---
title: "How to Reset a Bosch Washing Machine, by Series"
description: "Resetting a Bosch washer: the program-dial method, holding Start, and cutting power at the breaker. Which works on which series, and the conditions that come straight back because a reset"
url: "https://boschmiami.support/blog/how-to-reset-a-bosch-washing-machine/"
date_modified: "2026-08-18"
Category: "Troubleshooting"
---


# How to Reset a Bosch Washing Machine, by Series

## Why there is no single answer

Search this question and you get half a dozen confident procedures that contradict each other. They are all correct for the machine the person writing had.

Bosch has sold washers here with a program dial and without one, with a display and with three lights, across several generations of control. A sequence written for a Serie 4 does nothing at all on a Serie 8, and the older Maxx machines are different again.

**The model number on the door collar is what settles it.** Open the door and look at the metal or plastic collar around the opening — the plate is usually at the bottom.

**Do this first, whatever your machine is:** photograph the display. Codes clear when you reset, and on these machines the code is written in two halves. Losing the second half is losing the half that says what is actually wrong.

## The three methods

### The dial

On a machine with a program dial: **turn it to Off, wait a few seconds, turn it back to a program.** That clears the running state on most series and is the one to try first.

Some generations want the dial left off for longer — thirty seconds rather than five — and a few respond to being turned to a specific position and back. If the short version does nothing, the long version is worth a go before moving on.

### Holding Start/Pause

On a machine with no dial: **press and hold Start/Pause for around five seconds** until the display clears.

This is the equivalent action and it does the same job. On some models the same key held longer enters a different mode entirely, so if the display starts showing something unfamiliar, stop and let it time out.

### The breaker

**Five minutes, genuinely off.** This is the full reset, and it is the one that clears the electronics conditions that cluster here after a power cut.

Not standby, and not the socket in the closet unless you are sure the machine is the only thing on it. Five minutes rather than thirty seconds.

## Drain it before you reset it

A washer with water in the drum will not spin and will not open, and no reset changes either.

Behind the flap at the bottom front of the machine is the pump filter, with a short drain spout beside it on most models. Unplug the machine, put a shallow tray under the spout and a towel under that, and let the water out. Then unscrew the filter and clear it while you are there.

That flap is the single most useful thing about this machine that nobody is told about. Coins, hair grips and a surprising volume of lint come out of it, and cleaning it every few months prevents most of what we are called out for.

## What a reset will never fix

- **Water in the base of the machine.** The leak protection has tripped and it is doing its job. In a laundry closet above somebody else's ceiling that lockout is worth a great deal — turn the tap off and leave it off.- **A blocked drain.** The water still is not leaving.- **A door that will not lock.** Usually something caught in the seal, or a full load pressing on the door, and there is a published code that says exactly this.- **Too much detergent.** A compact high-efficiency drum needs a fraction of what the bottle suggests, and foam confuses the machine's level sensing. Halve it on the next load.- **An unbalanced load.** The machine slows the spin, redistributes and tries again on purpose. That is protection, not a failure, and it extends the cycle by design.

## The two-part codes, briefly

Because they cause more confusion than anything else on these machines:

| What you see | What it usually is |
| --- | --- |
| E:30 / -10 | Water not arriving — tap, inlet filters, pressure |
| E:30 / -80 | Water not leaving — hose, standpipe, outlet height |
| E:30 / -20 | Too much detergent |
| E:36 variants | Drain pump blocked |
| E:00 / -23 | Water in the base — turn the tap off |

Two machines showing "E:30" can have completely different problems. That is why the photograph matters, and why "it says E30" over the phone is only half a sentence.

## When to stop

Once a code has survived the dial, the hold and five minutes at the breaker, resetting again is not new information. Send us the photograph, the model number from the door collar, and how the pair is installed — stacked in a closet or standing side by side. Those three decide most of what happens next.

---

**[Read full article: How to Reset a Bosch Washing Machine, by Series](https://boschmiami.support/blog/how-to-reset-a-bosch-washing-machine/)**