Miele W110 washing machine FAULT CODE F138

[Tyza]

Hello. I hope someone can help me with this please...

This washing machine has been out of use for the past year or so as it stopped working. It's at my mum's house - she was not using the machine properly from the start - it was never plumbed in and she was always manually filling with a hose into the tray!

The washing machine on powering up sets off an alarm with the 'CHECK DRAINAGE' and 'CHECK INLET' red led's flashing, F138 displayed and some motor/filter/pump noise. The door will not open.

With the dial at 'FINISH' I have used the reset feature which stops the alarm, stops the red led's flashing, stops the motor/filter/pump noise and then leaves me with the green 'START' led flashing but nothing on the display.

If I then cycle clockwise with the next four steps on the dial I get - 'F,138' (with the SOAK/PRE-WASH led flashing orange), '0,U', 'C,3,2,8,4' (with the temperature ranges 600/900/1200/1400 blinking orange in a particular sequence), and lastly 'H,1,8' but nothing displayed on any of the other positions. I am able to now open the door though.

I have searched online, and seen that F138 is quite common - apparently F138 error code means water has leaked into the base and activated the flood switch. I've opened up the machine and seen that water has indeed been in the base with surface rust. I've tried powering on and manually pressing the flood switch at the base of the machine but no change.

I've tried manually filling with water through the tray - there are no leaks anywhere and the machine pumps out waste water fine.

I've unscrewed the filter drain at the front bottom left - nothing blocking and I've tilted the machine forward to get all the water out. With this unscrewed I can see the actual propeller part of the filter moving fine.

Any ideas?! Many thanks

 

[blup]

Mine had a pinhole in the drain hose, enough to trigger the fault code but hardly any loss of water.

Blup

 

[Rienko]

We encountered a similar F138 issue on a new Miele after running a wash without the detergent drawer and opening the filter with a lot of water spill. As a result, there was a significant amount of water in the bottom of the washing machine.

I think the following method is useful if you have limited space and time, and if you are fairly certain that the error is due to an unforeseen water spill rather than a leak. If a leak turns out to be the cause, the error will return.

I was able to fix it without tilting or opening the machine by using a regular vacuum cleaner indirectly to a watersuction hose: I attached a flexible hose about 50 cm long 1cm wide to a steel spoke with duct tape, so the end of the hose could hang down a bit and could be directed using the spoke. As a reservoir I used a large glass jar with a screw-on lid, made two holes in the lid with a screwdriver, and inserted the hose into one of the holes, any alternative stiff jar can do. I screwed the lid onto the jar, removed the filterdoor by lifting it out, and inserted the hose about 30 cm into the space below the filter towards the center of the base (see images). Then, I used a vacuum cleaner to create suction through the other hole in the jar lid. (Do not connect the hose directly to the vacuum cleaner since water will be sucked directly into the cleaner). I sucked out all the water (about 250 ml). After that, the error code was gone and machine worked again. If you have the materials, it takes about 15 minutes without moving the washing machine.

 

[Honj]

Can you explain what you mean by "manually filling with a hose into the tray"? Are you saying the inlet water supply is fed by a tray of water that is manually filled?

What reset procedure do you follow and what is meant by:

"If I then cycle clockwise with the next four steps on the dial I get - 'F,138' (with the SOAK/PRE-WASH led flashing orange), '0,U', 'C,3,2,8,4' (with the temperature ranges 600/900/1200/1400 blinking orange in a particular sequence), and lastly 'H,1,8' but nothing displayed on any of the other positions." specifically, '0,U', 'C,3,2,8,4' - are these shown in the LED display in succession?

 

[Honj]

Just realised this was a bumped post! Hope they aren't still waiting for a fix he he.