Good news before anything else. If your Bosch oven is showing E011, there is a fair chance nothing has actually broken.
E011 means the control panel has detected a button that is stuck down, or is being read as continuously pressed. The most common reason is steam or a spill, and clearing it takes about ten minutes. National Appliance Repairs services Bosch ovens across five capitals, and this is one of the codes where we would rather you fixed it yourself.
What E011 means
The oven's control panel constantly monitors every key. If one of them sends an unbroken signal for longer than the board expects, the oven assumes a button is jammed and locks itself out instead of acting on an input it cannot trust.
You will usually see one or more of these alongside the code:
The oven will not respond to any button press
One particular key feels sticky, or does not click
The panel beeps repeatedly
The oven will not start a cycle, or will not accept a temperature
Note that E011 and E11 are the same fault. Some Bosch models display the short version. The causes and the fix are identical.
Same-day appointments available
Need This Fixed Today?
Our licensed technicians repair this exact fault every week – fast, reliable, and backed by a workmanship guarantee.
Steam: This is the big one. Touch panels sit directly above the oven door on most built-in Bosch models, which is exactly where a cloud of steam goes when you open the door on something that has been roasting. On a capacitive touch panel, moisture reads as a finger.
A spill or splash: Sugar, sauce and oil are the worst offenders, because they dry into a film that holds a key down or bridges a touch sensor.
Cleaning: Spraying cleaner directly onto the panel instead of onto a cloth pushes liquid behind the fascia. Plenty of E011 calls arrive the day after a kitchen clean.
Something resting on the panel. A tea towel, an oven glove or a chopping board leaning against the controls will do it.
What you are seeing
Likely cause
Can you fix it?
Code appeared right after opening the oven door
Steam on the touch panel
Yes
Code appeared after cleaning the kitchen
Moisture behind the fascia
Yes
One key feels sticky or will not click
Dried spill around that key
Usually
Code returns immediately after every reset
Failed panel, membrane or ribbon cable
No
Oven heats or beeps on its own
Do not troubleshoot. See below
No
Clearing it
Work through these in order.
Check nothing is touching the panel. Tea towels, oven gloves, containers, anything leaning against the fascia.
Turn the oven off at the circuit breaker. Not at the panel, at the breaker. Leave it off for ten minutes. This lets the control electronics discharge and gives moisture time to evaporate.
Clean the panel properly. Use a soft cloth, lightly dampened with mild detergent or a little isopropyl alcohol. Wring it out. Never spray anything directly onto the panel, because that is how the moisture got in on plenty of these machines.
Work around each key. Pay attention to the seams where the buttons meet the fascia, which is where dried spills collect. On physical buttons, press each one gently and check it returns. If one is jammed by something solid, ease it free with tweezers instead of forcing it.
Dry it. If there has been a spill or a recent clean, leave the oven door open and give the control area several hours to dry out. A hair dryer on a cool setting, held well back, speeds it up. Do not use heat on the plastic fascia.
Restore power and test. Press each key in turn and check the oven responds.
If E011 clears and stays gone, that was steam or residue and you are done.
When to stop and call
Three situations mean stop troubleshooting.
The oven heats on its own: A control fault that can switch elements on without an input is a fire risk, not a nuisance. Turn it off at the breaker and leave it off.
The beeping will not stop and no button will silence it: Same response.
E011 returns immediately after every reset and clean: At that point the touch panel, the keypad membrane or the ribbon cable between the panel and the control board has failed. Those are behind the fascia, alongside mains wiring, in an appliance running on a dedicated high-current circuit.
What a repair involves
A persistent E011 is usually a panel or ribbon cable job. The cable between the touch panel and the main board is a common failure point, particularly on built-in ovens where years of heat cycling degrade the connector. Sometimes it has only worked loose and can be reseated.
This is worth knowing before anyone tells you the oven needs replacing. Our oven and cooktop repair service also custom-makes and installs oven door glass and heating elements, including fan-forced, grill and standard elements, which means we repair plenty of ovens that would otherwise be written off for parts availability.
Tell us whether the code clears on a reset and comes back, or never clears at all. Those are different faults.
Preventing it
Step back and let the steam clear before touching the panel after opening the door
Wipe spills off the fascia while they are still wet
Spray cleaner onto the cloth, not the oven
Keep tea towels off the controls
If the oven is also heating unevenly or running hot, that is a separate issue covered in our guide to ovens that will not heat properly.
Frequently asked questions
What does E011 mean on a Bosch oven?
A button on the control panel is stuck, or is being read as continuously pressed. The oven locks itself out instead of acting on an input it cannot trust. E11 is the same fault on models with a shorter display.
Is E011 a serious fault?
Usually not. Steam and spills cause most of them and a clean and reset clears it. It becomes serious if the oven heats on its own or the beeping will not stop, which are safety issues.
How do I reset a Bosch oven with E011?
Turn it off at the circuit breaker for ten minutes, not at the panel, then clean and dry the fascia before restoring power.
Why did E011 appear right after I cleaned the kitchen?
Cleaner sprayed at the panel gets behind the fascia and is read as a continuous press. Leave the oven off with the door open for several hours to dry, then reset.
What if E011 comes back every time?
The touch panel, keypad membrane or ribbon cable has failed. That needs the fascia removed and is a technician job.
The short version
E011 is a stuck key, and steam is the usual culprit. Turn the oven off at the breaker for ten minutes, clean the panel with a barely damp cloth, let it dry, and restore power. That resolves most of them at no cost.
If the code returns after every reset, the panel or its ribbon cable has failed. And if the oven heats or beeps without being asked, stop at the breaker and call. National Appliance Repairs services Bosch ovens in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth with upfront quoting. Book online or call your nearest office.
Most LG fridge codes name a part that has failed. Er dH names a process that did not finish, which makes it the most useful code LG produces and the one worth understanding properly.
LG names components in its fridge codes instead of numbering them. Er plus a two-letter suffix identifies the part: FF is the freezer fan, rF is the fresh food fan, IF is the ice maker fan, and dH is the defrost heater.
Er dH appears when the defrost cycle ran but the defrost sensor never reached its target temperature within the allowed window. The machine tried to melt frost off the evaporator coil and did not get warm enough, fast enough.
That is a subtly different statement from "the heater is broken." The heater is the most likely culprit, but the code is reporting the outcome, not the component.
How the defrost cycle works
Every frost-free fridge builds ice on its evaporator coil during normal running. Every time a door opens, humid room air enters, meets a surface well below freezing, and deposits moisture as frost.
To stop that frost accumulating forever, the fridge runs an automatic defrost cycle every eight to twelve hours. A heating element below the evaporator warms the coil until the frost melts, the meltwater drains to a tray near the compressor, and cooling resumes. A healthy cycle finishes in twenty to thirty minutes.
When something in that circuit fails, the frost never clears. It builds outward from the coil, layer on layer, until it blocks the airflow path entirely.
Same-day appointments available
Need This Fixed Today?
Our licensed technicians repair this exact fault every week – fast, reliable, and backed by a workmanship guarantee.
Our guide to the LG Er FF error explains that ice around the freezer fan blade is a far more common cause of Er FF than motor failure. Er dH names where that ice is coming from.
The sequence usually runs like this: the defrost circuit fails quietly, frost accumulates over weeks, the ice sheet reaches the fan blade and stops it, and the fridge reports Er FF. A manual defrost clears the ice, the fan spins again, and everyone assumes it is solved. Three weeks later the ice is back.
If you have seen Er FF and Er dH in sequence, or Er FF that keeps returning, the defrost system is the fault to fix. Replacing a fan on a fridge with a dead defrost heater is money spent twice.
Code
What it names
What it usually means
Er dH
Defrost system
The root cause. Heater, sensor or thermal fuse
Er FF
Freezer fan
Often a symptom of Er dH going unaddressed
Er rF
Fresh food fan
Circulation fault on the fridge side
Er IF
Ice maker fan
Ice production drops, cabinet may seem normal
Er CO
Communication
Main board and display board have lost contact
What is actually failing
Four components sit in this circuit, and any of them produces the same code.
The defrost heater. An element that has gone open circuit. The most common single cause.
The thermal fuse. A safety device wired in series with the heater. When it blows, the heater gets no power at all, and the fuse is often overlooked when only the heater is tested.
The defrost sensor or thermistor. Reading the coil temperature incorrectly, so the board either ends the cycle early or never registers that it succeeded.
The control relay. The board is not switching power to the heater on schedule.
Testing these means removing the freezer rear panel and working with a multimeter around the evaporator and mains wiring. That is technician work.
What you can safely do
Confirm what you are looking at. Empty the freezer and look at the rear panel. If you can see heavy frost through the vents, or the panel is iced over, the defrost system is not doing its job.
Power reset. Unplug for five minutes and restore power. A one-off transient will clear and stay gone.
Check the door seals. A door that does not seal loads the evaporator with humid air continuously, overwhelming even a healthy defrost cycle. Check the gasket for tears, folds and residue, and check the fridge is level.
Manual defrost. Empty the freezer, switch off at the wall, put towels down and leave the doors open until everything has thawed and the interior is dry. Several hours at minimum. Do not use a heat gun, a hair dryer on hot, or anything sharp near the coil, which is thin-walled and holds refrigerant under pressure.
Note the date. A manual defrost will clear the ice and often the code. If Er dH or Er FF returns within a month, the circuit has not been fixed, only reset.
Look after the food
An LG fridge with a blocked evaporator loses both compartments, because the airflow path for the whole cabinet runs across that coil. Food Standards Australia New Zealand identifies 5°C to 60°C as the range where food-poisoning bacteria multiply, with a safe window of generally less than four hours. Move perishables to an esky before you start, and discard anything left sitting warm.
When to book
Book on Er dH. There is no reliable home fix, and unlike a fan fault there is nothing to clean or reseat that changes the outcome.
Our fridge repair service and freezer repairs cover LG models in all five capitals, with same-day appointments subject to availability, upfront quoting, and a 12-month parts warranty with a 3-month labour warranty.
Mention whether you have also seen Er FF, and roughly when. That sequence tells the technician which parts to bring.
If you are also dealing with codes on an LG washer, our guide to LG washing machine error codes covers that side of the range.
Frequently asked questions
What does Er dH mean on an LG fridge?
The automatic defrost cycle ran but did not reach its target temperature in the allowed time. The defrost heater, thermal fuse, sensor or control relay is at fault.
Is Er dH the same as Er FF?
No, but they are connected. Er dH names the defrost system; Er FF names the freezer fan. A defrost failure produces the ice that eventually stops the fan, so Er dH is frequently the cause behind a repeated Er FF.
Can I fix Er dH myself?
Not realistically. A manual defrost clears the ice and often the code, but it does not repair the circuit. Testing the heater, fuse and sensor requires removing the rear freezer panel and using a multimeter around mains wiring.
How long should I leave the fridge off to defrost it?
Several hours at minimum, with the freezer emptied and both doors open. Ice behind the rear panel takes far longer to melt than the frost you can see, and a partial defrost will bring the code straight back.
How often should an LG fridge run a defrost cycle?
Roughly every eight to twelve hours, completing in about twenty to thirty minutes. If the cycle is running but not finishing in that window, Er dH is the result.
The short version
Er dH is the code that explains the other codes. It means the defrost cycle failed to complete, and the ice that follows is what eventually stops fans, blocks airflow and warms both compartments.
A manual defrost will clear the symptoms. Whether the code stays gone for a month is the only test that matters, and if it comes back, the heater, fuse or sensor needs replacing. National Appliance Repairs diagnoses LG fridges across five capitals and quotes parts and labour before any work starts. Book online or call your nearest office.
21E is a freezer fan error. The evaporator fan behind the rear panel of the freezer has stopped turning, or the control board is no longer receiving the rotation signal it expects from that fan motor. On newer Samsung panels the same fault displays as 21C.
The fan itself sits behind a panel at the back of the freezer compartment, directly in front of the evaporator coil. Its job is to pull air across that coil and push it where it needs to go.
Same-day appointments available
Need This Fixed Today?
Our licensed technicians repair this exact fault every week – fast, reliable, and backed by a workmanship guarantee.
Here is the part most guides miss. On most Samsung fridges, the freezer evaporator produces all the cold air for the appliance, and the freezer fan distributes it to both compartments.
A 22E means the fresh food side has lost its own circulation fan while the freezer keeps working. A 21E means the source of cold air for the entire cabinet has stopped moving. Both sections warm up, and they warm up together.
21E (or 21C)
22E (or 22C)
Component
Freezer evaporator fan
Fridge compartment fan
Freezer
Warming
Usually still cold
Fridge
Warming
Warming
Urgency
High, whole cabinet affected
Moderate, one side affected
If you are seeing 22E instead, our guide to the Samsung 22E error covers that fault.
The three things that cause it
Ice around the fan blade. The most common cause by a wide margin. Frost builds on the evaporator, spreads outward, and locks the blade in place. You will often hear a warning before the code appears: chirping, humming, or grinding from the back of the freezer as the motor strains against the ice.
A failed fan motor. The motor itself has stopped. The freezer will be silent, not noisy.
A feedback fault. Samsung freezer fans report their speed back to the control board. If that feedback circuit fails, or the wiring plug has vibrated loose, the board reports 21E even though the blade is turning normally.
The listening test
Before you take anything apart, spend fifteen seconds working out which of those three you have.
Open the freezer door and find the door switch, the small button or lever the door presses when it closes. Hold it in. On most models that tells the fridge the door is shut, so the fan should run.
You hear the fan running. The blade is turning, so you are likely looking at a feedback or wiring fault.
You hear grinding, clicking or scraping. Ice is catching the blade.
You hear nothing at all. Either the motor has failed or ice has locked it solid.
That one test tells a technician more than any description of the symptoms will, so note the answer before you call.
What to try first
Check the door is sealing. Run a finger around the gasket looking for tears, folds, flattened sections or food residue. A door that does not seal draws humid air into the freezer continuously, and humid air is what becomes ice.
Check nothing is holding the door open. An overstuffed drawer or a package jammed at the back will hold a bottom-freezer drawer open by a few millimetres unnoticed.
Clear the rear vents. Food packed hard against the back wall restricts airflow and speeds up frost formation.
Run a full defrost. Empty the freezer, switch off at the wall, put towels down and leave both doors open for several hours at minimum. A room fan blowing in from a safe distance speeds it up. Do not use a heat gun, hair dryer on hot, or anything sharp near the evaporator: the coil is thin-walled and holds refrigerant under pressure.
Note the date and watch. If the code stays gone for a month, ice was the cause. If it returns within a week or two, something is producing ice faster than the defrost cycle can clear it.
Protect the food before you start
A Samsung fridge with a failed freezer fan loses both compartments, so this is not a case of moving a few items across. Food Standards Australia New Zealand identifies 5°C to 60°C as the range where food-poisoning bacteria multiply, with a total safe window of generally less than four hours.
Frozen items that still have ice crystals through them can usually be refrozen. Anything fully thawed should not be. Move what you can into an esky before starting a defrost, and do not judge by smell or appearance.
When it needs a technician
Book if the code returns after a defrost, if the freezer is silent, or if you have seen 21E more than once in a month.
That last signal is the one that matters. A fan frozen solid is a symptom, and the cause is usually a defrost heater or sensor that has stopped clearing the evaporator on schedule. Replacing the fan on a fridge with a failed defrost circuit buys a few weeks and nothing more, which is why our technicians test that circuit before quoting a fan motor.
Our fridge repair service and freezer repairs cover Samsung across Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, with same-day appointments subject to availability, upfront quoting, and a 12-month parts warranty with a 3-month labour warranty.
Tell us the code, and tell us what you heard during the listening test.
Frequently asked questions
What does 21E mean on a Samsung fridge?
It is a freezer fan error. The evaporator fan in the freezer has stopped turning, or the control board is not receiving rotation feedback from it. Newer models show the same fault as 21C.
Is 21E worse than 22E?
Yes. The freezer fan supplies cold air to both compartments, so a 21E warms the entire fridge. A 22E affects the fresh food side while the freezer keeps working.
Can I keep using the fridge with a 21E error?
Not for food storage. Both compartments will drift out of safe temperature. Move perishables to an esky and treat the repair as urgent.
Why does 21E keep coming back after I defrost it?
Because the defrost system is probably the underlying fault. If the defrost heater or sensor is not clearing frost on schedule, ice rebuilds around the fan and the code returns.
Does 21E always mean the fan motor has failed?
No. Ice locking the blade is more common, and a loose wiring plug or failed speed-feedback circuit can trigger the code with a perfectly healthy motor.
The short version
21E names the freezer fan, and because that fan feeds the whole appliance, it is the Samsung fridge code to act on quickly. Ice around the blade causes it more often than motor failure, so a full defrost is worth doing before anything else. What happens next tells you which one you have: a code that stays gone was ice, and a code that comes back is the defrost circuit.
National Appliance Repairs services Samsung fridges across five capitals with upfront quoting. Book online or call your nearest office with the code.
Biscuits that catch on the bottom. A cake that sinks. Roast times that never match the recipe. Somewhere in there, most people start to suspect the oven is lying to them.
Usually it is, and usually by less than they think. National Appliance Repairs services ovens across Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, and this is one of the few complaints you can confirm yourself for about fifteen dollars before anyone books a callout.
Two things happening at once
Before testing anything, it helps to separate two effects that get confused constantly.
Oscillation is normal: An oven does not hold a steady temperature. It heats until it passes the setpoint, switches the element off, coasts down until it drops below, and switches back on. Set an oven to 180°C and the actual air temperature swings above and below that figure on a cycle of several minutes. Swings of 15°C to 25°C either side of the setpoint are ordinary behaviour, not a fault.
Drift is the problem: Drift is when the average sits away from the setpoint. An oven that averages 205°C when set to 180°C is running 25°C hot regardless of how tightly it cycles, and everything you bake in it will be wrong in a consistent, predictable way.
Manufacturers build in a tolerance, so a new oven can be noticeably off and still be within specification. Over years of use, calibration drifts further.
Same-day appointments available
Need This Fixed Today?
Our licensed technicians repair this exact fault every week – fast, reliable, and backed by a workmanship guarantee.
You need an oven thermometer. Fifteen to thirty-five dollars from a kitchenware shop or hardware store. Avoid the cheapest hanging types that end up resting against the oven wall, because they read the metal, not the air.
Position it in the centre: Middle rack, middle of the rack, hanging free and not touching anything.
Set the oven to 180°C on conventional bake, not fan or grill.
Wait: When the preheat indicator says it is ready, wait another twenty minutes. Ovens signal ready long before the cavity, the racks and the walls have stabilised. Testing at the beep is the single most common way people get a wrong answer.
Take four readings, five minutes apart: Read through the door glass. Opening the door drops the temperature 15°C to 30°C and ruins the test.
Average them: Add the four and divide by four.
Repeat at 150°C and 220°C: This tells you whether the offset is consistent across the range or gets worse at the extremes, which points at different causes.
Reading the result
Average against setpoint
What it means
What to do
Within 10°C
Accurate
Nothing. Adjust recipes, not the oven
10°C to 20°C out, consistent
Mild drift
Check for a user calibration setting
More than 20°C out, consistent
Calibration drift or sensor fault
Worth a technician
Offset varies wildly between temperatures
Sensor or control board
Technician
Readings swing more than 30°C either side
Thermostat or element cycling fault
Technician
More than 50°C out
Do not use for food safety cooking
Technician
Fixing it yourself
Many ovens have a user-adjustable calibration offset in the control menu. It is rarely advertised and almost nobody knows it exists.
The button sequence differs by manufacturer and model, so check your manual under calibration, temperature adjustment or offset. The adjustment range is usually limited to around 30°C either way, which is deliberate: it exists to correct drift, not to mask a failing component.
If your test showed a consistent 15°C offset and your oven has this feature, that is a five-minute fix costing nothing.
Two other things worth ruling out before booking anyone:
A worn door seal: A gasket that has flattened, torn or hardened lets heat escape continuously, so the oven runs cool and cycles constantly. Run a finger around it.
Overcrowding: Trays packed edge to edge block airflow and produce uneven results that look like a temperature fault.
When it is a repair
Three components cause an actual temperature fault.
The temperature sensor: A probe inside the cavity that reports back to the control board by changing resistance as it heats. When it drifts or fails, the board is regulating against bad information. It is a common failure and a relatively straightforward replacement.
The thermostat, on older ovens: Mechanical thermostats lose accuracy with age and cannot be recalibrated.
The control board: Less common. Usually shows as erratic behaviour instead of a steady offset: readings that swing unpredictably, elements cycling oddly, or error codes appearing alongside.
Bring your test figures to the call. An average at three setpoints is better diagnostic information than most technicians get, and it can be the difference between one visit and two.
Don't replace an oven over this
Temperature drift gets ovens thrown out that did not need to be, often because an owner has been told a part is no longer available.
Alongside standard repairs, we custom-make and install oven door glass and heating elements, including fan-forced, grill and standard elements. That matters for older and discontinued models, where parts availability, not the fault itself, is usually the reason an oven gets condemned. If you are weighing it up, our guide to repairing or replacing an appliance sets out how to compare the numbers.
If the oven is not reaching temperature at all, as opposed to misreporting it, that is a different fault, covered in our guide to ovens that will not heat properly.
Frequently asked questions
How accurate should an oven be?
Within about 10°C of the setpoint on average. Manufacturers allow a tolerance, so a brand-new oven can read slightly off and still be within specification.
Why does my oven thermometer keep changing?
Because ovens cycle. The air temperature swings above and below the setpoint continuously, and 15°C to 25°C either way is normal. Average several readings instead of trusting one.
Can I recalibrate my oven myself?
Often, yes. Many ovens have an offset adjustment in the control menu, usually limited to around 30°C. Check your manual. If the offset needed is larger than the adjustment allows, the fault is in a component.
How long should I preheat before testing?
Twenty minutes after the ready signal. The indicator responds to air temperature well before the walls and racks have stabilised, so testing at the beep gives a false low reading.
Is a hot oven dangerous or just annoying?
Mostly annoying, but an oven running significantly cool is a food safety issue for meat and poultry. If yours is more than 50°C out, stop using it for those until it is fixed.
The short version
Buy a thermometer, preheat properly, wait twenty minutes past the beep, take four readings and average them. Within 10°C and the oven is fine. Consistently more than 20°C out and it needs attention, starting with the calibration offset in the control menu before anyone books a repair.
Most ovens showing drift are worth fixing, not replacing, particularly where the alternative is scrapping a working appliance over a single component. National Appliance Repairs services ovens across five capitals with upfront pricing. Book online or call your nearest office.
Smeg dishwashers report faults in two different ways depending on the model, and if you are on the wrong one you will not find your answer anywhere.
Newer machines show a code on a display. A great many Smeg dishwashers in Australian kitchens show nothing of the sort. They flash a pattern of indicator lights on the front panel, and that pattern is the code. National Appliance Repairs services Smeg appliances across five capitals.
If your machine has no display
Count the lights on the fascia from left to right, then note two things: which lights are flashing, and which are steadily lit.
On the common pattern, the fifth light stays lit while one or more of the first three flash. The combination identifies the fault number.
First flashing, fifth lit
Second flashing, fifth lit
First and second flashing, fifth lit
Third flashing, fifth lit
First and third flashing, fifth lit
Second and third flashing, fifth lit
Each is a different fault. Photograph the panel while it is doing it. A photo is worth more on the phone than any description, because "some lights are flashing" narrows nothing.
Same-day appointments available
Need This Fixed Today?
Our licensed technicians repair this exact fault every week – fast, reliable, and backed by a workmanship guarantee.
Worth being straight about this. Smeg does not publish what its dishwasher codes mean in consumer documentation. Its own support guidance for E1 through E9 is to contact the service centre.
That leaves third-party tables, and they do not all agree. Where they converge, the interpretation is reliable. Where they conflict, we say so instead of picking one.
Code
Widely agreed meaning
Confidence
E3
Water not heating within the allowed time. Element, thermostat or wiring
Good
E4
Temperature sensor fault
Good
E5
Machine did not fill within the allowed time
Good
E6
Machine did not drain within the allowed time
Good
E7
Flow meter detected when not fitted. Reset required
Moderate
E1
Water-related. Sources split between flood protection activated and an inlet or overfill fault
Disputed
E2
Water-related. Sources split between safety pressure switch activated and insufficient water
Disputed
E9
Reported as closely related to E1 and E2
Low
If you have an E1 or an E2, do not order a part against a table you found online. Both readings point at the water circuit, but a flood protection trip and a fill fault lead to opposite investigations.
The four you can act on
E5, not filling. Work outward from the machine.
Check the isolation tap under the sink is fully open.
Check the inlet hose for kinks behind and under the cabinetry.
Check the inlet filter at the hose connection for grit and scale.
Check whether the rest of the house has normal water pressure.
E6, not draining. Standing water in the base is the giveaway.
Clean the filter assembly in the base of the tub.
Check the drain hose for kinks and blockages.
On a new installation, check the knockout in the waste spigot was actually punched through. This catches out more new builds than anyone expects.
Check the sink waste and disposal unit if the dishwasher drains into it.
E1 or E2 with water visible. Turn the water off at the tap and switch the machine off at the wall before anything else.
Any code after a detergent change. Too much detergent, or washing-up liquid used by mistake, creates foam that can confuse level sensors and trip water-related faults. Nothing is broken in that case.
The flood protection question
If your E1 turns out to be flood protection, the mechanism is the same one used across most premium dishwasher brands: a float in a shallow tray under the tub, a switch beneath it, and a control board that cuts the water supply and locks the machine when water reaches the tray.
Different manufacturers name it differently. Bosch calls it AquaStop and reports it as E15. Miele calls it the Waterproof System and reports it as F70. Fisher & Paykel calls it the flood switch and reports it as F30.
In every case the switch is working correctly and the question is where the water came from: a door seal, a hose clamp, a sump gasket, or detergent foam overflowing the tub.
When it needs a technician
Book on E3 and E4, which are heating and sensor faults with nothing to clean or reseat. Book on E5 or E6 that persists after the checks above. Book on any code accompanied by water on the floor, and on anything you cannot identify.
Smeg appliances are premium machines and they are worth repairing properly. Our dishwasher repair service covers Smeg across Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, with same-day appointments subject to availability, upfront quoting, and a 12-month parts warranty with a 3-month labour warranty.
Tell us the model number, and either the code or the light pattern. If your machine is still inside its Smeg warranty, contact Smeg first.
Preventing the common ones
Clean the filter assembly regularly. It prevents E6 and improves wash results at the same time.
Use dishwasher detergent at the recommended dose, never washing-up liquid.
In hard water areas, keep rinse aid and salt topped up where the model uses them. Scale is what eventually kills heating elements, and our guide to Australian water and climate covers where that matters most.
Scrape plates instead of pre-rinsing them, and check the spray arms spin freely.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my Smeg dishwasher flashing lights instead of showing a code?
Because many Smeg models report faults as an LED pattern instead of a displayed code. Note which lights flash and which stay lit, and photograph the panel.
What does E5 mean on a Smeg dishwasher?
The machine did not fill with water within the allowed time. Check the tap is on, the inlet hose is not kinked, and the inlet filter is clear.
What does E6 mean on a Smeg dishwasher?
It did not drain within the allowed time. Clean the filter, check the drain hose for kinks, and on a new installation check the waste spigot knockout was punched through.
Why do online lists disagree about Smeg E1 and E2?
Because Smeg does not publish code meanings to consumers, so the tables in circulation come from service data across different model generations. Both codes relate to the water circuit, but the readings conflict.
Can I reset a Smeg dishwasher error?
Switching off at the wall for a few minutes clears a transient fault. If the code returns straight away, it is not transient and the underlying cause needs addressing.
The short version
Work out which system your machine uses first. If there is no display, the flashing light pattern is the code, and a photo of it is the most useful thing you can bring to a phone call.
E3 through E6 are reliably documented and E5 and E6 have checks worth doing yourself. E1 and E2 are the two where the published tables conflict, so treat any part recommendation based on them with caution. National Appliance Repairs services Smeg dishwashers across five capitals with upfront quoting. Book online or call your nearest office.
Note for the editor: cannibalisation check required against the existing post on common faults with Smeg and Bosch dishwashers. Best outcome is converting that post into the brand hub and linking down to this one and to the Bosch E15 post.
Sources to link at publish: Smeg support, dishwasher error code guidance (use the Smeg Australia equivalent, confirm the AU URL before inserting)
