Kenmore Washer Error Codes List: Every Code Explained

Every Kenmore washer error code we could verify against Kenmore's own documentation — what it means, what usually causes it, and the first fix to try — in one table. Codes differ between model series, so treat your model's tech sheet as the final word.

How to read and retrieve error codes on Kenmore washers

Whirlpool platforms have a well-documented diagnostic mode. On front-load (Duet and later) models: with the machine in standby, press and hold any one button for 3 seconds, release for 3 seconds, repeat for a total of three holds — the display lights up and shows stored fault codes (F-codes with E-suffixes), which you step through with the same button. On top-load VMW models (most Maytag/Whirlpool/Kenmore top-loaders since ~2010): turn the cycle knob with a specific left/right sequence (commonly counterclockwise once, then clockwise three, counterclockwise one, clockwise one) until all status LEDs light, then use the knob to read fault codes as LED blink patterns. The tech sheet inside the cabinet lists the exact sequence and code chart for your model — use it rather than a generic chart, because code meanings shifted between Duet, Cabrio/Bravos and VMW generations.

The complete Kenmore washer error code list

How to reset / clear error codes on Kenmore washers

Whirlpool-built washers clear most codes with a power reset: unplug for 1 minute (top-load models with a cycle-status display sometimes need the lid opened and closed 6 times within 12 seconds after power is restored — the well-known lid-sequence calibration/clear procedure on VMW top-loaders). Codes stored in the control's fault history remain readable in diagnostic mode even after they stop showing on the display, which is why a code that 'went away' can still be found by a technician.

How to diagnose any Kenmore washer code

Work the problem in this order: (1) write the code down exactly as displayed — photograph it, because opening the door or pressing pause can clear it; (2) ask what the machine was doing when the code appeared — filling, washing, draining, spinning or heating points straight at the fault family; (3) run the external checks for that family first: taps and inlet screens for fill codes, the pump filter and drain hose for drain codes, load size and levelling for balance codes, the door seal and latch for lock codes — these cure the majority of washer codes without a single part; (4) clear the code and run the shortest cycle that exercises the same function (a rinse-and-spin for drain faults, a small wash for fill faults) while you watch — a code that returns in the same phase is an active fault, not a glitch; (5) only then test or replace the component the code monitors, and re-test under the same conditions that produced the fault. Skipping to step 5 is how good parts get replaced for a clogged filter.

Two Kenmore families, two code languages

Kenmore washers were built for Sears by different manufacturers, and the model-number prefix tells you which: 110-series machines are Whirlpool-built and speak the Whirlpool family language — two-part F/E codes on electronic models and two-letter codes (LD, UL, LF) on VMW top-loaders — while 796-series machines are LG-built and use LG's two-letter codes (OE, IE, UE, LE, dE). A code list only helps if it matches your machine's builder, so the table below groups the codes by the family that uses them, and the meaning text names the platform wherever a code is family-specific.

Finding your model prefix

The prefix is the first three digits of the model number on the rating plate (under the lid, behind the door, or on the rear panel). With the prefix known, cross-check any code against that builder's own list on this site — Whirlpool washer codes for 110 machines, LG washer codes for 796 machines — because the builders' documentation is the primary source and Kenmore manuals often summarise it.

Same fault, different code — the Kenmore translation table in words

The faults are identical; only the labels change with the builder. A drain failure is F21 or LD on a Whirlpool-built Kenmore and OE on an LG-built one. A door that will not lock reports in the F5 family on Whirlpool-built machines and as dE on LG-built ones. An unbalanced load is UL on one platform and UE on the other. When a forum answer or a video names a code your Kenmore never shows, check the builder of the machine in the video before doubting your own display — mismatched-platform advice is the single most common wrong turn in Kenmore troubleshooting.

Long production runs mean code drift

Kenmore badges stayed on sale across decades of underlying platforms, so two machines with near-identical badges can run different controls with different code lists. Codes were added as platforms gained sensors — suds and leak detection, for example, only exist on later electronic models — and a code that means one thing on a 2008 machine can be absent, or reassigned, on a 2018 one. The rating-plate model number and the manual printed for that number outrank any list, including this one, whenever they disagree.

The most searched Kenmore washer codes, in detail

CL — Child Lock status on Kenmore washers

CL = Child/Control Lock active. The washer is healthy; its panel is deliberately disabled. Kenmore owners meet it as a 'dead' washer with CL lit. Release: hold the Child Lock–marked button (or marked pair) for ~3 seconds — the panel prints which. Everything about CL starts from one fact owners resist: the washer is not broken, and it is not even reporting a problem — it is announcing that its console has been deliberately put to sleep. The lock exists so that a cycle, once chosen, survives contact with curious hands: with the lock engaged, the buttons are ignored, settings cannot be changed mid-wash, and on most consoles the only responses available are the power control and the specific hold that releases the lock. Two Kenmore builders ship this feature with two different accents, and telling them apart is the first diagnostic step because the vocabularies do not translate. On an LG-built machine — model number beginning 796 — the display speaks LG's dialect and the state is written CL, for Child Lock in LG's own code list (the same list glosses it as Child lock / Control lock). The release is a sustained press on whichever control the console has marked for the job: LG prints a small lock symbol either under a single button or beneath a line joining two buttons, and the marked control or pair is held for about three seconds until the display clears and an unlock chime sounds. On a Whirlpool-built machine — model number beginning 110 — the same idea usually wears Whirlpool's spelling, LOC, and its release is a three-second hold on the pad labelled Control Lock. A 110 owner hunting the letters CL specifically can stare at a locked console showing LOC and conclude their code is undocumented; it is the same feature wearing the other builder's name tag.

Most likely cause: Child Lock activated — Deliberate or stray long-press.

First check: Lock icon lit; buttons beep without effect.

If it keeps coming back: Self-engaging CL = sticking panel key suspicion. A lock that re-engages by itself is the one CL pattern that graduates from feature to symptom, and it has its own short suspect list. A touch pad that is failing can sit in a permanently half-pressed electrical state, re-applying the lock hold whenever the console wakes — the signature is CL returning without anyone touching the machine, often within minutes of a successful release. Moisture inside the console produces the same behaviour after steam-heavy use or a spill over the panel, and may settle as the panel dries over a day. What self-engaging CL never indicates is a problem with the motor, pump, valves or any working part of the wash system: the fault, when there is one, lives entirely in the panel that takes your instructions. Record how often it re-engages and whether it correlates with cleaning or steam; that log is the difference between a technician arriving to test a panel and one arriving to guess.

LE — Locked motor error on Kenmore washers built by LG

Kenmore is a badge, not a factory: Kenmore washers were built by LG and by Whirlpool, and LE is the LG-built machines' motor code — the rotor didn't turn as commanded. Overload is the leading cause (LG direct-drive reads a packed tub as a locked rotor), then the Hall sensor, then motor/bearing issues. If your Kenmore's model number starts with 796, it's LG-built and this page is yours; 110-prefix machines are Whirlpool-built (see the F-code family). LE rewards owners who understand what the control is actually measuring. An LG-built Kenmore has no belt and no clutch between motor and drum: the motor's rotor turns the tub directly, and a position sensor — the Hall sensor in Kenmore's service literature, also called the rotor position sensor — reports the rotor's movement back to the control many times per revolution. LE is the control's conclusion from that data stream: rotation was commanded and the reported movement does not match — the rotor barely moved, moved under protest, or its reports stopped making sense. That single definition organises every cause on this page. Anything that physically resists rotation (an overloaded tub, a coin wedged at the wash plate, a bearing beginning to seize) produces LE honestly. Anything that corrupts the report (a failing position sensor, its connector, its wiring) produces LE on a drum that is actually free. And one documented trigger sits between the two: LG notes that running the machine continuously, load after load without rest, can bring LE up as the motor's thermal protection asserts itself — a motor that is hot rather than blocked, which is why the platform's own first aid includes letting the machine stand (LG's top-load manuals say allow it to stand for 30 minutes before restarting) as well as the five-minute power disconnect in its front-load guidance. The diagnostic fork is therefore always the same first question: does the drum turn freely and quietly by hand, empty? The answer routes everything that follows.

Most likely cause: Overload — The classic LE trigger — reduce and retry empty first.

First check: Empty Rinse+Spin test: LE gone = load was the fault.

If it keeps coming back: LE creeping into normal loads + growing spin rumble = bearings. LE that returns in a pattern is more valuable than LE that returns randomly, so log the pattern before replacing anything. Returning only under heavy or wet loads after months of good service suggests a drive train losing margin — bearing drag grows slowly and shows first exactly there. Returning at random on light loads with a free drum suggests the reporting chain drifting — sensor or connector — and will usually worsen until it fails on every start. Returning only late in long laundry days is the thermal story and needs scheduling, not parts. Each pattern names its own repair, and a technician given two weeks of pattern notes will diagnose in minutes what a technician given a bare LE will take a visit to find.

ND — No Drain

ND on Kenmore top-loaders (Whirlpool-built, 110-prefix models) is the drain fault: pump ran, level stayed. Debris at the pump (top-loaders lack user filters), hose/standpipe blockage, or a failed pump. LG-built Kenmores show the same fault as OE — platform first, code second. ND is the plainest sentence a Whirlpool-built Kenmore speaks: the pump was run, the water stayed. Everything in ND diagnosis follows from noticing that the control knows the tub is still full not by looking at the water but by watching the level signal fail to fall — so the code certifies a mismatch between commanded draining and observed level, and the suspects arrange themselves along the water's actual escape route. That route, in the order water travels it, is: out of the tub through the tub-to-pump hose, into the pump, out through the drain hose, up and over into the standpipe, and away through the house drain. A stoppage at any station produces the identical ND, which is why the code alone cannot locate the fault and why this page insists on walking the route station by station instead of replacing the part in the middle of it. The platform fact that shapes the whole walk is the one at the top of the route: these top-load machines give the owner no debris filter to clean. On a front-loader, the first station is a filter designed to catch the tub's debris in an accessible place; here, everything the tub swallows — and years of laundry swallow coins, screws, collar stays, sock fragments and underwires — rides the water straight to the pump inlet and accumulates there. ND on an older top-loader that has never had its pump cleared is therefore a physical blockage until proven otherwise, and the electrical theories earn their turn only after the water's route has been proven open with your own hands.

Most likely cause: Debris at the pump — Coins/buttons lodge at the pump inlet.

First check: Bail the tub; inspect hose run; pump listening test on Drain+Spin.

If it keeps coming back: Recurs with clear path = house line or dying pump. ND returning after a thorough route clear tells a short story with three endings. If the return is immediate and total, suspect what hands cannot easily reach: a house drain that restricts at full flow, proven or excluded by the bucket test at pump pace. If the return is partial — the machine drains, but slowly, and ND arrives only on the largest loads — the pump is weakening and living on margin; it will finish failing on a schedule measured in weeks. If the return travels with a level story that makes no sense (ND on a tub that is visibly empty), the disagreement has moved off the water route entirely and onto the level-sensing side, where the pump is innocent and the diagnosis belongs to the sensor path and the control. Keep the three endings separate and ND never becomes a parts lottery.

OE — Drain error on LG-built Kenmore washers

OE is LG's drain code, and LG-built Kenmores (796-prefix) wear it too: the pump ran, the level didn't fall in the time allowed. On the front-loaders, check the user-cleanable debris filter behind the lower flap first — then hose/standpipe, then the pump. Top-load 796 models have no front filter door at all: on those, LG's documentation sets OE when the washer is unable to drain for 13 minutes, and the whole path is hose, standpipe and pump. Whirlpool-built (110) Kenmores never show OE — their drain fault is written F9E1 (or Ld/F02 on older letter displays) in the Whirlpool system. Three platform facts complete this page. First, timing: OE is a timed verdict, not an instant one. LG's top-load documentation gives the figure for that platform — the OE error displays if the washer is unable to drain the water for 13 minutes — and the front-load manuals frame the same idea as a drain that does not complete in the model's set time. Either way, a washer gamely pumping for many minutes before showing OE is behaving as designed, and a washer that shows OE quickly with a tub still full has usually found a total blockage or a dead pump rather than a marginal one. Second, the house side exists: LG's own drain self-test separates machine from plumbing — disconnect the drain hose from the drain pipe, run a Spin cycle, and if water drains properly from the hose, the drain pipe may be clogged and the cleaning belongs to the house drain. Third, the 796 top-load manual adds a behaviour owners misread as a second fault: if an error message is displayed for four minutes, the water in the tub will automatically drain, with an alarm sounding one minute before draining — the machine emptying itself under an error is documented behaviour on this platform. Kenmore Connect models are 796 LG-built machines and use this same OE; the 'Connect' branding changes the diagnostics app, not the drain code.

Most likely cause: Clogged debris filter (front-load) — The front-load filter mats with lint and traps objects.

First check: Front-load: drain via the emergency hose, unscrew and clean the filter. All models: hose run and standpipe check (free of clogs and kinks, not pinched behind or under the washer, discharge no higher than 96 inches), then the pump listen test.

If it keeps coming back: Clean filter + recurrence = downstream blockage or weakening pump. OE that returns after a filter clean on a front-loader is usually downstream of the filter — a pump impeller worn or jammed by what the filter used to catch, a hose collapsing internally, or the house drain narrowing — and LG's hose-off self-test splits those in one cycle. OE that returns seasonally, in the same cold weeks, is the frozen branch repeating and argues for insulating or rerouting the hose run rather than another pump. And OE that returns only on the largest loads is a restriction declaring itself under maximum flow: partial today, total on some future wash day, so treat the pattern as the repair window rather than as an intermittent to live with.

UE — Unbalanced error on LG-built Kenmore washers (796)

UE is the second stage of a two-stage display on the LG-built machines. While the washer is attempting to rebalance, it shows uE: the manual calls that display information only — the washer adds water and tries to redistribute the load automatically, and no action is required. If the uE rebalance is not successful, the display changes to UE, the cycle pauses, and the load must be adjusted by hand. The Kenmore 796 manual names the UE causes directly: the load is too small, heavy articles are mixed with lighter items, or the load is simply out of balance. Worn suspension (dampers on front-loaders) joins the list with age — the hardware chapter in the deep note below. The detail that organises this whole page is the two-stage display, and the Kenmore 796 manual states it in plain language. Stage one is uE (lowercase u): 'The washer has detected an out of balance load. If the washer detects a load that is too far out of balance to spin, it will display this code while it is attempting to rebalance the load. The washer will add water and try to redistribute the load automatically. This display is for your information only, and no action is required.' Stage two is UE: 'If the uE rebalance is not successful, this error will be displayed.' LG's own top-load guidance describes the same escalation — the unit attempts to rebalance, and only after the attempts fail does it switch to the capital UE and ask for your help. So a Kenmore that shows uE and carries on has not errored at all, and a Kenmore paused on UE has already tried, with water and tumbling, everything it can do alone: what remains is a load your hands have to rearrange, a machine your level has to correct, or suspension your wallet has to renew. None of that exists on a 110 Kenmore, which never shows either stage — its top-loaders run their own correction routine under uL and its F/E models store F0E5.

Most likely cause: Single dense item / clumped load — The classic.

First check: Redistribute + towels for single items; corner rock test; bounce test the empty tub.

If it keeps coming back: Frequency growth on normal loads = suspension wear. UE that grows more frequent on ordinary, well-sorted loads is suspension wear announcing itself gradually — the deep note's platform split applies: rods on the top-loaders, dampers on the front-loaders, replaced as a matched set because they age together. The pattern that should not be waited out is UE arriving with violence — cabinet-striking banging, the machine walking, noise on an empty spin — which is no longer a balance complaint but a machine asking to be stopped and assessed. And UE that appears only after a house move or a flooring change is neither: it is the level check, repeated, until all four feet are honestly down.

tE — Thermistor (temperature sensor) error on LG-built Kenmore washers

tE on a 796-prefix (LG-built) Kenmore is LG's thermistor code wearing a Kenmore badge: the temperature sensor reads out of range, so the control stops heated operation. Sensor, its connector, and its harness — in that order. (Whirlpool-built Kenmores report sensor faults in the F3 family instead.) LG's own help library entry for tE is more specific than the code's reputation, and it is worth working from it rather than from the shorthand. The library lists four triggers: a problem with the temperature sensor inside the tub, which 'can include contact issues or a malfunctioning sensor'; excessively hot water poured directly into the tub; disconnection of connectors; and a break in the circuit. Read that list as a ranking and a warning. The ranking puts contact and connection ahead of the sensor itself — LG is telling you the sensing chain breaks at its joints more often than at its sensor. The warning is the hot-water trigger, which owners never suspect: a kettle of near-boiling water poured into the tub to soak or descale can drive the sensor's reading beyond the range the control accepts, and the machine posts tE about its own perfectly healthy sensor until the water cools — LG's remedy for that branch is simply to disconnect power and wait for the water to cool before plugging back in. LG's owner's-manual rendering of the same code is one blunt line — tE, 'Thermistor error', with the manual directing the owner to unplug and call for service — while the service literature underneath it is more useful: check the connections at the thermistor and at the white 3-pin connector at the main board, reseat them, test the thermistor, and replace it if it proves defective. Those two documents — manual for owners, service literature for hands — are the whole honest picture: tE names a sensing chain, and the chain has exactly three links (sensor, its plug and harness, the board's connector) plus one false alarm (water too hot to read).

Most likely cause: Thermistor failure — Open/shorted/drifted.

First check: Meter the sensor against LG's published platform spec (the 796 Kenmore platform is LG's, and LG's washer service manuals print the table): the tE check range is 44–53 kΩ at 25°C, falling as the sensor warms (≈39.5 kΩ at 30°C, ≈26 kΩ at 40°C, ≈12 kΩ at 60°C). A broad 'somewhere between 10k and 50k' reading proves nothing — at 25°C the value should sit in LG's narrow band, and an open or shorted reading condemns the circuit on any table. Reseat its connector. [Spec scoped 2026-10-28, verification pass: LG washer service manuals MFL57261611 + MFL30599107.]

If it keeps coming back: tE with proven sensor+harness = board input (rare). A returning tE is almost always the same link failing further. Reseated-connector cures that relapse within months mean the pin surfaces are too oxidised to hold contact under vibration — the connector itself is now the part. Sensor replacements that relapse mean the original sensor was innocent and the break is in the harness run that was never flex-tested. And tE that returns only on the hottest selections, with a sensor that meters plausibly at room temperature, is a sensor drifting at temperature — meter it warm, in hot water, before acquitting it. The board's sensor input remains the last suspect, reached only when sensor, plug and harness have each been proven with a meter rather than by replacement.

Less common and model-specific codes

Search data shows owners also meet these codes on Kenmore washers: D5, E2, EE, Washer. They are not part of the core code list Kenmore publishes for most models — several are series-specific, abbreviated display readings, or codes carried over from a sister platform — so we do not publish meanings for them rather than guess. Treat them by symptom: note what the machine was doing when the code appeared (filling, draining, heating, spinning), run one full power cycle (5 minutes off), and if the code returns, match the symptom to the closest documented family in the table above and check the tech sheet stored inside your machine for the model-specific definition.

Deep-dive guides for the most searched codes

Related guides

Facts on this page were checked against manufacturer documentation: searspartsdirect.com · www.searspartsdirect.com · www.lg.com · www.lg.com