--- title: "Samsung dishwasher: Cannot drain" description: "Samsung dishwasher cannot drain — samsung dishwasher: Cannot drain: samsung dishwasher — reported by blinking lights rather than by a code." url: "https://samsungmiami.support/error-codes/dishwasher-lights-no-drain/" date_modified: "2026-09-04" Appliance type: "Dishwashers" --- # Samsung dishwasher: Cannot drain ### What the appliance is actually reporting Standing water and a cycle that will not finish, reported in lights instead of 5C. The order that solves most of them is filter, hose, disposer connection, pump — and on a machine that has never drained since it was fitted, the disposer knockout plug. ### The other light combinations that mean this Delicate · Quick+ Samsung publishes forty light combinations for the dishwasher alone, and several of them mean the same thing. They are grouped here by what they mean rather than made into forty near-identical pages, and every combination the maker names is printed above. ### 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 - Take out the filter assembly, clean it and refit it. - Check the drain hose is not kinked and rises into a high loop. - If it drains into a disposer, confirm the knockout plug was removed at installation. - If all of that is right, the drain pump is the repair. ### Where this goes next The job this usually becomes is [dishwasher drain repair](/services/dishwasher-drain-repair/), 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 Standing water and a cycle that will not finish, reported in lights instead of 5C. The order that solves most of them is filter, hose, disposer connection, pump — and on a machine that has never drained since it was fitted, the disposer knockout plug. The other light combinations that mean this Delicate · Quick+ Samsung publishes forty light combinations for the dishwasher alone, and several of them mean the same thing. They are grouped here by what they mean rather than made into forty near-identical pages, and every combination the maker names is printed above. 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 Take out the filter assembly, clean it and refit it. Check the drain hose is not kinked and rises into a high loop. If it drains into a disposer, confirm the knockout plug was removed at installation. If all of that is right, the drain pump is the repair. Where this goes next The job this usually becomes is dishwasher drain repair, 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. --- **[Read full article: Samsung dishwasher: Cannot drain](https://samsungmiami.support/error-codes/dishwasher-lights-no-drain/)**