---
title: "Samsung dishwasher: Heater failing"
description: "Samsung dishwasher heater failing — samsung dishwasher: Heater failing: samsung dishwasher — reported by blinking lights rather than by a code."
url: "https://samsungmiami.support/error-codes/dishwasher-lights-heater-failing/"
date_modified: "2026-09-04"
Appliance type: "Dishwashers"
---


# Samsung dishwasher: Heater failing

### What the appliance is actually reporting

The element that heats the water, rather than the sensor that watches it. A dishwasher with no heat still washes, after a fashion, which is why this one often goes unreported for months and is discovered as a drying complaint.

### Where this appears, and why not to clear it

On the cycle lights, on a machine with no digital display. Samsung publishes what each combination means, and on those models the combination is the entire diagnosis — it disappears the moment the power is cut. Write it down or photograph the panel before switching anything off. Samsung adds one caution of its own and it saves service calls: on some models the lights blink to show cycle status, so treat it as an error only if the machine is misbehaving as well.

### Which machines this one applies to

Models with no digital display, which report by blinking their cycle lights. Samsung itself flags that several of its codes mean two different things depending on the model — *dC*, *3E* and *BE2* on washers, and *1E* on dishwashers — so the model number is what settles which reading applies to your machine. It also publishes nothing at all for freezers, ice makers and range hoods, which is why those appliances have symptom pages here and no code pages.

### What to do about it

- Empty the machine and run a normal cycle to confirm the lights repeat.
- Check whether the dishes are coming out cool and wet as well.
- If it repeats, the element and its circuit need measuring.

### Where this goes next

The job this usually becomes is [temperature sensor replacement](/services/temperature-sensor-replacement/), and that page carries a starting figure and the reasons that move it. If it turns out to be nothing — and on this make a real share of these are modes, reminders and settings rather than problems — the visit ends there and you pay the diagnostic and nothing else, or call [(305) 506-1256](tel:+13055061256) and describe what the panel is doing before booking anything.

Models with no digital display, which report by blinking their cycle lights

What the lights are telling you

What the appliance is actually reporting

The element that heats the water, rather than the sensor that watches it. A dishwasher with no heat still washes, after a fashion, which is why this one often goes unreported for months and is discovered as a drying complaint.

Where this appears, and why not to clear it

On the cycle lights, on a machine with no digital display. Samsung publishes what each combination means, and on those models the combination is the entire diagnosis — it disappears the moment the power is cut. Write it down or photograph the panel before switching anything off. Samsung adds one caution of its own and it saves service calls: on some models the lights blink to show cycle status, so treat it as an error only if the machine is misbehaving as well.

Which machines this one applies to

Models with no digital display, which report by blinking their cycle lights. Samsung itself flags that several of its codes mean two different things depending on the model — dC, 3E and BE2 on washers, and 1E on dishwashers — so the model number is what settles which reading applies to your machine. It also publishes nothing at all for freezers, ice makers and range hoods, which is why those appliances have symptom pages here and no code pages.

What to do about it

Empty the machine and run a normal cycle to confirm the lights repeat.

Check whether the dishes are coming out cool and wet as well.

If it repeats, the element and its circuit need measuring.

Where this goes next

The job this usually becomes is temperature sensor replacement, and that page carries a starting figure and the reasons that move it. If it turns out to be nothing — and on this make a real share of these are modes, reminders and settings rather than problems — the visit ends there and you pay the diagnostic and nothing else, or call [(305) 506-1256](tel:+13055061256) and describe what the panel is doing before booking anything.

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