What Does Error Code E22 on a Bosch Dishwasher Mean?

by Barrett

The good news is when something goes wrong with your dishwasher these days, if it’s got an LED display, it may try to tell you what the problem is. You just need to speak its language…

For me, dishwashers are simply supposed to do their job, and you shouldn’t have to think about it too much. Over the past four years, I’ve been totally satisfied with my Bosch dishwasher. The only oddity I’ve discovered (and the salesperson warned me about it when I was considering my choice) was you shouldn’t leave dirty dishes in it for days at a time without running it. That’s because there’s no heated drying cycle.
(An environmental friendly choice of Bosch’s)

Of course, that’s exactly what I did during the first few weeks and found that the residual dampness left behind would interact with the dirty dishes and create something of a stink after a few days.
(Of course)

The solution was simply to run the dishwasher every day or two, and the offending olfactory ‘ripeness’ immediately evaporated.

In Search of Code E22
Fast forward four years to last week…
I ran the Bosch overnight, and when I woke up and walked down the stairs to a dark kitchen, I was greeted by an eerie red glow on the front panel.

 

 

 

 

 

Something was very wrong, and the mysterious error code on the display was #E22.

Awesome.

I took a peek inside. The dishes seemed clean, and I could feel some residual heat from the washing cycle. I figured the problem occurred somewhere mid-flight or after the cycle had mostly completed.

Now, I just had to figure out what #22 meant.
After a little online research, I came upon the following clue:

‘Residual water in the dishwasher’s sump pump’

Clear Out the Sludge!!!
And then I remembered one other warning the salesperson had given me…
(I suppose you might question a dishwasher that comes with multiple warnings… but let’s not go there.)

He told me you’ve got to regularly clean out the filter that captures all of the food particles at the base of the Bosch dishwasher. Because the ‘passive-catch’ filter can get pretty gross.
And it leads to the sump pump.

How gross?
I pulled the filter out…
Take a look…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’d say all of that organic goo constitutes an official clog!

Do you think this alien-like slime can create E22?
You betcha.
(There was about a cup of undrained water lurking at the bottom.)

So, I cleaned away all of the sludge, removed the remaining water in the dishwasher and popped the filter back in.

And then… everything was just fine!
I ran the dishwasher that night, and no more E22.

You’ve Got to Clean the Filter!
You might be wondering… How long had it been since I’d cleaned out the filter?
Yeah, good question.

I’ve washed the filter before, but it’s obviously slipped my mind over the past few…
…months?

Yes, this story squarely falls into the category of
‘User Error.’

Perhaps the code should have been-
“E-User”

Now, that makes more sense!

Let’s not talk about this again.
Thank you.