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Troubleshooting

Resetting a Viking Dishwasher — and Counting the Lights Before You Do

How to reset Viking dishwasher controls: hold the START button for four seconds. Before you do, count the flashes on the Pots/Pans light and then on Normal Wash and write both numbers down — this machine displays no error code, the pair of counts is the entire message, and the reset clears it. Also worth knowing: after pressing START the door has to be closed securely within about four seconds or the cycle will not begin, which accounts for a share of the calls that arrive as a dead machine.

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The full guide

Troubleshooting By Appliance Content Team Last checked 2 minute read

How to reset Viking dishwasher lights — but count them first

Count the Pots/Pans light, then the Normal Wash light A Viking dishwasher displays no numbered error code. Two indicator lights on the front, Pots/Pans and Normal Wash, each flash a count and the pair is read together: one then five is a drain error, two then two is a fill timeout, two then three is a low level sensor error, and four then one is a temperature sensor error. Both lights flashing continuously is a pan flood, meaning water in the base of the machine. Counting before resetting matters because the reset clears the count. THERE IS NO NUMBER. THERE ARE TWO LAMPS. POTS/PANS flashes first NORMAL WASH flashes second read as a pair, in that order 1 — 5 Drain error Sink, disposal, the plug in the disposal, the high loop, the filters. 2 — 2 Fill timeout Supply valve, the fill line, the pressure at the tap, and level. 2 — 3 Low level sensor A dish turned over and holding water. BOTH, CONTINUOUS Pan flood. Shut the water off first. Machines built before 26 May 2010 do not count at all: an X appears under a row of cycle lights instead. Reset is START held four seconds — and it clears the count, so count before you press anything.
Anybody selling you a numbered Viking dishwasher code invented the number. Count the two lamps, in order, before the machine is reset.

This is the appliance on this make that shows nothing at all. There is no display, there is no code, and the only thing the machine will ever tell you is a count on each of two lamps.

Hold START for four seconds and it is gone. Nobody can recover it, and some of these conditions take a full cycle to reappear.

The four pairs worth knowing

Pots/PansNormal WashWhat it means
15Drain error — sink, disposal, hose loop, filters
22Fill timeout — supply valve, line, pressure, level
23Low level — usually a dish turned over holding water
41Temperature sensor

Both lights flashing continuously, with no pause, is not a count. It is a pan flood — water in the base of the machine — and the right response is to shut the water off at the valve under the sink rather than to reset it.

Then the reset

The three dishwasher resets, gentlest first Three separate actions people call "the reset". Cancelling the running cycle drains the machine and clears the program. Switching it off at the door or the button and back on restarts the control. Cutting power at the breaker for five minutes is the strongest and the last. Photograph the display first: the strongest reset erases the code that would have named the problem. PHOTOGRAPH THE DISPLAY FIRST. THE LAST ONE ERASES IT. stronger 1 Cancel the running cycle It drains, then clears the program. Standing water goes first. 2 Off and back on at the machine Restarts the control without touching anything else. 3 The breaker, five minutes, once If it comes back the same way, stop. That is the answer, not a step.
A code is the most useful sentence the machine will ever say. Step three deletes it, which is why it is step three.

START held for four seconds. The selected cycle cancels and the machine returns to standby.

That is the only reset this appliance has. There is no hidden button and there is no key combination.

The rule that catches everybody

After pressing START, the door has to be closed securely within about four seconds or the cycle will not begin. The start symbol lights to say the machine is ready, not that it is running.

People arriving from another make press START, load one more glass, and close the door twenty seconds later. Nothing happens, and the machine looks dead. It is not.

The older machines

Dishwashers built before 26 May 2010 do not count flashes at all. They mark an X under a row of cycle lights, and the pattern of marks is the code. The two tables are not compatible and reading the wrong one gives a confident, wrong answer.

The date code is on the serial plate inside the door frame. Thirty seconds, and it settles which machine you have.

When a reset is the wrong answer

If the lights are flashing a drain pair, resetting and running another cycle pushes more water at a drain path that is already blocked. Work through the free checks first — the sink, the disposal, the plug in the disposal, the high loop, the filters and whether the machine is level — because five of those six are outside the appliance.

If it turns out to be a repair

Every job on this site is priced the same way: an on-site diagnostic first, the figure agreed in writing before anybody starts.

  • A hand at the control strip of an open dishwasher, the cycle buttons in a row along the door edge
    Count them — the pair is the message

    Dishwasher lights flashing

    A Viking dishwasher has no error code. Two lights on the front flash a count each, and the pair of counts is the entire diagnostic vocabulary of the appliance.

    • Cycle buttons flashing rather than lit
    • Two lights flashing different counts
    • Both lights flashing continuously
    What it usually means
  • Pans and lids stacked upside down on a tiled counter
    Door, latch, and the four-second reset

    Dishwasher will not start

    A machine that does nothing when the cycle is selected, or starts and stops immediately. Two of the causes are free to check and one of them is a habit rather than a malfunction.

    • Nothing happens when START is pressed
    • The start light blinks and nothing runs
    • It runs for a moment and stops
    What it usually means
  • A stack of plates standing on the lowered door of a dishwasher
    Usually the plumbing, not the machine

    Dishwasher not draining

    Water standing in the bottom at the end of a cycle. Six things are worth checking before anybody is called, and between them they resolve most of these.

    • Water in the bottom after a cycle
    • One flash then five on the front lights
    • It drains slowly rather than not at all
    What it usually means
  • A dishwasher standing open in a white fitted kitchen, both racks loaded with clean china
    Stainless front · Panel ready · Undercounter · 18" and 24"

    Dishwashers

    Stainless-fronted and panel-ready models, all of them Energy Star, all built around a variable-speed motor that changes water pressure with the cycle. It is also the appliance in this line most likely to report an error on its own display, which makes the first phone call much shorter.

    • A cycle that stops part-way with water in the tub
    • Dishes coming out gritty or still wet
    • A code on the panel and a cycle that will not start
    Dishwasher repair

Questions people ask about this

What is the error code on a Viking dishwasher?

There is not one. This maker publishes no numbered code for any of its dishwashers — anything online offering one has invented it. Two lights flash a count each and the pair is the message.

Why does the door have to be closed so quickly?

Pressing START readies the cycle and the door has to be latched within about four seconds for it to begin. It surprises people who have moved from another make, and it is not a malfunction.

The start light is blinking and nothing happens.

That means the cycle was interrupted. Hold START for four seconds to cancel, then select again. It is in the manual and it costs nothing.

I reset it and now the lights are not flashing at all.

That is what the reset does. If the underlying condition is still there it will reappear during the next cycle — which is why counting first is worth the thirty seconds.

My machine marks an X under the cycle lights instead.

Then it was built before 26 May 2010 and it uses a completely different table. The date code on the serial plate inside the door frame settles which one you have.

Troubleshooting

  • A finger setting the temperature on the touch panel of a refrigerator

    Resetting a Viking Refrigerator: Which Button, Which Cabinet, and What It Clears

    Four generations of control with four different sequences — and the clear the manufacturer specifically asks for before an E-code is believed.

    Read more
  • A close heap of machine-made ice cubes, hollow-ended, wet at the edges

    Viking Ice Maker Reset: Where the Button Is, and the Three Checks That Come First

    A reset does nothing for a starved machine, and starved is what most of these are. Supply valve, filter date and the drain — all three before the button, and all three free.

    Read more
  • A hand switching a breaker in an open household panel

    How to Reset a Viking Oven — and What a Reset Does Not Fix

    Five minutes genuinely off at the breaker is the dividing line on this make. What clears there was a supply interruption; what survives it is hardware.

    Read more

Tell us the model number and what it is doing.

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This article is based on:

  • Official manufacturer documentation
  • Internal repair procedures
  • Technician repair history
  • Company quality standards
Call (305) 697-3843