What to check yourself
Step 1. Turn off the water and cut the power
The supply valve is under the sink; the power is at the breaker or the plug. Do both before anything else, because every check below means reaching under an appliance that has water in it.
There is water in the base of a mains powered appliance. Do not work on it live, and do not assume the switch on the front is enough.
Step 2. Ask what detergent went in
This is the first real check and the one people skip, because it feels too simple. A squirt of washing up liquid, or a pod plus extra powder, produces foam that climbs out of the sump and drips into the base tray. There is no leak at all: the machine is drowning in suds. If anyone in the house has ever topped it up with hand dish soap, this is very likely you.
Step 3. Dry the base tray out
The float will not drop while it is wet under there. Towels through the bottom panel, then a fan blowing underneath for a few hours, is what actually clears it. Some technicians tilt the machine backwards to run the water out of the base, which works, but it is a two person job on a machine that is plumbed in.
Step 4. Reset it properly, all conditions at once
The reset only takes if the tray is dry, the float has fallen back down and the power has been off for at least ten minutes. Most people manage one of the three, see the code still showing and decide the machine is finished. Do all three together.
Step 5. Look for where the water came from
With the machine out and the base panel off, check the door gasket along its whole length, the inlet hose and its clamps, the spray arms for cracks, and the area under the sump. A drip mark, a stain or a patch of limescale shows the spot. If you find nothing and the code stays away for a fortnight after cutting the detergent back, it was foam.
What a technician will look at
Described so you know what you are paying for, not as steps to repeat.
Trace a leak that keeps coming back
A code that returns after the base is dry means real water is still arriving. Finding it means running the machine with the panels off and watching where it appears, which is a live appliance with water flowing and no cover on it.
When to call a technician
If the code returns once the tray is dry and the detergent dose has been cut. A repeat means water is arriving from somewhere and will keep arriving until it is found. Call sooner if you can see water on the kitchen floor rather than just under the machine.
What the repair costs
| Repair | Part only | Fitted by a technician |
|---|---|---|
| Cutting the detergent back, if foam was the cause | - | Free |
| Drying the base and resetting | - | Free |
| Door gasket replacement | $30 to $90 | $150 to $300 |
| Diagnosis plus hose, clamp or spray arm replacement | - | $150 to $350 |
| Sump or tub repair | - | $300 to $550 |
A new machine of the same class runs $500 to $1,500. Once a quote passes about a third of that on an older appliance, the repair stops making sense.
Codes people confuse this with
Questions people ask
- There is no water on my floor. Why is it saying there is a leak?
- The float sits in a tray inside the base of the machine, not on your floor. It trips on water that has not escaped yet. You caught it early, which is the whole point of the system.
- My machine shows FE, not AE. Different problem?
- Same problem, different generation. Newer LG dishwashers use FE where older ones used AE or E1. Work through this page either way.
- It cleared after I dried it out. Is it fixed?
- It is cleared, which is not the same thing. If foam put the water there, and you actually change the detergent, then yes. If something is dripping, the tray fills again and the code comes back, usually within a few cycles. Treat the next two weeks as the test.
- Can I disable the float so I can finish the dishes?
- No. It is the part standing between a failed hose and your kitchen floor. If it tripped, it found something.
Which machines this applies to
Applies to
LG dishwashers across the LDF, LDT, LDP and LSDF ranges. Older machines show AE or E1 for this, newer ones usually show FE. The fault and the checks are the same; LG describes FE as too much water in the tub and AE as water in the base, but in practice you work through the same list.
Last checked
2026-08-10