Samsung washing machines can display an error code 5E. This means the washing machine has a “water drain error”. It’s basically timed out on empty. So it’s tried draining out the water for 10 minutes and the water level still hasn’t fallen below a specified level (or at least it thinks it hasn’t). This error should be able to be reset by pressing the Start/Pause button. But if there is a fault, it will need fixing or the error will just return.
What can cause this error?
A washing machine not emptying the water can have various causes. So has a washing machine thinking it hasn’t drained the water when it has. It’s necessary to work out which fault is causing the 5E error. Is the water not pumping out, and clearly still inside the drum? Or does it appear to have drained away most of the water but then stopped with the error? Did you hear the water going down the drain ok or did you hear nothing being pumped out?
To troubleshoot this problem the first thing to check is the pump filter, which could be blocked. Obviously don’t bother looking at the pump filter if the water is being pumped away. This is only likely to be relevant if you have the 5E error and you can clearly see that most of the water is stuck inside the machine. I have extensive advice on diagnosing pump faults here Washing machine won’t drain water (stuck full of water)
Another possible cause could be if there is a fault on the pressure system so that the water is being pumped out ok but the control board is not getting a signal that the water has gone. So it still thinks there is water inside which causes the error when it gets to a spin. This is more complex, but some advice is in this article – Faults on pressure system
If you can’t find anything using this advice I’d get an engineer out.
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Andrea says
It WAS the pump filter. Googled my problem and found you. Thanks for your help :)
Washerhelp says
Excellent Andrea, such feedback is nice.
Michael Winter says
Cheers for the help. Continually getting 5E up with standing water in the drum. Do you know the cost of new filters?
Washerhelp says
Thanks Michael: You shouldn’t need to replace a filter only clean it. But if one gets damaged you can search for one here Washing machine spares
Anonymous says
Hi.. Samsung is generaly rubish !!! They programe there products to fail after some years.. for TV.. its burning hours.. washing machines.. its the amount of washes.. so if you want to have a product without problems, buy another NOT SAMSUNG
Whitegoodshelp (Andy Trigg) says
Hi Anonymous, all appliance manufacturers do the same. Some popular but cheap brands design them to run for what in practice only works out at 3 or 4 years of large family use. Miele design theirs for 20 years “average” use though.
Steve says
I am an electronics engineer, system developer we have a Samsung WA7589 with a common low cost permanent earth magnet synchronous induction motor drain pump.
Recently it has not been draining consistently and throwing the dreaded 5E error.
Well this machine is now over 10 years old and this pump drain motors rotor seals are beginning to let water
into the plastic rotor cage , this in turn promotes wear and disturbs the motors synchronous permanent magnet rotor enough to prevent it from consistently achieving a head of 1 meter. Solution either fork out 100$ on a new motor ,or buy a new machine.
Being the cheapskate I wasn’t prepared to do either instead I stripped the induction motor drilled a hole in the bottom of the plastic rotor cage just after the internal cage rubber seal (+/-5mm from the shaft entry into the cage) to let the water drain out the pump motor rotor cage onto the drip tray.
Spray a little Q20 Wurth or other light oil lubrication into the rotor hole and now the washing machine is working perfectly again. I must admit although this solution works very well for me and will likely extend the working life of the machine the biggest problem with induction motors of this design tend to be the WORN BUSHES UPSETTING THE FLUX ALIGNMENT.
THIS SOLLUTION WORKED VERY EFFECTIVELY FOR ME BUT BE ADVISED YOU WILL NOW NEED TO DEAL WITH SLIGHT PUDDLE OF WATER ON THE FLOOR.
Greg says
This is going to sound rather silly. I had the 5E error code. But on the display it looked more like SE. So there I was looking for a list of codes and disappointed I couldn’t find SE lol.
I’ve already found some coins at the drain plug when I removed it and I’m pretty sure I will find the problem, thanks to your advice and readers feedback.
Penny says
Ok so I also have the dreaded 5E I usually empty it through the front drain (and clean up the huge puddle) then it works.. This time it won’t spin… It will go through the whole cycle and then error again. I can make it drain on a drain cycle so not blocked.. What do I do now???
Andy Trigg (Whitegoodshelp) says
The other possible cause is if it has a pressure system fault or blockage which is a lot more involved. There’s some advice about it here Faults on pressure system