Last Updated on October 4, 2026 by Umar Farooq
Maytag dryer error codes are published on a page that is word-for-word identical to Whirlpool’s, with one exception that changes what you do — and the exception is a number. Maytag and Whirlpool are the same company running the same dryer control platform, so the code set is shared and this site has said so on the washer side already. What is new here is that the two brand sites do not agree with each other on how long to hold the breaker, and following the wrong one makes a working reset look like a failed one.
Everything else on the two pages matches. Same four codes on the consumer summary. Same directory of thirty-five individual code pages beneath it. Same sentences, down to the typo in the airflow entry. Only the brand name, the URL and the phone number change — and the reset interval.
So this page does two things. It gives you the Maytag code set with Maytag’s own wording, and it marks the handful of places where “the same page with a different badge” stops being true.
The two brands’ code pages are one document
The proof is in the paragraph Maytag wrote about its own vent test kit. On Maytag’s F4 E3 page: “At Maytag, we understand the importance of keeping your home safe and your appliances running efficiently. That’s why we offer a convenient and reliable option for ordering a dryer vent testing kit directly from our website, Maytag.com.” On Whirlpool’s page for the same code, the identical sentence runs “At Whirlpool… directly from our website, Whirlpool.com.”
Then both pages tell you to order part #W11224254. The same part number, from the same warehouse, under two brand names, described in one sentence with a variable in it. This is the clearest demonstration of Whirlpool Corporation’s documentation model you will find anywhere on either site, and it is sitting in the middle of an airflow troubleshooting step.
The consequence is genuinely useful rather than merely amusing. If a code is missing from Maytag’s documentation, the Whirlpool page is not a second opinion — it is the same opinion reprinted. It is still worth opening, because the two sites’ internal navigation differs and a code page that is hard to reach from one is sometimes one click from the other. Just do not treat agreement between them as corroboration.
Same code, same wording, two different reset times
Here is where the shared document stops being shared, and it is the one thing on this page you will not find anywhere else.
Maytag’s F4 E4 page closes with: “Power unit down by turning off the circuit breaker(s) for 5 minutes. Power unit up by turning on the circuit breaker(s). Start a time dry cycle. Monitor the dryer for 5 minutes to ensure the error code does not display again.” Whirlpool’s page for the same code, with every other sentence identical, says one minute in both places. The same divergence appears on L2, on ERR and on PF. Four codes, two brands, two numbers.
It is not a blanket difference, which is what makes it interesting rather than just sloppy. Maytag’s F3 E2 page says one minute, matching Whirlpool exactly. Maytag’s E1 page says five minutes — and so does Whirlpool’s. The divergence is per-code, not per-brand, which suggests two sets of hands editing one source and nobody reconciling the result.
Practically: use five minutes. A longer wait at the breaker has never damaged a control board, and the failure mode of the shorter wait is the expensive one — a board that has not fully discharged re-reads the stored state, the code comes back, and the owner concludes the fault is real when the reset simply did not complete. People reset three or four times expecting a different outcome; here, the outcome was always the same because the wait was too short.
Maytag dryer error codes, read as a fault tree
Maytag’s own summary page carries four entries. Its Product Help directory carries thirty-five individual pages, organised as “Starts with E”, “Starts with F”, “AF or Check Vent” and “Other Error Codes” — which is alphabetical rather than diagnostic, so the grouping below is by what the dryer was doing when it stopped.
Quoted wording is Maytag’s, read on Maytag’s pages. Rows marked no published definition carry a power cycle on Maytag’s site and nothing else; this table does not guess at what they mean.
| What the dryer was doing | Codes | Maytag’s own wording |
|---|---|---|
| Running, but drying badly | AF / F4 E3 | “Restricted airflow. It indicates that the lint screen or vent is clogged; the vent is crushed, kinked or has too many turns. The dryer will continue to run when the is error is present.” |
| Tumbling, never heating | F4 E4 | “Low or No Line Voltage … there may be a problem with your home power supply, keeping the dryer’s heater from turning on” |
| Tumbling, never heating, brand new | L2 | Same wording as F4 E4, plus “NOTE: This error will only show during the initial installation.” |
| Heating wrongly or not at all | F4 E1 | “There may be a problem with the Heater or Heater Relays.” |
| Stopping before the load is dry | F3 E2 / F3 E5 | “occurs when five consecutive loads are dried without registering moisture sensor data” |
| Sensing temperature | F3 E1 / F3 E3 | Headed “Exhaust Thermistor” and “Inlet Thermistor” respectively, with no sentence attached |
| Refusing to start | ERR | “when the door has not been completely closed and latched; the dryer will not run unless the door is closed” |
| Refusing to start | Loc | “indicates that the Control Lock has been enabled. When the control is locked, the dryer will not start or operate.” |
| Restarting itself | PF | “Power failure. It indicates that the drying cycle has been interrupted by a power failure.” |
| Ignoring the panel | F2E1 F2E2 F2E4 F2E5 | “Keypad” / “Keypad or Control” / “an issue with the user interface or the associated wiring” |
| Dead or erratic control | F1E3 F1 E4 F1E5 | “indicates there may be an issue with the control unit or the associated wiring” |
| Panel and board not talking | F6 E1 | “There may be a problem with the Main Control Board, the User Interface (Touchpad), or the associated wiring.” |
| Drum not turning | F7 E1 | “There may be a problem with the motor, control, or the associated wiring.” |
| Anything else, generally | F# E# | “the dryer control has detected a problem that requires service” |
| Unexplained | -:-- 0E 0g 3E 6E E1 E2 E3 F1 E1 F3 E4 F6E3 F6 E2 F9 E2 FC E1 | No published definition. Maytag’s page for each contains only a power cycle |
Two reading notes. The display alternates between the halves of an F# E# code, so a panel flicking between F4 and E3 is showing one code. And Maytag prints some of these closed up (F4E3) and some spaced (F4 E3) on the same site — searching with the space when Maytag used none returns nothing and makes a documented code look like it does not exist. That trap has already cost this site one nearly-deleted citation on the Maytag washer side.
The Bravos codes on every other page are not Maytag’s
Search this topic and you will find F-01, F-02, F-22, F-23, F-26 and F-28 presented as Maytag dryer codes, with component-level diagnoses attached: main board, keypad, exhaust thermistor, drive motor, moisture sensor. They belong to the older Maytag Bravos platform, they are confidently defined across the SERP, and none of them appears anywhere in Maytag’s own published dryer documentation.
Every source that carries them is a parts retailer or a service company. That does not make the definitions wrong — service manuals exist, and technicians who have read them are not fabricating. It makes them unsourced, which matters when the next step is buying a drive motor on the strength of a hyphen-and-two-digits code that the manufacturer does not list.
This site has been caught by exactly this failure mode before. A Samsung sensor quotation circulated for years across our own pages and turned out to exist on no Samsung page anywhere, and a Whirlpool “open and close the lid six times in twelve seconds” reset appears on a dozen sites and in none of Whirlpool’s documentation. If your Maytag dryer shows a code with a hyphen in it, note the characters and the cycle stage, and treat anything beyond that as a lead rather than a diagnosis.
Maytag documents the panel, then stops at the cabinet
There is a boundary in Maytag’s dryer support that is easy to miss and worth naming, because it tells you what kind of help you are being offered. The code pages cover the display, the door, the breaker, the power cord, the lint screen and the vent run. They name the heater and heater relays, the thermistors, the motor and the control boards — as suspects, in one sentence, with no test for any of them.
Where Maytag does go further is on its consumer blog rather than its help site, and the single most useful sentence it publishes about dryers lives there: “The drum of your dryer and its heating element are separate, so it is possible for your dryer to spin but not heat your clothing — the two are not necessarily related.” That one line rules out the motor, the belt, the door switch and the control board before you open anything, because a dryer that tumbles has already proved all four work.
The same page carries Maytag’s position on the thermal fuse, and it is the strongest manufacturer wording available on the subject: “These fuses are a one-time device: when the temperatures within the dryer get too high, they will go off, shutting down the dryer.” A one-time device does not blow at random, which is why replacing one without clearing the restriction that triggered it buys the same repair twice. Maytag’s own venting interval — “every one-to-two years to maintain performance” — is the other half of that sentence. The detail is in the dryer thermal fuse and in why a Maytag dryer is not heating.
Control Lock is the most-searched Maytag code that is not a code
Loc brings more people to brand code pages than most genuine faults, and the reason is that the symptom looks catastrophic: a dryer that lights up, displays something, and then ignores every button on the panel. Maytag’s description is undramatic — “When the control is locked, the dryer will not start or operate” — and the release is a three-second hold of the Control Lock key, with the panel counting down 3-2-1 so you can see it register.
The part that defeats people is where that key is. Maytag notes it “may be a stand-alone key or a dual-function key paired with another button like Extra Rinse, Steam, etc. Press and hold that button (not the text below it) for three seconds to unlock.” Pressing the printed label instead of the key is common enough that the manufacturer wrote a parenthesis about it.
ERR sits in the same category. It is the door, and Maytag’s useful addition is that “some models have an upper and lower latch. Both latches must be secure for the dryer to run.” A door pushed shut at the handle can leave the second latch unengaged, which produces a code on a dryer with nothing wrong with it. If the dryer gives you neither code and simply does nothing, a dryer that will not turn on is the better starting point.
What Maytag publishes for its washers and not for its dryers
Maytag’s documentation is lopsided in a way nobody mentions, and knowing which side you are on sets your expectations correctly.
On the washer side, Maytag maintains a dedicated top-load HE code article with its own published set — drn, F# E#, HC, LdL, LdU, LF, lid, Ofb, OL, PF and Sud — including codes that describe conditions rather than faults. Ofb is the best example: Maytag’s own wording is that the washer “is running a load-balance correction routine. Allow the washer to continue.” A code that means nothing is wrong, wait.
There is no dryer equivalent. No top-load dryer code page, no condition-codes article, no “allow the dryer to continue” reassurance except inside the airflow entry. The dryer gets one four-row summary and a directory of fault-tree pages. So if you arrive at a Maytag dryer expecting the depth Maytag gives its washers, the gap is real and it is not your search terms.
Observations that mean take the load somewhere else
These come before any code on the display, and this section has no jokes in it.
- A burning smell during a cycle, or any scorching, discolouration or heat at the plug, the outlet or the terminal block. Switch off at the breaker, not at the plug.
- A breaker that trips again after being reset. It is working correctly. Re-arming it repeatedly is the wrong response every time.
L2orF4 E4on a dryer whose power cord was fitted by hand. Maytag’s instruction is to check the terminal screws with the dryer unplugged, and to involve a qualified electrician if the 240 V supply is in doubt.AFthat returns after the lint screen and the whole duct run have been confirmed clear. The restriction is inside the wall, or the duct has more bends than the machine can push through.- A thermal fuse that has already been replaced once. Maytag’s “one-time device” wording means the second one is telling you about the vent, not about the fuse.
- Any
F# E#code that returns at the same point in the cycle after one five-minute power cycle. Maytag’s words for the general case are “requires service”, and further resetting only costs the afternoon.
One platform, two badges, one number that disagrees
The useful conclusion here is not that Maytag and Whirlpool share a code set — this site has said that about their washers already, and it is true of their dryers in the same way, down to the part number for the vent test kit. It is that two pages which are identical in every sentence can still contradict each other in the one place that governs what you physically do, and that nothing on either page warns you.
So take Maytag’s five minutes over Whirlpool’s one, read the first digit of an F code to place it even when no definition exists, and refuse to buy a part on the strength of a Bravos code that Maytag has never published. The code narrows the machine to a system. Everything after that is the cycle stage, the smell of the exhaust, and the honest admission that fourteen of these thirty-five pages do not actually say anything.
FAQ
Are Maytag and Whirlpool dryer error codes the same?
Yes. The two brands run the same control platform and publish the same code article, word for word, with only the brand name, the URL and the phone number changed. The exception is the reset interval: Maytag specifies five minutes at the breaker for F4 E4, L2, ERR and PF where Whirlpool specifies one.
How do I reset a Maytag dryer?
Turn off the dryer’s circuit breaker for five minutes, turn it back on, start a timed dry cycle and watch for five minutes to see whether the code returns. That is Maytag’s own documented procedure, and it is longer than the figure the Whirlpool version of the same page gives.
What does AF mean on a Maytag dryer?
Restricted airflow. Maytag’s wording is that “the lint screen or vent is clogged; the vent is crushed, kinked or has too many turns”, and the dryer keeps running with the code showing. Clean the lint screen, then the duct run, then the outside hood.
What is the F-01 code on a Maytag dryer?
It is not in Maytag’s published documentation. F-01 and the other hyphenated Bravos-platform codes circulate on parts retailers and repair-company pages with component-level diagnoses attached, but Maytag itself lists none of them. Record the characters and the cycle stage rather than buying on that basis.
Why does my Maytag dryer tumble but not heat?
Because those are two separate systems. Maytag states it outright: the drum and the heating element “are separate, so it is possible for your dryer to spin but not heat your clothing”. A tumbling drum has already proved the motor, belt, door switch and control board are working.
My Maytag dryer shows Loc and nothing works. Is it broken?
No. Control Lock is enabled. Hold the Control Lock key for three seconds and watch for the 3-2-1 countdown. If the function shares a key with another button, press the key itself rather than the label printed underneath it.
My Maytag code is not on Maytag’s list. Where next?
The Whirlpool copy of the same help library, because the navigation differs even though the content does not — but do not read a match between them as independent confirmation. If it is on neither, place the code by its first digit and note where in the cycle it appeared.
—
Fourteen of Maytag’s thirty-five code pages say nothing, four of the rest disagree with Whirlpool’s identical text about how long to hold the breaker, and the most useful sentence the brand publishes about dryers is on its blog rather than its support site. Take the five minutes, read the F digit, and buy nothing on the word of a code Maytag has never printed.
Sources opened for this page: Maytag Product Help, Error Codes in Dryers · F4 E4 — Error Code — Dryer · F4 E3 — Error Code — Dryer · Maytag, why is my dryer not heating?. All read live on 3 October 2026, alongside the matching Whirlpool pages for comparison.
