Resetting a Bertazzoni Dishwasher, and Reading the Code First

How to reset Bertazzoni dishwasher: photograph the code first

This is the one appliance in the kitchen where "just reset it" is the wrong instinct.

Why the code matters more here than anywhere else

Almost nothing this maker builds publishes an error code. The gas ranges do not. The ovens do not. The thirty-seven hoods do not.

The dishwashers do, and properly: FF, F1, F2, F3, F5, F6, F7, F8, F9 and HI, each with a meaning and an instruction the maker prints in the manual.

That makes it the most diagnosable appliance on the site — and it makes clearing the code the most expensive free action available to you. On an intermittent problem, that display may be the only evidence there is, because the machine will happily run a normal cycle afterwards and show nothing at all when a technician arrives.

Photograph it. Then reset.

The ladder, gentlest first

One — cancel the running program. On most of these a long press of the program or start control puts the machine into a drain cycle.

Let the drain finish. A machine left holding water is the commonest cause of the next complaint, and standing water in a warm tub grows a smell within days.

Two — open the door for a minute, then close it. This interrupts the cycle properly and clears transient states without cutting power. It is gentler than the breaker and it is often enough.

Three — power down at the breaker for two full minutes. Not two seconds; a control board holds enough charge to carry its state across a brief interruption.

Four — run a short cycle and watch it.

What a reset cannot fix, and the codes that say so

Four of the eleven codes describe conditions in the world rather than states in a control. No amount of resetting touches any of them:

FF — water is not arriving. Check the supply tap is fully open, then clean the small filter in the inlet hose end. That filter silts up and it is the commonest cause.

F2 — water is not leaving. The maker names the discharge hose and the filters. Take the filter assembly out, wash it, clear the sump underneath by hand, and check for a kinked hose or a new waste disposer whose inlet plug was never knocked out.

F1 — overflow. Switch it off, close the tap, and stop. The machine has found water where there should not be any and has protected itself for a reason.

F3 — water arriving continuously. Close the tap. A fill valve that no longer shuts will keep filling regardless of what the control does.

HI deserves its own note: the maker gives it as a high-voltage supply failure, which is about the electricity reaching the machine rather than about the dishwasher. Repeated restarting does not help, and this is occasionally an electrician's job rather than ours.

The things that are not problems

Salt and rinse-aid indicators report a real state and clear when the consumable is topped up. A reset that cleared them would only be hiding the reminder.

A control lock, which makes a healthy machine look completely dead.

A delay start left set from last time, which produces a machine that does nothing and gives no reason.

All three have ended calls before anybody drove out.

What to report if you do book

The code, exactly, with the letter. Whether it appears every cycle or occasionally. Whether the tub had water in it. Whether anything in the kitchen changed — a new disposer, plumbing work, a power cut. And the model number, which is on the tub rim just inside the door.