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AEG EF0 on a washing machine

Excess foam — too much detergent has been used.

The same code appears on Zanussi and Electrolux machines — they share the same control platform.

Verdict

You can fix this yourself

No special tools or qualifications needed

Urgency
Not urgent

About 3 hr to work through

Typical cost

Free to fix yourself

DIY: No parts needed

What EF0 actually means

A warning rather than a fault. The machine detected a foam blanket thick enough to interfere with draining and level sensing, and extended the cycle to rinse it away. It is telling you to use less detergent, and it will keep telling you until you do.

What causes it, most likely first

  1. Too much detergent

    Most likely

    Dosing for a full load when the drum is half full, or using the cap as a guide rather than the dosing instructions, produces far more foam than a modern low-water machine can handle.

  2. Wrong detergent type

    Common

    Hand-wash detergent, or a non-HE product, foams heavily in a low-water drum. Machines need a low-foaming automatic formula.

  3. Soft water area

    Common

    Soft water needs markedly less detergent to work. The dose on the packet assumes average hardness, so in a soft-water area the standard dose is genuinely too much.

  4. Detergent build-up in the drum and hoses

    Occasional

    Months of over-dosing leaves residue that keeps foaming for several cycles even after you correct the dose.

How to fix it, step by step

  1. Let the cycle finish

    The machine is already dealing with it. Extra rinses will run and the cycle will take longer than usual — that is the fault clearing itself.

    30 min

  2. Run an extra rinse

    When it finishes, run a rinse-and-spin with no detergent to clear the remaining foam from the drum and hoses.

    30 min

  3. Halve your detergent dose

    Use the dose on the pack for your load size and water hardness, not a full cap. For a half load in a soft-water area, half the recommended dose is usually plenty.

    2 min

  4. Run a maintenance wash

    If it keeps happening, run an empty 90°C cycle with no detergent to strip accumulated residue out of the drum and hoses.

    120 min

Need an engineer for this EF0?

We list 83 washing machine repair businesses across the UK, 38 of which are AEG-authorised. Diagnostic callouts typically start around £55, and many will put that towards the repair if you go ahead.

Find washing machine engineers near you

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