LG FL Washer – 2277 – OE error


We bought an LG 2277 washer sometime in the past year. A couple of times it has had the OE error, which means the drain needs unplugged, or the drain filter needs cleaned out.

We haven’t thought about it in any sort of regular fashion, to do something about it beforehand, but will be doing just that now.

Yesterday, early evening, the OE error started, and nothing would get the washer going. I didn’t do much with it, but my hubby did, and he gave up on it finally late last night.

When the OE error shows, you have to look at the filter, which is on the left front of the machine, at the bottom. To do this you have to open the little door to the area, and there on the far left is a little black tube, with a stopper in the end. This must be drained first, before moving on to opening the filter for inspection/cleaning (or else have a little flood on your hands/floor.) Unplug the washer first, to be on the safe side.

The little tube is low to the ground and you have to find some way to drain it. We have a window nearby, the tube in no way is long enough to go to a window or sink or such. The window, in our case, is useful since we have no sink in the laundry room. We use a wash basin or a pan to collect the water, and then throw the water out the window (into the front yard.) It takes two or three fill ups to drain enough out, generally.

Once that part is done, tube back in place, the filter can be unscrewed, it’s to the right of the tube. Some water may come out as you loosen this part, so a towel on the floor, tucked under the edge of the washer, is very useful. The filter is one large-ish plastic piece, and it should be cleaned out, just pull stuff out/off, and rinse off with water if you wish. Put the filter back, make sure it’s screwed back down all the way, make sure the tube and it’s stopper are in the right place, and then plug the electric back in, and set your load to wash and see if it works.

Now this is the general way of dealing with the OE error. It has worked for us before, but we went through it time and again, and again,and again, and again and futher than that last night. Today, late morning, hubby started at it again, and still had no success, though he had drained it and drained it, and tried and tried. I got involved here and there. We also took the big drain hose out of the house drain and snaked up it and also down the house drain. Nothing much came up or out.Just a few tiny pieces of stuff which didn’t do anything to change the situation.

I eventually stumbled onto something that I had overlooked in the manual, a way to just make the washer “spin” and nothing else. It’s not a setting on the machine, but works by turning on the machine, and then only touching the SPIN SPEED button. Choose any speed, and 14 minutes shows on the display window. Press start/pause to begin the spin cycle. Any water in the load should spin out and be drained out. I found it in the manual, but it wasn’t under any sort of “Spin Cycle” heading, and it made sense as to why I’d overlooked it previously.

What was going on with our machine though, was that nothing would work. Sometimes we could get a regular wash cycle to start, but it would quit in the middle of the cycle with the OE error again. Other wise we couldn’t get it to do anything. Draining it again and again.

I stumbled on the “spin” thing late mid-afternoon, but was having a problem with the machine still, it wouldn’t move, though it said it was doing what I wanted it to.

I finally started doing more draining, and after that I found that it did do the “Spin cycle” and it really worked. I didn’t let it quite finish though, anxious to do a regular load, and get the wash all going again (with plenty more loads waiting to be done.)

That dreaded OE error came again though. So I drained the machine and looked at the filter, and then I took a long piece of wire and poked as far as I could into the drain tube in the front, and then into the hole left when the filter is taken out.

So when I had the machine plugged in and turned it on, I tried the “Spin Cycle” again and it worked, and we let it run fully. It finished fine.

Then we ran a small load, on “quick cycle” and that worked fully. We watched the whole cycle, and seemed to think at one point when the washer was draining that it made a little “thunk” sound and then there was a decently loud draining/suction sound from there on out.

So for better or worse, it was the draining, and cleaning out filter and poking into holes that helped, but only after we let a SPIN cycle go fully through.

I found one website which had people talking about LG washer problems, and one person said that LG Customer Service had told them that the front drain tube should be drained out after every 4 to 5 cycles run. That sounds crazy! Is that for all LG Washers, or just ones that have a leaking problem (which ours did not, but we had a bad cycle of it wouldn’t work … until it was drained AND spinned out … and maybe my poking and prodding actually did something?)

Our experience has taught us that we will do this maintenance at the least monthly, and maybe weekly. Just to get it before it’s ugly head is reared.

It’s worth the higher maintenance (than our old top loader) to have the front loader. It’s not much, just some draining, and cleaning of filters, kind of weird, but not so bad once you do it and see how it works.

I’m glad that I now understand that our machined DOES have a “SPIN ONLY Cycle” — this troublesome last day of machine woes taught us the worthiness of the drain/filter maintenance, and the spinning ability, and I’m glad to have learned these things, and things often must be hard lessons to stick. KWIM?


19 responses to “LG FL Washer – 2277 – OE error”

  1. This comment helped me fix my washing machine. I took out the filter and poked at the side exit hole where the water drains out – there was some lint that was clogging up the outlet. BTW – bad design – the pump motor should have a metal spring clip that you can use some slip-joint pliers so you can take it off (once removing the back access panel) – then you could unclog the drain hose at the motor and be sure that you are getting it all out, rather than poking a bent wire in there from the front of the machine and hope you get it all out.

    Thank you for the detailed explanation of your issues with your LG washing machine.

    • I’m glad to have helped someone (you, labrax, in particular) with my post. It’s frustrating when stuff goes wrong that just doesn’t seem like it should and then it’s hard to find the answers. BTDT so many times, that’s why I make sure to document stuff like this when I have problems. 🙂

  2. Thanks for the tip on the spin cycle! Sometimes the power button on my machine accidentally gets bumped, I hated to have to start a wash all over again because of that! I tried out the spin cycle and it worked great.

    Thank you!

  3. Thanks! I didn’t know aobut the spin cycle. We thought it was a belt broken on the machine and the spin cycle wasn’t working. Nope. OE error strikes again. But I forgive my machine. I’ve had it since ’06 and I’ve never cleaned the filter that I didn’t realize needed cleaning. :)) A cork, a key, rubber bands, yucky ,stinky, linty, ewwwy stuff. Running the spin cycle now and then we’ll running a regular cycle. Hopefully we’ll be fixed. But at least the repair man will know where to start and I won’t get lectured. :))

  4. Good info. However I left my front drain hose go way too long and it is plugged solid. was able to clean out as far as a wire could reach from the plug end, however still plugged at the inner end. Any ideas on how to get at the enclosed end?

  5. After washing a soft hand weight that my dog chewed on (unbeknownst to me) that leaked sand in my machine, the washer stopped draining. Stupid me, I know. But, after several attempts at clearing the drain myself according to the manual, I came across this post. And, low and behold after poking around with a yard flag wire for the better part of a Sunday afternoon, unfortunately, I am happy to report that my problem is resolved. I should warn you that I almost got it stuck because I bent it to avoid poking a hole in the rubber drain tube. If you attempt to try this method be careful as to not cause more damage! I was just Googling repair companies when my Spin Speed cycle completed. Maybe that helped fixed it?? I don’t know, but either way I saved myself a service call. Thank you!

  6. I had the same problem. Numerous tries at cleaning the filter and draining the water manually didn’t fix the problem, however, I pulled out the filter one last time and stuck my fingers in the hole. There was a sock way back in there! I pulled it out, along with it came gallons of water which I stopped by plugging it back up with the filter quickly. Washer drained perfectly and is working like a charm!

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