Hotpoint Dryer Error Codes — Complete Error Code Diagnosis Guide

Six Hotpoint dryer codes are covered, and four of them are heat and the air that moves it. AF is a detected airflow restriction: lint screen, blocked exhaust, crushed hose. E1 is the exhaust thermistor read as open, E2 is the same sensor shorted low — a collapsed bead, damp across the plug, or a bared lead grounding to the bulkhead. E3 is an over-temperature fault, which restricted airflow and a failed cycling thermostat both produce. E4 is a heater relay stuck on the control board, and E8 is a drive motor that will not run.

The ordering rule on this machine is that airflow is checked before any part on the heat side is bought, because a duct that cannot vent creates the over-temperature that E3 reports and then opens the protection that looks like a failure. E1 and E2 name the same thermistor from opposite readings, so both are settled with a meter at the plug rather than by substitution. E8 separates a dead winding from a centrifugal start switch and from a thermal overload that latched open after a stall.

E4 changes the sequence: a relay stuck closed keeps the heater energised whatever the control intends, and a dryer in that state is not a reset-and-watch appliance. Gas models put a supply line, valve and igniter behind the same panel as the blower, and electric models run 240 volts to the element and terminal block — neither belongs to guesswork. Where the guide marks a step professional-only, that is the boundary. EasyBear covers Hotpoint dryers across Sacramento and the Bay Area.