Samsung Washer Error Codes List: Every Code Explained

Every Samsung washer error code we could verify against Samsung'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 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.

The complete Samsung washer error code list

How to reset / clear error codes on Samsung washers

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.

How to diagnose any Samsung washer code

Work the problem in this order: (1) write the code down exactly as displayed — photograph it, because opening the door or pressing pause can clear it; (2) ask what the machine was doing when the code appeared — filling, washing, draining, spinning or heating points straight at the fault family; (3) run the external checks for that family first: taps and inlet screens for fill codes, the pump filter and drain hose for drain codes, load size and levelling for balance codes, the door seal and latch for lock codes — these cure the majority of washer codes without a single part; (4) clear the code and run the shortest cycle that exercises the same function (a rinse-and-spin for drain faults, a small wash for fill faults) while you watch — a code that returns in the same phase is an active fault, not a glitch; (5) only then test or replace the component the code monitors, and re-test under the same conditions that produced the fault. Skipping to step 5 is how good parts get replaced for a clogged filter.

The most searched Samsung washer codes, in detail

3C — Motor error

3C belongs to Samsung's motor-fault family (3C, 3C1–3C4 on detailed displays, related to 8C/AC codes on other generations): the main control is not seeing the motor behave as commanded — it may not start, may run at the wrong speed, or its feedback signal is missing. Causes range from an overloaded or jammed drum to a failing motor, a damaged motor harness, or the motor control (inverter) section of the board. Samsung's own service documentation splits 3C further than the consumer pages do. A Samsung service manual hosted on Samsung's own download center prints the family: 3C itself covers the motor's internal coil damaged (short-circuited or cut), foreign material — the manual's example is a screw — entered the motor, and the motor overloaded; 3C1 is the overload case where the motor cannot sense the load ('motor overloaded due to too much laundry'); 3C2 is a motor driving error from the PBA (main board) — weak drive, unstable relay operation; 3C3 is a connection case (the IPM terminal of the main PBA not connected, the DD motor cover out of place, or the PCB housing terminal not connected); 3C4 is PBA fault or DD motor fault. Most of the family is therefore not 'the motor is dead' — 3C2 and 3C3 name the board and its connections.

Most likely cause: Drum jammed or severely overloaded — A trapped item (coin, wire) between tub and drum, or a load so heavy the motor cannot start — try this first: it costs nothing.

First check: Unplug, then rotate the drum by hand: it should turn smoothly with slight magnetic cogging; grinding, scraping or a hard stop means a jam or bearing problem.

If it keeps coming back: 3C that returns under heavy loads but not empty cycles suggests a weakening motor or board drive stage that fails under current demand, or early bearing drag adding load. A drum that is getting noisier month by month points mechanical. A returning 3C sorts itself by the family table if you record two facts per event: the load, and the suffix. Returns only under the heaviest loads are the overload branch (3C/3C1), managed by loading, not parts. Returns on ordinary or empty loads have left the load behind: the manual's remaining territory is the motor's coil, foreign material in the motor, and the board side (3C2 drive, 3C3 connections, 3C4 board or motor) — all service diagnosis. Samsung's consumer pages allow the one documented power-off restart before the technician visit; a return after it is the visit's brief.

4C — Water supply error

4C is Samsung's water-supply fault code (shown as 4E on older models). The control opens the inlet valves and watches the water level sensor: if the tub does not reach the expected level within the allowed time, the machine stops, displays 4C and will not start the wash. It is a 'water in' problem — the machine is protecting itself from running a cycle it cannot fill, and on many models it will also drain any water already in the tub as a precaution.

Most likely cause: Water taps not fully open, or supply hoses kinked/frozen — The single most common cause. A tap half-closed during a plumbing job, a hose crushed behind the machine, or a frozen line in winter starves the fill.

First check: Confirm both taps are fully open and no other major fixture is running; check the hoses are not kinked behind the machine.

If it keeps coming back: If 4C keeps coming back after clean screens and a new valve, look at the house side again — pressure that sags when a shower or irrigation runs will re-trigger it at busy times of day — and at the level-sensor hose, which can hold a trapped bubble of water that slowly re-creates the fault over several cycles.

4E — Water supply error

4E is the water-supply fault on older Samsung washers; newer models display the identical fault as 4C. The control has called for water and the level sensor has not seen the tub fill within the allowed time, so the cycle stops. Everything about 4E — causes, checks and fixes — matches 4C; Samsung simply changed the code format between display generations. The 4E/4C relationship deserves stating exactly as Samsung documents it, because the internet usually gets it backwards. Samsung's own current support pages title the fault '4E (4C)' — the older code named first, the newer in brackets — and its manual information-code tables group the fault as '4C, 4E, E1: water is not supplied', while the US support page groups the same fault as 'nF, 4C, 4E: not filling error'. There are not two faults here and there is no conversion to perform: one water-supply fault has worn several display spellings across Samsung generations, and 4E is simply the spelling older displays use. Two neighbours must not be swept into it. The temperature-of-supply family — shown as 4C2/4E2 and nF1 on US pages — is a different report, about supply water that is extremely hot because the hoses are swapped. And NF is not a different fault either, just the same not-filling report in the letter style top-load displays favour. Read 4E as 'the washer is not receiving enough water', in Samsung's own summary, and every source agrees.

Most likely cause: Supply taps closed or hoses kinked — The most common cause, especially after the machine was moved or plumbing work was done.

First check: Make sure both water taps are fully open.

If it keeps coming back: Recurring 4E after cleaning usually means pressure that drops when the house draws water elsewhere, or a level-sensor hose that is slowly taking on water and misreporting the level. A 4E that keeps coming back after clean screens and open taps is almost never the screens again — it is the machine reporting the same shortfall from a different seat in the same chain. Read the pattern before re-cleaning anything: 4E only at peak household demand is the supply sagging under Samsung's 0.5 bar floor; 4E only on warm cycles is the hot side (tap, screen, solenoid, or no hot line at all); 4E that began the week plumbing work was done is sediment re-clogging the screens or a hose left crossed; 4E on a new installation is the drain hose siphoning the fill. Each pattern has its own one-step proof, and running that proof beats repeating the filter clean — Samsung's own endpoint, once its published checks are done, is a service request, and arriving there with the pattern documented is what makes that visit short.

5C — Drain error

5C (shown as 5E on older Samsung displays, and as SC in some character sets) means the control ran the drain pump but the water level did not fall as expected. The machine stops — usually with a tub full of water — because it cannot safely spin a full tub. In the large majority of cases the water path is physically blocked: the pump filter, the pump itself, or the drain hose. Genuine pump failures are the second most common cause. The drain filter deserves its reputation as the centre of the 5C story, because of where Samsung puts it: downstream of the tub and immediately in front of the drain pump, so everything the wash water carries that should not be in a pump — coins, screws, hair grips, lint, the occasional small sock — is deliberately trapped there first. That design makes the filter both the most common 5C cause and the cheapest one, but it also makes the cleaning procedure unforgiving of shortcuts. The tub holds far more water than the filter housing, and the filter sits below that water, which is why Samsung's sequence always runs through the emergency drain hose first, and why Samsung repeats its warning that a filter knob not closed properly afterwards will leak. A 5C fixed by the book, with the impeller checked and the recess wiped, is usually finished.

Most likely cause: Clogged pump (debris) filter — On front-loaders the filter behind the lower front access panel slowly collects coins, lint, hair and small clothing items until flow stops. This is the first thing to check — it needs no tools beyond a shallow tray.

First check: If there is an access panel at the lower front, open it, drain the tub slowly through the small emergency drain tube into a shallow tray, then unscrew the debris filter and clean it.

If it keeps coming back: If 5C keeps coming back with a clean filter, the restriction is usually deeper: lint build-up in the tub-to-pump hose, a standpipe that is slowly silting up, or a pump that is weakening and only fails under a full load of water. Repeated jamming objects point to a damaged tub gasket or a drum baffle letting items escape. A 5C that returns within a few washes of a thorough filter clean is telling you the restriction lives somewhere the filter cannot testify about. Work outward: the hose run itself, straightened all the way to the drain system and proven unkinked; the connection, whether a spigot whose clip has loosened or a standpipe the hose has slipped in; and then the house side, because Samsung notes a standpipe needs a minimum diameter of 5 cm and proper drainage capacity to accept what the pump delivers. Only when hose, connection and house drain are all proven does a returning 5C fairly indict the pump — Samsung's stopping rule matches that order, sending you to service when a washer with a cleaned filter still will not drain at the start of a test cycle.

9C8 — Software Overcurrent Error

9C8 is easy to miss in Samsung's documentation because it does not appear in the headline tables of most washer manuals — the common top-load manual table, for example, stops at 9C1 and 9C2. Samsung defines it in the catch-all tail of its washer information page, among the codes it introduces as typically relating to sensors or electronic components not working correctly: '9C6 — High Temperature Circuit Error; 9C7 — Hardware Overcurrent Error; 9C8 — Software Overcurrent Error.' Samsung US's matching troubleshooting article (TSG10000997) carries the same definition, and Samsung support has quoted it to owners in those words: the code 'indicates a possible Software Overcurrent Error', followed by Samsung's generic sequence for this group — power off for 2–3 minutes, power back on, restart the cycle, and request service if the error continues. That is the whole of Samsung's owner-level documentation for 9C8: a one-line definition and a restart-then-service route. Samsung publishes no owner cause list, no part, and no test for it, so this page invents none. What the definition does settle is what 9C8 is not. It is not the voltage fault an earlier version of this entry described — Samsung files voltage under 9C1/9C2 and defines those separately. It is also not a software-update failure: the 'software' in Samsung's wording names how the overcurrent condition is detected and reported, Samsung publishes no update procedure as a 9C8 remedy, and the washer's downloading display is a different reading (dn). Owner reports on Samsung's own community describe 9C8 arriving at power-on with the panel refusing other operations, or appearing during spin on WA-series top-loaders — presentations worth recording for the service visit, but they are reports, not Samsung definitions, and third-party sites attach still other meanings (voltage, drain, sensor) that no Samsung source supports. (Corrected 2026-10-28.)

Most likely cause: An electronic or sensor system reporting outside its expected range — This is Samsung's own framing for the whole group 9C8 sits in: these errors 'typically relate to sensors or the electronic components in the washer reporting that they are not working correctly.' Samsung takes the diagnosis no further at owner level.

First check: Photograph the display before touching anything. On a segmented display 9C8 is easily confused with a '9CB' reading that owners also report; Samsung publishes a definition for 9C8 and none for 9CB, so the exact characters matter when you describe the fault.

If it keeps coming back: A returning 9C8 follows the pattern Samsung's routing predicts: the restart stops working because the condition the control is reporting is still present. Record the pattern across two or three events (at power-on vs. at a cycle stage, which stage, which cycle) and hand it to the technician with the model number — on a code Samsung documents this thinly, the pattern you recorded is most of the diagnosis the visit starts from. Do not keep clearing it: a code cleared weekly is a fault being managed, not repaired.

AC6 — Communication error

Samsung documents AC6 at two levels, and keeping them separate is what this page does. At the specific level, Samsung maintains a dedicated answer page for exactly this code — 'How to fix the washing machine with AC6 Error?' — which lists the whole family ('AE, AE6, AEb, AC6, ACb, AC, AC4, AC3, AC5, AE8, AEB, AE4, AE3, AE5, 1AC6, 1 AC, AC7 — Represents a communication Error') and gives one remedy: switch the washer off, unplug the power cable, power it on again and start another cycle — and if the error does not reappear, observe the machine, because it may have been a temporary issue only. At the family level, Samsung's washer code table defines AE, the family's lead spelling, as a 'signal communication error between Main PCB and Sub PCB', with the same handling (off at the mains, wait 30 seconds, back on, new programme; call support if it persists), and Samsung's main washer information page repeats the whole AC/AE string in its all-other-errors list as 'Communication Error'. What Samsung does not do, in any washer source checked, is assign AC6 to one single board pair as its definition. An earlier version of this entry did exactly that — defining AC6 as the main board's link to the motor/inverter control — and that narrowing has been removed: on Samsung's published evidence, AC6 means the communication family fault, the documented suspect link in the family's own table is main PCB to sub PCB, and anything finer (which board, which connector) is a service diagnosis on the specific model, not a definition. The practical shape of the fault follows from that: the machine stops because its controls cannot trust each other, and Samsung's owner procedure begins and ends with the power restart. (Corrected 2026-10-28.)

Most likely cause: A temporary communication glitch — Samsung's own remedy presumes this case exists: restart the machine, and if the error does not appear again, observe — 'it may be a temporary issue only.' A single AC6 after a power flicker or outage that never returns is this cause, and it needs no part.

First check: Do Samsung's restart first, before opening anything: switch off, unplug the power cable, then power on and start another cycle (Samsung's family table phrases the same step as off at the mains for 30 seconds). A code that does not return is observed, not repaired.

If it keeps coming back: An AC6 that returns after a clear spell is following the intermittent pattern: it tends to reappear at the same point (at power-up, or at a consistent cycle stage), and that consistency is worth more than another restart. Record two or three returns with their timing and any power events nearby, and hand the record over with the service request. What not to do is escalate the restarts — longer unplugs, repeated cycles — in place of the visit: Samsung's route for a persisting communication error is service, and repeated clearing only postpones it while erasing the presentation the technician needs.

Less common and model-specific codes

Search data shows owners also meet these codes on Samsung washers: 3C2, A5, A6, AP, AS, BC4, BUB, C3, C4, C5, CC, CO, CR, D3, E01, E6, EE, EU, F03, F09, F1, F21, F4, F5, F9, F9E1, HC1, IC, IDC4, J013, JO, LCI, LF, LU, Means, O6, OFF, OT, OUT, S5, SUB, TC1, U5, UB1, UL, WON. They are not part of the core code list Samsung 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

Frequently asked questions

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Facts on this page were checked against manufacturer documentation: www.samsung.com · www.samsung.com · www.samsung.com · www.samsung.com