GE Dishwasher Error Codes List: Every Code Explained

Every GE dishwasher error code we could verify against GE's own documentation — what it means, what usually causes it, and the first fix to try — in one table. Codes differ between model series, so treat your model's tech sheet as the final word.

How to read and retrieve error codes on GE dishwashers

GE dishwashers have a service mode (on most electronic models: press and hold specific pad pairs — commonly the Cooktop/Heated Dry style combinations printed in the service manual for the model) that displays stored error codes (the F-code family such as FTD, FED) and lets a technician run each load separately. Consumer-facing displays only show a few of these codes, which is why some GE codes only appear inside service mode.

The complete GE dishwasher error code list

How to reset / clear error codes on GE dishwashers

GE dishwashers reset most faults with a power cycle: trip the breaker (or unplug) for about 5 minutes, restore power, and start a cycle. Codes tied to water detection or drain faults return if the condition is still present — the control re-checks fill and drain at the start of every cycle.

How to diagnose any GE dishwasher code

Work the problem in this order: (1) record the code exactly, including any flashing tap or salt/rinse-aid symbols shown with it; (2) establish the water story — is there water in the base, is the tub dry, did the cycle stop early or never start — because dishwasher codes split into leak, fill, drain and heating families; (3) run the external checks first: supply tap and inlet hose for fill codes, filters, sump and drain hose for drain codes, and for leak codes, dry the base and watch where water appears on a short test cycle; (4) clear the code and re-run the shortest programme while observing — most dishwasher faults announce themselves in the first ten minutes; (5) replace parts last, in the order the code family suggests. A leak code in particular should never be cleared and ignored: the float that raised it is the only thing between a small leak and a floor.

Two GE dialects: service codes and plain-language displays

GE dishwashers speak two code dialects. The service dialect is the letter-and-number fault list the control stores and a technician retrieves in service mode — the E, F and C codes in the table below. The consumer dialect, on newer models, skips codes entirely and shows plain-language states instead: H2O for a fill problem, FTD ("failure to drain") for a drain problem. Neither dialect is a translation of the other, and a model generally uses one or the other, so search by what your display literally shows — the words are codes too, and GE documents them as such.

Why the same fault wears different labels across GE brands

GE sells the same dishwasher platforms as GE, Profile, Café, Monogram and Hotpoint, and the code list travels with the platform, not the badge — a code list written for a Profile model usually fits the mechanically identical GE model. What changes between badges is the display, which is why a fault that shows as letters on one badge can appear as a stored service code on another. The model number, not the badge, is the reliable key: GE's own support pages ask for it before showing a code list for exactly this reason.

The most searched GE dishwasher codes, in detail

E1 — Not a GE dishwasher fault code. GE's published dishwasher fault list contains no E1: GE's consumer displays are a number plus H for Delay Start, the C-code family (C1-C8), PF, Cup Open, H2O, FTD and PrS word displays, and LEAK DETECTED or 999 on leak-detection models, while GE's service sheet uses numeric F-codes read in Fault Code Display Mode. An earlier version of this entry tied E1 to the fill/drain system from 'period documentation'; that claim could not be traced to any GE document and is withdrawn. Diagnose the machine by its symptom, using the real GE code that symptom belongs to.

Start with the fault language GE actually publishes, because it is complete enough to leave no room for E1. On the consumer side, GE's dishwasher displays report: a number plus the letter H when Delay Start is active (1H, 2H and so on); C1, the pump-out during drain has exceeded 2 minutes; C2, the total pump-out cycle exceeds 7 minutes; C3, the dishwasher will not drain; C4, the machine filled twice after a power failure, with a stuck or failed float switch or a clogged drain or sump behind it; C5, the pump-out time is too short; C6, the water temperature is too low; C7, the water temperature sensor circuit is inoperative; and C8, the detergent cup is blocked from opening fully. Alongside the C-codes sit word and status displays: PF for a power failure, Cup Open when the detergent cup is not closed, H2O for a low-water situation, FTD for failure to drain, PrS when the pressure sensor sends an invalid signal (the cycle will not start or will cancel), and, on models with leak detection, the words LEAK DETECTED with the cycle cancelled, or 999 on models with Floor Protect with Alert. Underneath that consumer layer sits a second, service layer: GE's dishwasher service sheet (31-4000268) lists numeric F-codes — F86 for a no-fill failure, F98 for a non-draining sump, F50 and F51 for temperature-sensor high and low readings, F58 and F59 for a failed thermistor, among many others — which a technician reads in Fault Code Display Mode, entered from standby by pressing and holding the Cycle Select (or furthest-left) pad and Start together for 5 seconds. E1 appears in neither layer. That double absence is the finding, and it is stronger evidence than any single list, because the two layers were written for different audiences (owners and technicians) at different levels of detail, and neither found a use for the letters. So where do the confident online definitions of a GE dishwasher E1 come from? Read several of them side by side and the answer shows itself: one site says E1 is a water inlet failure, another a drainage problem, another water leaked into the base tripping the flood switch, another a heating fault, another a door latch fault, another an electronic control board error. A real manufacturer code does not collect five incompatible meanings; an invented one does, because each list-maker is copying a generic E-code template — the E1/E2/E3/E4 sequences other brands genuinely use — and filling the GE row from the template rather than from a GE document. The base entry on this page was a softer version of the same error, assigning E1 a fill/drain flavour without a GE source behind it, and it has been corrected for the same reason. The practical consequence is liberating rather than limiting: a GE dishwasher that is misbehaving is already telling you what is wrong, in GE's own language or in plain symptoms. A tub standing full of water at cycle end is the drain family's territory (C1, C2, C3 or FTD on the display, F98 in service mode). A tub that never filled is the fill family's (H2O on the display, F86 in service mode). Water under the machine is the leak family's (LEAK DETECTED, 999, or the service sheet's floor-protect reports). A machine that will not start at all, with a display you cannot match to the list above, is read by symptom and, if needed, by a technician in Fault Code Display Mode — where the stored fault will appear as one of GE's numeric codes, not as E1. Work the branch your machine is actually in, with the GE remedies for that branch set out below, and let the letters E1 go: nothing on a GE dishwasher answers to them.

Most likely cause: A drain fault wearing a borrowed name (tub standing full of water) — The commonest real fault behind an 'E1' search: the machine cannot empty. In GE's own language that is C1 (pump-out over 2 minutes), C2 (total pump-out over 7 minutes), C3 (will not drain) or FTD — caused by a clogged air gap, a restricted drain hose, a blocked disposer connection or a jammed drain pump. The letters were wrong; the water is the diagnosis.

First check: Photograph the display before pressing anything, and compare it character by character against GE's published list (number+H, C1-C8, PF, Cup Open, H2O, FTD, PrS, LEAK DETECTED, 999). If the photograph shows one of those, you have your code and its own page on this site — the E1 question is over.

If it keeps coming back: An 'E1' that keeps coming back is the same branch fault recurring under a borrowed name, and the branch tells you where it lives: drain-branch returns track a downstream restriction re-clogging or a pump weakening; fill-branch returns track a float that sticks when greasy or inlet screens re-matting with sediment after plumbing work; leak-branch returns mean the leak was dried, not fixed. Record which branch and at what point in the cycle it returns — that note, plus the photograph, is what turns a technician's visit from a search into a confirmation.

FED — Not a code GE publishes. 'FED' appears in neither GE's consumer dishwasher fault list

FED is a display reading in search of a code, and GE's two published lists are the evidence. GE's consumer list for dishwashers is short and word-based, and FED is not on it. GE's service sheet (31-4000268) is the other place a GE dishwasher fault can live: its Fault Code Display Mode table runs from F5 to F172 — F86 'No Fill Failure: pressure sensor does not sense filling', F98 'Non-draining Sump', F32 'Water Level Sensor Invalid' and dozens more — and FED is not there either. What owners who report 'FED' actually describe, in the cases that can be checked, splits by symptom rather than by letters: a tub full of water that will not pump out (the fault GE publishes as FTD, and at least one documented owner's 'FED' was that machine's FTD display read character by character), a beeping no-start on a new installation, or water found in the base. So this page does not give FED a meaning GE never gave it. It gives you the branch test GE's real codes are organised by: is the tub holding water, is the tub dry, or is there water underneath — each answer lands on a code GE does publish, with a published fix. GE runs two dishwasher fault languages, and FED is in neither — that fact, properly understood, is the page. The consumer language is words and short codes designed for owners: FTD for Failure To Drain, H2O for low water, PrS for an invalid pressure-sensor signal, LEAK DETECTED spelled out in full. The service language, printed on the sheet GE leaves inside the machine (31-4000268), is numeric: a Fault Code Display Mode in which the control scrolls active faults such as F86 (the pressure sensor does not sense filling), F98 (the sump is not draining, as judged by the turbidity sensor), F32 and F33 (pressure-sensor readings out of range), F34 (water detected in the Floor Protect pan) and F147 (drain pump locked rotor). Owners searching 'FED' have usually met one of these two languages through a small three-character window and come away with letters that match neither list — and the internet has filled the vacuum with expansions ('Fill Error Detected', 'Flood Error Detection') that sound authoritative and send owners to opposite ends of the machine: one to the inlet valve, the other to the base pan. GE's lists are the way out of the vacuum: stop reading the letters, start reading the tub.

Most likely cause: A mis-read display — most often FTD — GE's Failure To Drain code is three characters on a small, sometimes scrolling or segmented display, and owners themselves have been unsure of the middle character when asked. A photograph settles what memory cannot.

First check: Photograph the display before pressing anything, then read it character by character. If it says FTD, you are on GE's Failure To Drain page, and everything below about the drain branch applies directly.

If it keeps coming back: A returning 'FED' with the same tub story is the same branch fault recurring: drain-branch returns track a downstream restriction or a weakening pump; fill-branch returns track a float that sticks when greasy or screens re-clogging with sediment; leak-branch returns mean the leak was dried, not fixed. Whatever name it travels under, a returning display follows its branch's logic. Drain-branch returns with shortening intervals describe a restriction growing or a pump weakening — and the cancel/drain test that used to pass will start failing before the full cycle does, which makes it a useful monthly check. Fill-branch returns track the float and screens: a float that sticks only when hot and greasy, screens re-loading with sediment. Leak-branch returns are the serious ones: water in the base that was dried but never traced will be back, and each return is the machine reporting a leak that is still finding its way down. In every branch the rule from GE's service sheet holds — the display clears when the condition clears — so a returning display is never the display's fault.

FTD — Failure To Drain

FTD says exactly what it means: the dishwasher tried to drain and couldn't. GE's drain chain is filter/sump → drain pump → hose → air gap/disposal connection, and the blockages live there — with one GE-era classic: a newly installed garbage disposal whose dishwasher knock-out plug was never removed, which produces a total no-drain on a brand-new setup. It also helps to read FTD as one of two different failures wearing the same word. A total failure - the tub never empties at all, the pump strains or stays silent, and the same water is there at the end as at the start - points at a hard stop in the path: a disposal knock-out plug, a jammed pump, a crushed hose. A partial failure is the subtler and commoner story: the machine drains, but slowly and incompletely, leaving cloudy water and grit behind, and the control, which judges the drain by whether the tub reaches empty in the time allowed, reports the shortfall as FTD. Partial failures belong to restrictions - filter, sump, sink side, hose geometry - and they typically debut on heavy cycles, worsen over weeks, and respond to cleaning; total failures debut suddenly and do not. Naming which kind you have before you start is what keeps a cleaning problem from being treated as a pump replacement, and vice versa.

Most likely cause: Clogged filter/sump — A matted fine filter slows drainage to failure.

First check: Wash the filter assembly; test a cancel/drain.

If it keeps coming back: FTD returning quickly = downstream (house line) restriction or a weakening pump. When FTD returns, its timing is the diagnosis. Returning within a few loads of a filter clean points back into the sump: debris is re-matting the filter quickly because the sump itself was never cleared, or the household's load pattern (heavy scraping skipped, labels and bones going through) is refilling it. Returning only on heavy or sanitize cycles suggests a marginal restriction that ordinary cycles can just push past. Returning after under-sink plumbing work, a new disposal, or the machine being pulled out for any reason points at the installation - hose kinked on the push-back, loop dropped, connection disturbed - rather than at wear inside the machine. And an FTD that arrives together with a slow-draining kitchen sink was never the dishwasher's fault at all: the shared house drain is the common cause, and it will keep re-presenting as an appliance fault until it is cleared.

H2O — H2O error

On GE dishwashers H2O (H20) means the control opened the inlet valve and did not see the machine fill — supply problem, valve problem, or the flood/float switch stuck in the 'full' position telling the control not to fill at all. The float switch is GE's dishwasher-specific wrinkle: a float stuck up (with debris or a fallen utensil beneath it) vetoes filling exactly like a closed tap. The most useful way to hold H2O is as a two-branch report. The control either received no water, or received water it could not confirm - and the two branches have almost no parts in common. No water means the supply chain failed somewhere between the house pipe and the tub: valve closed or partly closed, hose kinked, screen blocked, inlet valve not opening. Unconfirmed water means the fill happened but the machine's level sensing - on GE models, centrally the flood float - vetoed or disbelieved it. Every H2O diagnosis is really the act of choosing the correct branch, and the choosing takes one look into the tub the moment the code appears. Owners who skip that look end up replacing inlet valves for stuck floats and freeing floats on machines whose supply valve was simply off, which is why this code has a reputation for being mysterious when it is actually one of GE's most logical displays.

Most likely cause: Supply tap off / hose kinked / low pressure — Under-sink classics.

First check: Confirm the under-sink tap is open.

If it keeps coming back: H2O returning intermittently can be a float that sticks only when hot/greasy — clean its stem thoroughly, or replace the float switch.

IH — Display fragment, not a standalone GE dishwasher code

GE dishwashers communicate faults in plain words (H2O, FTD, 'Clean'/'Sanitized' states) rather than letter codes like IH. An 'IH' reading is typically the delay-hours display (1H = 1-hour delay start, a normal feature state) misread as a fault — the dishwasher is simply waiting out a programmed delay. If the machine otherwise misbehaves, the real information is the symptom, and GE's word-based fault list (fill: H2O family; drain: FTD family) is where the diagnosis lives. GE's own Delay Start article fills in the display mechanics the base entry summarises, and they explain every version of the 'IH' encounter. On touch-control models, GE says, the display or LED indicator shows the delay as a number plus the letter H — 1H, 2H, 3H and so on — and you touch the Delay Start pad once for each hour of delay desired, with the range running from 1 to 14 hours depending on the model. Once set, the control automatically counts down and displays the remaining hours left before the wash cycle starts, and at the end of the countdown the dishwasher starts the programmed wash cycle by itself. Two GE-documented behaviours catch owners out. First, unlatching or opening the door does not cancel the Delay Start option — you can open the machine, add a forgotten plate, close it again, and the countdown simply continues, which is why 'I opened it and it still says IH' proves nothing except that the feature is working as designed. Second, the feature has a second name on newer models: GE's cancel article notes that its newer dishwashers call the same feature Delay Hours, so a manual that never mentions 'Delay Start' may document your exact display under that heading instead. On mechanical-control models there is no display at all — you turn the dial pointer to the number of hours (1 to 6) desired, and the timer advances and starts the cycle automatically — so an 'IH' report always belongs to a touch-control machine. GE also documents why the feature exists, which is the strongest evidence it is a feature: the Delay Start option, GE says, lets you run the dishwasher when its hot-water demands will not conflict with the family's, and lets you take advantage of off-peak utility rates. Nobody builds a tariff-saving option into a fault code. Finally, a detail from GE's Control Lock article that explains a confusing sub-case: the control lockout exists to stop a cycle being started or interrupted by accident, but GE states that the only dishwasher cycle not affected by the child lockout feature is the Delay Start option — so a locked panel can still acquire a delay, and an owner can meet 'IH' on a machine they believe is locked against exactly this kind of surprise.

Most likely cause: Delay Start active (1H) — A normal feature: the cycle starts after the set delay.

First check: Check the Delay Start setting; cancel it and start a cycle — a healthy machine responds immediately.

If it keeps coming back: If the display repeatedly shows garbled characters, the display board may be losing segments — note it for a technician. An 'IH' that keeps coming back is a delay that keeps being set, and the suspects are behavioural before they are electrical: a household member who runs the machine on delay by habit (GE built the feature for off-peak rates and hot-water conflicts, so a deliberate nightly delay is legitimate use, not a fault), a pad brushed during loading or panel-wiping — remembering that GE's control lock does not block Delay Start, so even a locked panel can acquire one — or, last and rarest, a pad that registers touches nobody made, which announces itself by delays appearing at random hours with the kitchen empty. Log two or three occurrences with times before suspecting the panel; the pattern acquits or indicts the household first, as it should.

Less common and model-specific codes

Search data shows owners also meet these codes on GE dishwashers: AE, CPI, E3, E4, E8, E9, ED, F2, F6D, FBD, FCD, FLD, FRD, FTE, H1, I20, LD, LE, RE, SH. They are not part of the core code list GE publishes for most models — several are series-specific, abbreviated display readings, or codes carried over from a sister platform — so we do not publish meanings for them rather than guess. Treat them by symptom: note what the machine was doing when the code appeared (filling, draining, heating, spinning), run one full power cycle (5 minutes off), and if the code returns, match the symptom to the closest documented family in the table above and check the tech sheet stored inside your machine for the model-specific definition.

Deep-dive guides for the most searched codes

Related guides

Facts on this page were checked against manufacturer documentation: products.geappliances.com · www.manua.ls · forum.appliancepartspros.com · www.appliancehelper.net