Indesit Xwe 91683X F05 Error - Before And After Engineer Visited

[tangerine81]

Last Thursday after a year of perfect use, our Indesit XWE 91683X had an F05 error on the display and the Push&Wash/ Start buttons were flashing and the machine was still full of water.

My particular manual says to call an engineer if an F Error appeared but after a little googling it seemed that some newer manuals said this:

The machine does not drain or spin or F05 error code in the display.

• The Pump filter is blocked.

• The drain hose is kinked (see “Installation”).

• New Installation - The blanking cap or spigot has not been removed if connected under a sink.

• The drain hose or sink trap is blocked.

• The wash cycle does not include draining, some wash cycles require the drain phase to be started manually.

• The ‘EASY IRON’ option is enabled, to complete the wash cycle press the ‘START/PAUSE’ button.

• The Spin Speed is set to “OFF”.

The last 5 are not applicable so we set about draining the washing machine and checking the filter which was fine. Upon checking the drain hose there was only so much we could so seeing as neither of us had any idea how to remove it from the washing machine. We put the soaking stinky washing that had been trapped inside on a spin and drain cycle which worked fine. We thought we had sorted it but on trying another wash cycle the same thing happened. (but less water remained this time)

I phoned D&G insurance and then Indesit who said an F05 error was a blockage, advised me to buy 2 years supply of cleaning stuff (which i did) to use once a month and booked me an engineer for today (15/06/15).

Im at work so my mum let the engineer in. He said everything seems fine with the machine. He could not help further because we have a drainage hose extension kit installed. This is not recommended with this machine (something to do with it being super eco apparently) and to rectify the situation i need to extend the plastic white sink pipes from the sink trap to the washing machine (rather than the other way around which is what a drain hose extension kit does).

1. Has anyone else come across this? Does that sound correct regarding the hose extension? Its been working fine for a year and my previous machine for 4 years.

2. Is there a simpler way to rectify this?

3. Is extending the sink pipes to meet the appliance as difficult as it sounds? LIkely to be expensive? i wouldnt even attempt that myself.

Thanks and i look forward to your comments.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

F05 error is not "a blockage", it is the pressure switch stuck in the on position which could be caused by a fault on the pressure switch. A blockage can cause F05 though and if yours is full of water it may well be related to emptying problems. My explanation of the Hotpoint F05 error (Hotpoint and Indesit are the same company and share many aspects) gives a more detailed description of the issue.

As for extending the plumbing in the sink. The only potential problem with a drain hose extension hose is if it is so long that the washing machine's pump can't force the water all the way through it efficiently. However, extended drain hoses have been sold and used for decades and they usually work ok. I can't see how the washing machine being super eco would make any difference at all. If anything, it should use less water and therefore be less prone to emptying problems.

Washing machine pumps are not very powerful and are only designed to pump water the relatively short distance to the sink or a stand pipe. From there it should drain out through gravity running down the pipe out to the drain. Therefore the longer a drain hose is the more likely it will have problems emptying out the water fast enough.

I've fitted hundreds of 2.5 m extended drain hoses before and the drain hose just ran along the floor to the sink and then up to the u-bend. They all worked perfectly okay.

If your washing machine is further away and needs an extension hose make sure it isn't going uphill all the way. As long as it only has to pump water uphill no more than the recommended height of a standpipe in the instruction book (usually several inches below the top of the machine) and from then on the drain hose slopes slightly down towards the u-bend the water should pump out ok.

If the washer has always been cnnected like this and worked ok but now it doesn't then it would be fair to assume it's not directly related to the drain hose. If there is a partial blockage in the pump or filter though then that would reduce the pump flow and indirectly the extra length of the hose could be causing an issue.

[tangerine81]

HI thanks for this. The Indesit engineer basically said he would not do anything until i remove the drain hose extension. If after that the washing machine still has an F05 error (which he confirmed as you said is not a blockage, so i have spent £25 for nothing) they will come back out and sort it. Weve been able to move it slightly closer to the sink and the quickest and cheapest solution seems to be replacing the drainage hose for a 2.5m one. Hopefully this will sort the problem but if not as least i am covered for the engineer call outs! I will think about extending the sink plumbing if all else fails.

[tangerine81]

Just to let you know that replacing the extended hose with a single, longer one has solved everything

[tangerine81]

UPDATE: After three successful cycles with an empty machine, it has now displayed F05 again. Back to the insurance company

[tangerine81]

Ok so it works fine when empty and a spin and drain cycle works fine too. It is only on a normal wash cycle that F05 appears...

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Just to let you know that replacing the extended hose with a single, longer one has solved everything

Thanks for the update. It seems very strange that installing an even longer drain hose would help unless by any chance there was a blockage somehow in the connector that connected the original extended hose together.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

You need to revisit my article, the one I linked to my first reply. Either the washing machine is not draining out all of the water (and this may be intermittent now) or it is draining out all of the water but the pressure system which monitors the water levels is faulty are blocked. It is all explained in my article.

Basically, when you next get the F05 error you need to establish if it is partially full of water or not. Try to open the door, and remove all the laundry. Is there water in the drum? Clearly if it hasn't spun the close will be sopping wet so there will be some water inside the machine but you may be able to determine if it is more than this water that is present and is stopping it from spinning.

Another possibility is when you next get the F05 error try turning the machine off and putting it on spin only program. Does the empty out a lot of extra water and spin okay or does it still not spin and still produce the error?