Bosch dishwasher reset not working

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While there are several reasons as to why you might want to reset your Bosch dishwasher, the reset might not always work. In this case, what do you do next?

Well, in this troubleshooting guide, I will show you some alternative methods you can use to hard reset or factory reset your Bosch dishwasher if the default reset method does not seem to work.

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Bosch dishwasher reset not working

Before we see how you can factory reset your dishwasher, let us briefly look at how you can reset it using the control panel buttons.

Reset the dishwasher by pressing the reset button

While Bosch dishwashers don’t come with a dedicated reset button, you can still use some of the various buttons to reset the dishwasher.

For instance, in newer models, you can reset the dishwasher by pressing and holding the Start button for 3-5 seconds.

Quick tip: In some models, the start button is labelled as Start/Pause or Start/Reset.

As for some older models, you can reset them by pressing and holding the Cancel/Drain button.

If the reset is successful, you will hear the dishwasher drain all the water before it resets the control board.

Something else: If the dishwasher was running a cycle, long pressing the start button will also reset the cycle.

In some newer models, the above procedure might not work. In this case, you can reset the dishwasher by following these steps:

Open the dishwasher.
Press and hold the Start button for 3-5 seconds.
When the dishwasher time resets to 0:01, turn it off.
Turn it on after a few seconds – preferably 30 seconds.
Proceed to choose your preferred cycle and press the start button to run the dishwasher.
Close the dishwasher to start the cycle.

It is important to note that this reset procedure will mostly work only if you are trying to reset the current cycle.

As such, it might not work when trying to clear some error codes or if you’re trying to unfreeze a frozen display.

If your reason for wanting to reset your dishwasher is to clear error codes, you will need to hard reset (factory reset) it.

With that in mind, let us see how you can hard reset your dishwasher – this works best for clearing error codes.

How to hard reset (factory reset) your Bosch dishwasher

Quick tip: This method is also known as power cycling the dishwasher.

Usually, there are two methods that you can use to power cycle your dishwasher – we’ll look at them in a moment.

But first, let us see why these methods work so well when it comes to resetting your Bosch dishwasher.

You see, at times, your dishwasher might behave erratically due to the presence of static electric charges on the control board.

And, when you use these two methods, you allow for these static charges to flow out of the control board thereby resetting the unit in the process.

Having said that, here are the two reset methods:

1. Using the power outlet

When using this method, all you need to do is locate the power outlet that the dishwasher is plugged into.

Next, pull out the power cord from the power outlet and let the dishwasher sit for at least 5 minutes without power.

Once the 5 minutes are over, you can proceed to plug back the dishwasher.

2. Using the circuit breaker

Depending on the setup of your dishwasher, it might not be possible to locate or access its power outlet.

However, you can still reset the dishwasher by directly cutting its power supply… Here, all you need to do is to locate the circuit breaker line to the dishwasher and flip it.

Again, let the dishwasher sit for at least 5 minutes without power before resetting the circuit breaker.

Quick tip: Resetting your dishwasher using the above two methods also factory resets it.

What you can do if resetting your dishwasher does not work

Earlier on, we mentioned that there are several reasons that might make you want to reset your Bosch dishwasher.

Among these reasons, are to clear/reset error codes such as E01, E02, E07, E0100, E0106, and E3100 among others.

If your key reason for wanting to reset your dishwasher is to clear an error code, and the above reset steps do not work, it means that the problem might be due to an acting part.

In this case, your best bet will not be to reset the dishwasher but to manually fix the cause of the error code.

For instance, if you are trying to clear the E15 error code and a reset does not work, you should try removing the excess suds or water in the tub area.

As such, it is good if you know how to further troubleshoot the different error codes that your Bosch dishwasher might display.

If your dishwasher is displaying an error code and you don’t have an idea on how to fix it, you can read our previous guide on the same as it will guide you on how to fix the various error codes.

You can read this guide here: How to troubleshoot Bosch dishwasher error codes.