Last Updated on October 4, 2026 by Umar Farooq
Press and hold the two designated lock buttons together for a few seconds. The pair varies by model and is printed on the panel itself, so use your own machine’s legend rather than a combination you found for a different one.
A locked panel is the most convincing impersonation of a broken washing machine there is. The display is lit. The buttons click. Nothing happens. It reads as a control fault, and the only clue is a padlock symbol a few millimeters tall, tucked at the edge of the display where nobody looks. A locked washer is not a faulty washer — it is a washer doing exactly what somebody asked it to do, possibly by accident, possibly weeks ago.
First: is it a lock, or a dead panel?
Most people searching this don’t yet know which of the two they have, and every page that opens with a list of button combinations has skipped that question.
A locked panel still reacts to you. A dead panel doesn’t react at all. With the lock engaged, Power still works, the display still lights, and pressing a locked button produces a visible response — a padlock icon appearing or flashing, or on Samsung machines, CL: “When Child Lock is enabled, you may see CL flash on the machine’s display while trying to operate it” (use Child Lock on your Samsung washing machine and dryer). The machine is acknowledging the press and refusing it, which is a very different thing from not seeing it.
A genuinely failed panel gives you nothing back — no icon, no flash, no chime, and often Power doesn’t respond either. If that is what you have, see washing machine control panel not responding. If Start alone is ignored while other buttons work and no lock icon shows, the machine is refusing a start permission instead: see washing machine won’t start.
Washer control lock and child lock are not the same feature
Manufacturers use both names, sometimes on the same machine, and they do not always mean the same thing. The distinction tells you what you are looking at when part of the machine responds and part of it doesn’t.
Control Lock disables the buttons. It is a keypad lock — the panel stops accepting input so a cycle in progress can’t be changed by a passing elbow, a cleaning cloth, or a curious four-year-old. Power stays live, which is exactly why the machine looks alive and broken rather than locked. On most machines it does not touch the door, and a running cycle continues to completion underneath it.
Child Lock is usually the broader feature, and on many front-loaders it extends past the panel to the door. That is safety design rather than a bug: a front-loader is a sealed drum at floor height, and a lock that stopped a child pressing buttons while leaving the door openable would be protecting the wrong thing.
| Feature | What it disables | Usually shown as | Cycle in progress |
|---|---|---|---|
| Control Lock | Panel buttons, not power | Padlock icon, or LOC / CL in the display | Continues normally |
| Child Lock | Panel buttons, and on many front-loaders the door | Padlock icon, sometimes a child symbol | Continues normally |
| Both under one name | Same as Child Lock | One padlock icon for both | Continues normally |
Why the button pair varies by model, and where the legend is
There is no industry-standard combination, and there never was. A panel has far more functions than buttons, so lock release gets assigned as a secondary function to whichever two adjacent buttons happen to be free on that layout. Change the layout — a different capacity, a different model year, a steam option added — and the free pair moves. This is why a combination that works on one machine does nothing on the machine beside it, and why the brand-wide button lists circulating online are wrong more often than right.
The legend is printed on the panel, and it is easy to miss because it is deliberately understated. Look for a small padlock glyph or the words Child Lock screen-printed between, above or below two buttons rather than on either one — the symbol sits across the pair because it belongs to the pair. If the console has been wiped with anything abrasive over the years, that printing wears away long before the buttons do. Failing that, the manual’s control panel diagram is the one place the pair is stated for your model.
Hold, don’t tap. The most common failed attempt is pressing both buttons and letting go after a second. Samsung’s instruction for engaging the lock is “press and hold both buttons simultaneously until a chime sounds,” and the release works the same way — hold until the machine tells you something happened.
Restarting the machine will not clear a washer control lock
Unplugging is the first thing almost everyone tries, and on a locked machine it is a guaranteed waste of time. Samsung says it plainly: “Restarting the washer or dryer will not disable Child Lock” (use Child Lock).
That is design, not oversight. A safety lock a toddler could defeat by pulling the plug, or that a power cut would silently undo, would not be a safety lock — so the setting is written to memory and survives loss of power. If the icon is still there after a power cycle, that confirms a lock rather than a glitch. Pull the plug once if you like, then treat the lock returning as a diagnosis rather than a failure.
Child Lock can lock the door itself on many front-loaders
On front-loading machines the lock commonly extends to the door. Samsung documents this for its own front-load models — “Child Lock will also lock the door” — while its top-loaders typically leave the lid alone (use Child Lock on your Samsung washing machine and dryer). Other manufacturers implement the same behavior on front-loaders, so it is worth checking on any machine of that form factor.
The symptom pattern is distinctive once you know it. The door won’t open, the panel won’t accept Start, and there is no error code. People read that as two faults — a failed door lock plus a failed control board — which is roughly the most expensive pair of conclusions available. It is normally one setting. Release the lock first and re-test before diagnosing anything mechanical.
Note what this does not explain. A door that stays locked for a minute or two at the end of a cycle is a normal cool-down delay. A door locked with water in the drum is a drain problem, and the machine is refusing to open for good reason. Only a door that stays shut on an empty, finished, cool machine with a lock icon showing is this. If yours doesn’t match, see washing machine door locked after cycle.
If the icon keeps flashing
A flashing icon usually means the machine registered your press but did not accept it as a complete release — you let go early, you caught one button a fraction before the other, or one button is not making reliable contact. Flashing is feedback, not a failure.
On some models the flash is a deliberate intermediate step. Samsung describes the release on models with a temporary-off option as pressing and holding both buttons once “to cause the icon to flash, and then press and hold both buttons again to make the icon turn off.” So a flashing icon can mean you are halfway through the sequence rather than that it failed. Hold the same pair again.
- Hold both buttons for a solid five seconds without shifting your grip.
- Press both at exactly the same moment — stagger them and some panels read two separate single presses.
- If the icon starts flashing, hold the same pair a second time.
- If a cycle is running, pause it first. Some machines will not release the lock mid-cycle.
Padlock, flash, or nothing at all
| What you observed | What it means | Where to go next |
|---|---|---|
Padlock or CL appears when you press a button | Control Lock engaged | Hold the two designated buttons |
| Lock icon lit, door also won’t open | Child Lock covering the door too | Release the lock, then re-test the door |
| Icon flashes after your first attempt | Halfway through the release sequence | Hold the same pair again |
| Lock survives unplugging | Normal — the setting is stored | Release it properly rather than resetting |
| No icon, no flash, Power still works | Not a lock | Won’t start |
| No icon, no response to anything, Power dead too | Panel or power fault | Control panel not responding |
| Lock releases, then re-engages on its own | Stuck button holding the combination | See the Samsung note below |
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Samsung calls it Child Lock and shows CL
- The feature is named Child Lock, the two buttons carry Child Lock text or an icon on the panel, and
CLflashing in the display confirms you are locked out (use Child Lock). - On front-load models the door locks too. On top-loaders it typically does not — same feature name, two different scopes.
- A stuck button has its own code family:
E2,bE2,6E2,8E2,BE2— “a button on the panel is detected as stuck or continuously pressed” (Samsung washing machine information and error codes). Look for this if the lock appears to re-engage by itself. 8E2andBE2are a trap. They look like they belong to the8C/8EMEMS sensor family and they do not. Chasing a sensor when the problem is a sticky button wastes a service call. See Samsung washer 8C sensor error.- The
dC,dE,dL,FLandLOfamily is a latch problem, not a lock setting. See Samsung washer dC or dE error.
LG retired its child-lock page, so treat quotes with care
LG’s child-lock support article has been retired without a replacement, so treat any page quoting it — including several that still rank — as quoting something that no longer exists. What holds mechanically: the lock disables every button except Power, and the display stays lit and looks entirely normal, which is why it gets misread as a control board fault. Layouts differ substantially between LG’s top-load and front-load lines, so a pair from one does not carry to the other.
Whirlpool, Maytag, Amana and Kenmore 110 show LOC
These four share a control platform, so the behavior is identical across all of them. Look for LOC in the display rather than a separate lock light. If LOC is showing, that is your answer and no further diagnosis is needed.
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Check the icon is off, then power-cycle and check again
- Confirm the lock icon is fully off, not dimmed or flashing.
- Press three different buttons and confirm each registers a change on the display.
- On a front-loader, confirm the door opens by hand with the machine idle and empty.
- Power the machine off and on, then confirm the lock has stayed off. A lock that re-arms itself is a stuck button, not a setting.
When the legend pair still won’t clear the icon
- The pair from your own panel legend, held properly, will not clear the icon.
- The lock releases and re-engages on its own within a cycle or two.
- The icon is off but the panel still ignores every button — that is a panel fault, not a lock.
- One of the two lock buttons feels tacky, sits lower than its neighbors, or doesn’t spring back.
FAQ
Will unplugging the machine clear it?
No. Samsung states that restarting the machine will not disable Child Lock, and the same design logic applies generally — the setting is stored so it survives a power cut.
I can’t find the lock buttons on my panel. They are marked with a small padlock or Child Lock label printed between two adjacent buttons rather than on either one. If the printing has worn off, the manual’s control panel diagram names the pair for your model.
My door won’t open and the panel is dead. On many front-loaders that is one problem, not two — Child Lock covering both. Release the lock and re-test before assuming the latch has failed.
There’s no lock icon at all but Start does nothing. Then a lock isn’t your problem. Work through the start permissions instead — see washing machine won’t start.
