What Flashing Lights Means
WHY THIS PAGE EXISTS: a good many Asko dishwashers were built with no display at all. They carry a row of indicator lamps that normally show which stage of the programme is running, and when something goes wrong those same lamps become the entire report the machine is able to make. There is no number to look up and nothing to type into a search box, which is why an owner of one of these machines usually comes away empty handed. Asko did document the patterns, model by model, in the use and care books and in the factory service manuals, and this page collects what those books actually say.
WHICH MACHINES THIS PAGE COVERS: the US numeric-series dishwashers 1474, 1475, 1500, 1502, 1555 and 1805 - the 1805 also sold as the DW954 - together with the D1996FI, which is a lamp-only member of an otherwise coded family, and the D3251, whose panel flashes its named wash buttons rather than numbered lamps. It also covers the all-lights-flash overfill indication that appears on machines which do have a window, because that one is a lamp indication in its own right. If your machine shows a code in a small LED window or a two-digit number on a display, that code has its own page and this one is not it.
HOW TO READ WHAT FOLLOWS: count the lamps from one end of the panel and stay with that end, because several of these patterns are mirror images of one another. Watch two full cycles of the flashing before deciding what you have seen.
MODEL 1474, THE ASKO SUPERIOR - SEVEN LAMPS AND EXACTLY ONE PATTERN: the use and care book says the indicator lights show when the door is not properly closed - "the first three indicator lights will blink alternately with last four indicator lights" - and that is the only fault pattern the book publishes. There is no heater pattern, no thermistor pattern and no water inlet pattern for this platform. That is a documented absence rather than a gap in our reading, and it is worth stating plainly: a 1474 with a heating problem reports nothing at all through its lamps. The model list printed at the back of that book covers 760-1, 770-1, 1353-1, 1374, 1474 and 1504.
MODEL 1475 - FIVE LAMPS: the book's heading is that the indicating lamps show if anything is wrong, and it gives five patterns. Lamps 1 and 2 flashing alternately with lamps 3, 4 and 5 means the door was open at the start or was opened during the programme. Lamps 1 and 5 together "indicates a fault in the heater". All five flashing "indicates high water level in the machine". Lamps 2 and 3 together "indicates a thermistor fault (heater control)". Lamps 4 and 5 together "indicates a water inlet fault (just machines with water softener)" - Asko's own parenthesis, and it matters, because on a 1475 without the softener that pattern is not published at all. The same book lists its family as models 765, 775, 1355, 1475, 1555, 1655 and 1895.
MODELS 1555 AND 1805 - EIGHT LAMPS, ONE SHARED TABLE: the 1555 use and care guide and the long-form book for the 1805 and DW954 print the identical set. Lamps 1 to 4 flashing alternately with lamps 5 to 8 is the door. Lamps 3 and 7 together "indicates a fault in the heater". All eight flashing "indicates high water level in the machine". Lamps 4 and 5 together "indicates a thermistor fault (heater control)". Lamps 6 and 7 together "indicates a water inlet fault (just machines with water softener)".
A CONTRAST WORTH KNOWING IF YOU OWN AN 1805: the US quick start guide that came with that machine carries no fault information whatsoever - its section on understanding the indicator lights covers only ready, running and finished. The table above is from the long-form European book for the same machine and from the 1555 guide. An 1805 owner working from the US card has been given a panel that reports faults and no key to it.
MODEL 1500, THE ASKO ASEA - EIGHT WARNING LIGHTS AND THE EARLIEST BOOK WE FOUND: the eight lights normally step through rinsing, pre-wash, main wash, first rinse, second rinse, third rinse, drying and programme finished. The warnings are quoted here exactly as printed. "Flashing, four and four alternately: The door is not closed properly." "All eight lights are flashing: The machine has taken in too much water." "The four middle lights are flashing: There is a fault during the heating sequence." The book adds one more that is not a lamp pattern at all: if all the lamps light normally but nothing in the machine works, a fuse has probably blown, and it asks the owner to call for service.
AN HONEST GAP IN ASKO'S OWN BOOK: that same page points the reader to a fault-tracing programme described under troubleshooting later in the book, and in the US edition the page it points at does not contain one - it covers only water left in the machine and a machine that will not start. The cross-reference leads nowhere in the edition we read, and we would rather say so than pretend to know what was on the missing page.
MODEL 1502 - EIGHT LAMPS LABELLED BY STAGE: the lamps are marked RINSE, PRE-WASH, MAIN WASH, RINSE 1, RINSE 2, RINSE 3, DRYING and ON-OFF. "If three lights are flashing alternately, it means that the door is not properly closed" - that is lamps 1, 2 and 3 with the ON-OFF lamp, alternating with lamps 5, 6 and 7 with the ON-OFF lamp. "If the first seven lights are flashing, the machine has admitted too much water." "If these lights are flashing, there is something wrong with the heating" - lamps 3, 4 and 5, which are MAIN WASH, RINSE 1 and RINSE 2, together with the ON-OFF lamp.
THE D1996FI - A LAMP-ONLY MACHINE INSIDE A CODED FAMILY: its Asko factory service manual gives the patterns with no code numbers beside them, because the machine was built without an LED window. Lamps L3 and L7 flashing is the heating element. Lamps L1 to L8 is overfill. Lamps L4 and L5 is a thermistor fault, which the manual labels heater control. Lamps L1 to L4 is the water inlet. Its sibling models show those same four faults as F1, F2, F3 and F4 in a window, and those codes have their own pages. One oddity in that manual, mentioned so that nobody is misled by it: a later page still carries wording about the thermistor fault being displayed in the LED window as F3, which is left over from the sibling model. The D1996FI has no window to display it in.
THE D3251 AND ITS SIBLINGS - NAMED BUTTONS RATHER THAN NUMBERED LAMPS: this generation flashes the wash-programme buttons themselves, and the use and care guide introduces it plainly - "In the event that the machine should fail during a program, the control panel lights will flash to indicate an operation fault has occurred." Heavy Wash flashing on its own: "Too much water has entered the dishwasher. Call a service technician." Delicate Wash flashing: "Water inlet fault. Make sure the water supply is open." Quick Wash flashing: "Valve leakage. Shut off the water supply and contact a service technician." Pots and Pans and Heavy Wash flashing together: the drain is blocked, and the book sends the reader to its troubleshooting section. Pots and Pans and Normal Wash flashing together: the filter is clogged, and the book sends the reader to its chapter on cleaning the filters. The reset for all of them is documented: "If you have corrected the fault, turn the main power off then back on to remove the fault indication. If it still displays, try again to correct the problem or call a service technician." The same book describes the protection behind the first of those patterns - the machine "automatically shuts off the inlet valve and starts the drain pump if the water level in the unit should rise above the normal level."
ALL THE LIGHTS FLASHING AT ONCE, WHICH HAPPENS ON THE CODED MACHINES TOO: two Asko use and care books state this directly. The book covering models 1325 to 1895 reads "On Models 1485, 1595, 1805, 1885, and 1895, when an overfill is detected all of the indicator lights on the control panel will flash at once", and the 06-Series book says the same for the D1776, D1796FI, D1876, D1996, D1976 and D1976CUS. On the models that also have an LED window a code appears alongside; on the 1805, the D1796FI and the D1996 there is no window, so the lights are the whole message. Asko's instruction for this one is not a check but an action - turn the water off at the main supply and call for service. The same books add the detail that explains a machine which then will not start at all: "If there is water in the base pan due to an overfill or small leak, the water must be removed before the dishwasher will start."
WHICH PATTERNS ARE NOT FAULTS: the door patterns, all of them. On every machine listed here the half-and-half alternating flash is the door reporting that it is not latched, and it clears when the door is shut properly.
CLASSIFICATION: mixed by its nature. This page carries door indications that are ordinary behaviour, a filter message that is routine maintenance, and fault reports about overfilling, heating and the water inlet that are not routine at all. Identify the pattern first, then read the seriousness from what it names rather than from the fact that lights are flashing.
Common Causes of Flashing Lights
- Door pushed to but not latched, which is what the alternating half-and-half pattern means on every machine here
- Water level above normal, with the overfill device having shut the inlet valve and started the drain pump
- Water standing in the base pan, which Asko says must be removed before the machine will start again
- Heating element or its circuit, on the patterns Asko names as a fault in the heater
- Thermistor or heater control circuit, on the patterns Asko names as a thermistor fault
- Water inlet restricted or the supply closed, on the inlet patterns, which some books publish only for machines with a water softener
- Filters clogged or the drain path blocked, on the two D3251 button patterns that name those conditions
- Blown fuse in the supply, which the 1500 book describes as all the lamps lighting normally while nothing in the machine works
🔧 One Safe Check You Can Try
Settle which pattern you actually have before doing anything, because the door patterns and the fault patterns look alike at a glance and the responses to them could hardly be further apart. Watch the panel through two complete flash cycles. If the lamps alternate in two groups - one half of the row, then the other half - that is the door on every machine on this page: open it, close it firmly until it clicks, and start the programme again. If it is one of the fault patterns, what you can usefully do depends on which one. For a high water level or overfill pattern, close the dishwasher's water supply tap first and leave it closed, which is Asko's own published instruction for this indication, then switch the machine off at the outlet or the breaker, and only then look along the cabinet floor in front of and under the machine for water. Asko's books note that water in the base pan has to be removed before the machine will start again, and on a built-in appliance that is a service job rather than something to attempt by tilting or pulling the machine. For the filter pattern on a D3251, switch the machine off at the outlet or the breaker first and give the water and the heating element time to cool, then lift out the coarse and fine filters, wash them under a running tap with a soft brush, check the sump beneath them for glass or a fruit stone and lift anything out with a cloth, and refit both filters so the coarse one seats properly. For the drain pattern, again power off first and let it cool, then scoop the standing water out with a cup and a sponge, clean the filters, and follow the drain hose to the sink waste looking for kinks, crush points and a blocked spigot. For a heater, a thermistor or a water inlet pattern there is nothing to repair from outside: the one check worth making is whether the supply tap is open and the inlet hose unkinked, and after that the useful contribution is a written note of what the machine was doing when the lamps started and whether it happens every cycle. Do not run the fault-tracing programme these books describe. It is entered by pressing one button five times within fifteen seconds, and it then drives the inlet valve, the detergent and rinse aid dispensers, the heating element and both pumps one after another while the lamps step through the tests. One of the books asks the reader to feel just above the heating element to check whether it is warming. That was written for a technician standing at an open machine, and it is not an owner check whatever tone it is written in.
⚠ Why You Shouldn't Go Further Than That
- The fault-tracing programme printed in these books drives the inlet valve, the dispensers, the heating element and both pumps in turn, and one edition asks the reader to feel near the element while it is heating, so it is a technician procedure rather than an owner check.
- Wash water and the heating element stay hot long after a cycle ends, so the machine is switched off at the outlet or the breaker and left to cool before anything is lifted out of the sump.
- Water collected in the base pan sits alongside the pump motors and the mains wiring, and reaching that tray means unfastening a built-in machine and drawing it out with its inlet and drain lines still attached.
- These machines are old enough that their lamp legends are often worn or painted over, so a pattern is easy to miscount, and acting on a miscounted pattern means work on a part that was never at fault.
Opening a panel to inspect or repair something yourself doesn't automatically cancel your manufacturer's warranty — but it can risk accidental damage, and some manufacturers do have specific service conditions. Check your product's warranty terms, or ask us, before deciding.