Last Updated on October 4, 2026 by Umar Farooq
Maytag washer error codes are not really Maytag’s. They belong to a control platform Whirlpool Corporation puts behind four badges, which is why the same characters mean the same thing on a Whirlpool, an Amana and a Kenmore 110. The practical consequence is the one nobody tells you: if your code is missing from a Maytag page, the Whirlpool page is not a workaround. It is the same document.
That matters more than any individual definition, so the evidence comes first and the table second. Every family in it gets Maytag’s own wording, what the fault usually turns out to be, and a link to the full diagnosis.
Maytag and Whirlpool publish the identical list
This is not an inference from part numbers. On 2 September 2026 both companies’ error-code pages were downloaded and compared line by line. Maytag’s error codes in front load washers and Whirlpool’s error codes in front load washers are the same document. Same codes, same definitions, same solutions, same sentence order — identical apart from the brand name and the customer service phone number. The top-load HE pages match each other the same way.
There is a better piece of evidence than that, and it is an accident. Maytag’s own Maytag Product Help, “Resetting Maytag Washer Controls”, read live on 2 September 2026 contains an unrendered template variable: “The easiest method for resetting your {{Text_BrandName} washing machine is performing a power cycle.” The brand is a field in a content system, and on that page the field failed to fill in. You are reading Whirlpool Corporation’s documentation with a Maytag badge glued to the top, and one page forgot the glue.
So here is the site’s position, stated plainly. Brand matters for codes and features. It does not matter for mechanics. Whirlpool, Maytag, Amana and Kenmore 110 are the same machine wearing four badges, and Kenmore is not a manufacturer at all — 110 is Whirlpool, 796 is LG, 417 is Frigidaire, 402 is Samsung. Check the first three digits of a Kenmore model number and you will know whose troubleshooting page to open. That single habit solves more “my code isn’t listed anywhere” problems than any code chart.
F9 E1 is a family, and the behaviour picks the member
Every code list on the internet, including the manufacturer’s, stops at the definition. The definition is the coarse half of the answer. F9 E1 covers a drain that is merely slow, a drain pump filter with a coin in it, and a pump that is electrically dead — three different afternoons and three different bills, reported by the machine with the same two characters, because all the control board knows is that the water level did not fall far enough within the time it allowed.
The machine tells you which one you have anyway. Not through the display, through behaviour. A pump you can hear working while water creeps away is a restriction. A pump that is silent at the moment it should be running is not a restriction at all. So before you look anything up, write down two things: the code, and the exact stage the machine was at when it appeared.
| The code appeared… | What that narrows it to |
|---|---|
| Before the cycle will start | Control Lock, lid or door lock, or water supply. It never got permission to begin |
| During fill, or fill never finished | Tap, hose, inlet screen, or an anti-flood device throttling the supply |
| At the end of the wash, water still in the drum | Drain. Filter and hose geometry before pump |
| At the drain-to-spin transition | Drain or suds. No washer accelerates a drum it believes still holds water |
| As spin ramps up, repeatedly | Balance. The load, then the levelling feet |
| At the end of a cycle that otherwise ran fine | HC — reversed inlet hoses. Installation, not failure |
The full Maytag washer error codes table
Grouped into thirteen families rather than listed alphabetically, because that is how the machine is organised and how you will actually search it. Quoted wording is verbatim from Maytag’s front-load and top-load HE code pages, both read on 2 September 2026. Front-loaders print codes with a space (F9 E1); top-loaders often run them together (F9E1). Same code.
| Family | Codes | Maytag’s own wording | What it usually is | Full diagnosis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Control Lock | LOC LC | “Control Lock has been activated” | Not a fault at all. A button on your own panel, and a reset will not clear it | washer control lock |
| Door / lid lock | F5 E1 F5 E2 F5 E3 LdL lid | “The door is not locking properly.” · “Lid is not locking.” | Laundry in the latch path, or detergent build-up around the lock mechanism | door locked after cycle |
| Lid will not unlock | LdU | “The washer detects that there are objects on the washer lid preventing it from unlocking.” | A laundry basket sitting on the lid. Genuinely, that is the documented cause | door locked after cycle |
| Fill | F8 E1 LO FL LF | “The washer is sensing a low flow of water.” | A valve not fully open, a kinked hose, or a clogged inlet screen | not filling with water |
| Hot and cold reversed | HC | “Hot and cold inlet hoses have been installed incorrectly (reversed).” | Installation, not the machine. It shows at the end of a cycle | filling hot on a cold cycle |
| Drain | F9 E1 drn | “Indicates that drain times are longer than expected, typically over eight (8) minutes.” | Filter, hose depth or a kink. A dead pump is the minority case | washer won’t drain |
| Suds | Sud Sd | “There are too many suds in the washing machine.” | Detergent dose — or “no splash” bleach, which Maytag names specifically | signs of too much detergent |
| Unbalanced load | Ofb F0 E5 F0 E9 | “The washer load is out of balance.” | The load, not the machine. Levelling comes second, not first | washer won’t spin |
| Overload | OL | “The washer load was too large.” | A drum packed above the top row of holes in the basket | washer load size |
| Motor speed | F7 E1 | “Indicates a motor speed sensing error” | Shipping bolts still fitted on a new machine; an overloaded drum on an old one | drum not turning |
| Dispenser | F8 E2 dET | “Indicates there is a problem with the Dispenser System” · “Detergent cartridge not detected in the dispenser.” | A clogged drawer, or a cartridge model being fed single-dose pods | detergent not dispensing |
| Clean Washer cycle | rL F0 E1 F34 | “Items were detected in the washer during the Clean Washer cycle.” | Exactly what it says. Empty the drum and restart | tub clean cycle explained |
| Power and pauses | PF Int | “The wash cycle was interrupted by a power failure.” · “The cycle was paused or canceled.” | Neither is a fault. Int persists while the machine drains — Maytag allows 20 to 30 minutes | how to reset a washing machine |
One inconsistency left in rather than tidied away. Maytag’s summary table gives F5 E2 as “the door is not locking properly”, and its dedicated F5 E3 page gives that same sentence for a different code. Both are Maytag’s own pages and neither acknowledges the other. Treat F5 E2 and F5 E3 as one door-lock family, check the same things for both, and do not let anyone charge you for a diagnosis based on which of the two you saw.
The drain code is worth reading twice
F9 E1 and drn are the codes most often answered by buying a pump, and Maytag does not suggest one. Its Maytag Product Help, the dedicated F9 E1 page, read live on 2 September 2026 opens with three things to check, and the pump is not among them: “Drain hose installation. Drain pump filter clogged. Door seal or bellow clogged.” A hose, a filter and a bellow, and all three are free to look at.
The specific figure to know is hose depth. “Ensure the drain hose does not extend more than 4.5″ (113 mm) into the drainpipe or laundry tub,” Maytag writes, and gives the reason: “Drained water can siphon back into the washer if the drain hose extends too far.” The same page is explicit about the gap: “Do not seal the drain hose into the drainpipe with tape… There must be a gap between the drain hose and the drain pipe to allow air to flow through.” That gap is not sloppy plumbing. It is the only thing standing between you and a machine that quietly empties itself while it fills.
One caution on the heights, because Maytag’s own pages do not agree. The front-load code table gives standpipe limits of 96 inches maximum and 39 inches minimum; the top-load drn page says the hose end must be “higher than 36 inches from the floor”. Both are live, so use the figure from the page that matches your machine type and check the installation instructions rather than any chart. If the hose is right and the filter is clear, the diagnosis moves on to washer won’t drain, or to fills then drains for the siphon. Filter procedure: how to clean a washing machine filter.
A reset erases the code, so photograph the panel first
A reset clears the stored code. That is not a side effect — that is the entire function. Photograph the panel first, because on this platform a single character moves a code between families, and “I think it was F5 something” is not a diagnosis anyone can work from.
Maytag’s documented procedure is duller than the internet’s version and it is the one that works: “simply unplug the unit for 5 minutes and then plug the unit back in. If the washer is hard-wired to the power supply, turn the breaker off at the home electrical panel that powers the washer for 5 minutes and then turn the breaker back on.” Five minutes. Thirty seconds is not the same thing.
You will also find a “lid open and closed six times in twelve seconds” reset repeated confidently across a dozen appliance sites. It is on neither the Maytag reset page nor the Whirlpool one, both of which say the same duller thing: unplug for five minutes. That is the whole reason this site opens the manufacturer’s page instead of aggregating what other blogs say.
And if the same code returns at the same stage, the reset did not fail. It worked perfectly: it cleared the state, the machine re-tested the condition, and the condition is still there. That is a result. It is also the moment to stop resetting and start diagnosing, because people go three and four rounds on this and lose the afternoon to it.
Your code is not on the list, and Maytag says so
Every page publishing Maytag washer error codes carries the same sentence, and it is the most honest line on any of them: “These may not be all Error Codes that will show for your model. See your Owner’s Manual for the Error Codes for your specific model.” A manufacturer stating that its own published list is incomplete is not a disclaimer to skip past. It is permission to stop assuming a missing code means a rare fault.
The top-load list also carries a catch-all row — F# E# or F##, “System error code” — with no definition attached, and several of the individual F-code pages behind it offer no meaning either, only the same five-minute power cycle. Maytag genuinely does not publish a consumer-facing definition for F1 E1, F2 E1, F3 E1 or F6 E1. If yours is one of those, no chart on the internet is quoting a manufacturer, whatever it claims.
Three things to try before believing your machine is exotic. Check the Whirlpool version of the same page, since it is the same document. Check whether your Kenmore model number starts 110 — if it starts 796, 417 or 402 you are on an LG, Frigidaire or Samsung platform and reading the wrong list entirely. And read the code as a structure rather than a string: the F names the system and the E digit names which failure inside it, which is why every F5 page checked here was a door or lid lock. The general method is at error code not in the manual; the same family-first approach on another brand is at Samsung washer error codes.
When a Maytag code means stop rather than troubleshoot
Most of these codes are the machine refusing to proceed, which is a safety system working. A few conditions are not, and they outrank whatever the display says.
- A burning smell, or scorching at the plug. Stop at the breaker, not at the plug.
- A breaker or GFCI that trips again after being reset. It is doing its job. Re-arming it repeatedly is the wrong response every time.
- Water on the floor near a live outlet. Power off first, diagnose second.
- The drain hose and filter both confirmed clear, and the pump silent at the moment it should run.
- The same code, at the same stage, after one documented five-minute reset, twice.
The last two are not stop-use conditions. They are the point where more checking costs more than the call would.
FAQ
Are Maytag and Whirlpool washer error codes the same?
Yes, on the shared platform they are. The two companies’ front-load code pages are identical apart from the brand name and the phone number, and the top-load pages match the same way. Amana and Kenmore 110 machines print the same set.
How do I clear an error code on a Maytag washer?
Unplug the machine for five minutes, or switch off its breaker for five minutes if it is hard-wired. Some codes clear from the panel instead — on front-loaders, pressing Pause or Cancel twice and Power once. Photograph the display first.
What is the most common Maytag washer error code?
F9 E1 on front-loaders and drn on top-loaders — the long-drain family. It is also the most over-repaired, because the fix is usually the filter or the drain hose depth rather than the pump.
What does F5 E3 mean on a Maytag washer?
Maytag’s page for it says the door is not locking properly, and gives the same wording it gives for F5 E2. Check for laundry caught in the latch path and for detergent build-up around the lock, on both codes.
My code is not in the manual or on Maytag’s site. Now what?
That is expected — Maytag says outright its list “may not be all Error Codes that will show for your model”. Read the F group as the system and check the Whirlpool copy of the same page before concluding it is rare.
Does a Maytag error code mean I need a repair?
Often not. Control Lock, PF, Int, Ofb, OL, rL and Sud all describe conditions rather than failures, and Maytag’s own F0 E5 page says that if the load is not dripping wet after an unbalance event, “the cycle is finished as expected” and no action is needed.
—
The code narrows your machine to a system. The stage it stopped at narrows it to a component. And if the page you are reading does not carry your code, try the same page with a different badge on it — because on this platform, that is not a second opinion. It is the same opinion, reprinted.
