listen for the pump during drain attempts.
4. Follow Samsung's order for the family, because on an SE machine the order is the diagnosis: turn the washer off and check it is level; inspect the drain hose against the installation specification; clean the pump filter — front loaders only, Samsung stresses, because top loaders do not have a removable pump filter; then turn the washer back on and start a cycle. Samsung builds the verdict into that last step: the washer should drain at the beginning of the test cycle. Brisk draining there closes the case; a cycle that reaches its drain moment and produces a hum, a trickle or silence has localised the fault to the pump, with the path already proven.
5. Respect the hot-water caution before you open anything on a full tub: Samsung's no-drain guide warns that water left from a hot programme — its examples are the Pure Cycle and Sanitize-type settings — may be very hot, and advises allowing approximately one hour for it to cool before working through the drain procedure. An SE tub holds the whole wash volume, and on a front-loader you will release it by hand through the emergency drain tube a container at a time. That hour is part of Samsung's procedure, and the SE will still be there when the water is safe to handle.
6. Read the whole display before you read this page's code into it: SE belongs to the no-drain family Samsung prints as nd, 5E, SE, 5C, SC, but the same two letters on a Samsung oven are a shorted-key report with an entirely different fix, and on a segmented washer display a 5E is easily misread as SE (and the reverse). Photograph the panel. On a washer, either reading lands you in this same drain family, which is forgiving; carrying a washer's SE diagnosis to an oven, or an oven's keypad diagnosis to a washer, is the version of the mistake that costs money.

How to fix samsung washer se error code?

1. Clean the filter; clear the pump of debris (unplugged).
2. Clear the hose/standpipe path.
3. Replace the pump if it tests open or the impeller is stripped.
4. Reinstall the drain hose to Samsung's specification and secure it there: 6 to 8 inches into the standpipe, clipped or tied so spin vibration cannot walk it deeper, a loose rather than airtight fit, the run unkinked, the height inside the 18-to-96-inch window (24 to 35 inches for a wash basin), and any extension kit removed. Samsung's judgement on this family is that service is rarely required for drain issues — and that judgement rests on how often this single step, done completely rather than approximately, is the whole repair for an SE.
5. Clean the pump filter as the rescue and as the habit (front-loaders): Samsung's guidance treats a clogged debris filter as a drain system losing effectiveness gradually — slower drains month by month until one crosses the control's limit and SE appears. Drain the tub through the emergency tube first, clean the filter, refit it snugly (a filter not fully seated can leak), and then prove the fix on Samsung's terms with the test cycle. On a top-loader, skip the filter search entirely — Samsung is explicit that the filter does not exist there — and work level, hose and pump in that order.
6. Prove the repair before the next real load, and watch the hose afterwards: run the test cycle and confirm the machine drains at its beginning, in normal time; then run one real load and check the standpipe area when it finishes. A hose found deeper in the pipe than you left it is the unsecured-hose story announcing the next SE early, and correcting the securing now converts a repeat fault into a fitting adjustment. If the test cycle still will not drain with level, hose and filter proven, Samsung's endpoint for the family is a service request — arrive with those three steps already done and named.

The part that usually fails: Drain pump

Test for continuity; open winding = replace.

How to reset / clear the SE code

Power-cycle once the drain path works; run Drain+Spin to confirm.

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.

Why does the SE code keep coming back?

Recurring SE/5C with a clean filter points deeper: tub-to-pump hose build-up or a weakening pump. An SE that returns after level, hose and (on a front-loader) filter have been dealt with is following one of three clocks, and the clock is the evidence. Returning within a cycle or two, with the hose found deeper in the standpipe than you secured it, is the migration story — the fix is the securing, not another clean. Returning after weeks of good service, a little slower each time, is a path narrowing again: lint re-matting at the pump inlet on a top-loader, debris re-collecting at a front-loader's filter, or a standpipe silting at a rate a bucket test at the hose end will expose. Returning only under the largest loads is a pump that still wins against a test cycle's smaller volume but loses against a full tub — the weakening-pump pattern, and the one case where replacing the pump before it fails outright is the economical call. Samsung's endpoint does not change across the three: a washer that will not drain at the beginning of a test cycle, with its path proven, goes to service — with the clock you observed as the most useful thing on the ticket.

How to stop SE coming back

• Clogged pump filter: The front debris filter is the first check, as with 5C.
• Blocked drain hose or standpipe: Kinks and lint plugs slow the drain past the limit.
• Jammed or failed drain pump: Debris in the impeller or an open pump winding.

Retrieving stored fault codes on Samsung washers

Most Samsung washers store recent fault codes that a technician can read in the service/diagnostic mode. Entry varies by model family: on many front-loaders you press and hold Delay End and Pre Soak (or Temp and Spin, on older models) together for about 3 seconds until the display lights all segments; on top-loaders a similar two-button hold (often Delay End + Pre Soak) is used. Once inside, the cycle knob steps through stored codes and component tests (fill, drain, motor, heater). Because the button pair differs between model years, confirm the pair for your exact model in the tech sheet fixed inside the machine or in the user manual before relying on a code you read there.

Other Samsung washer error codes

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

Codes SE gets confused with

NF — No Fill — the washer is not filling with water (one spelling of Samsung's not-filling family). NF is one display spelling of Samsung's not-filling fault — the same water-supply problem other models report as 4C/4E.

ND — No Drain — the washer is not draining (Samsung groups nd with 5E/SE/5C/SC as one no-drain family). ND (shown as nd on many displays) is Samsung's no-drain report: the control ran the drain pump but the water did not leave at the correct speed, or at all.

XL — Not a Samsung washer fault code — no XL entry exists in Samsung's published washer code lists. 'XL' in Samsung laundry searches refers to extra-large-capacity models and listings, and searches for an 'XL error code' usually trace back to a capacity description or a misread display. Samsung sells extra-large-capacity washers (its own product literature words the feature 'Extra-Large Capacity', shortened to XL in retailer listings and size categories), and the 'XL' from a listing is frequently mistaken for an error code when the machine stops for another reason.

OE — Overflow error — the washer has detected a water level that is too high. OE means the level sensor is reporting more water than the cycle should have — either the tub genuinely overfilled, or the sensor is lying.

Working from a symptom instead? Read our troubleshooting guide for this problem.

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