Maytag Washer Error Codes List: Every Code Explained

Every Maytag washer error code we could verify against Maytag'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 Maytag 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 Maytag washer error code list

How to reset / clear error codes on Maytag 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 Maytag 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.

The most searched Maytag washer codes, in detail

5D — Suds detected

On Maytag washers (Whirlpool-built), 5D is the suds code Sd as read on a 7-segment display: the control detected oversudsing and is running its reduction routine. Detergent dose, non-HE product, soft water, or tub build-up — a condition, not a breakdown. Maytag's own product help settles the spelling question in its page title — 'Sd or 5d' — and its text treats Sd, 5d and Sud as one report: excess suds in the washer, with the machine already running a suds reduction routine and the owner's job being to let it continue. What the routine is doing deserves understanding, because owners who interrupt it restart the problem. Foam is not just untidy: a tub full of suds cushions the wash action, defeats rinsing (clothes emerge carrying detergent that was supposed to leave), and can be pushed into places water alone would never reach. So the control pauses the normal programme, adds drain and rinse time, and waits for the foam column to collapse before it will spin properly. The episode length is therefore set by the foam, not by a timer you can negotiate with. Maytag's guidance concentrates on the dose side of the story: HE detergents are sold at several concentration levels — 2x, 4x and 8x formulations sit side by side on shelves — and the correct amount is the detergent maker's dose for your load size and soil level at that concentration, not a fixed capful carried over from a previous bottle. Pre-measured pacs carry the same trap in solid form: the larger pacs are portioned for large or heavily soiled loads, and dropping one into a small everyday load is a measured overdose the machine will report as 5d.

Most likely cause: Too much detergent — HE dose is 1–2 tbsp.

First check: Foam visible? Product HE? Dose honest?

If it keeps coming back: Build-up or dosing. 5d that returns on honestly measured doses has narrowed itself to two remaining stories, and both are testable. The first is residue: a tub that has absorbed months of overdosing re-foams each cycle from its own walls, and the tell is 5d appearing even on a no-detergent rinse — the cure is repeated hot empty cleaning cycles until a rinse runs clear of foam. The second is a change in the water itself, most often a softener that has begun over-softening or a municipal supply change; the tell is the code arriving for the whole household's laundry habits at once after a period of good behaviour. What a returning 5d is not, on Maytag's own documentation, is a parts failure in progress — the suds report names a chemistry condition, and the machine raising it is the sensor system working, not failing.

CL — Control Lock / Child Lock status on Maytag washers

CL on a Maytag washer is a status display: most often Control Lock (buttons disabled deliberately), and on some models a prompt/state tied to the Clean Washer cycle. Neither is a breakdown. The release is a button hold printed on the panel (Maytag commonly uses a 3-second hold on the marked Control Lock key). If CL appeared during a cleaning cycle, follow that cycle's prompts instead. Two documented facts organise every Maytag CL story, and both come from Maytag's own pages. The first is spelling: Maytag's product help page for this state is titled 'LoC or LC - Front Load Washer', and its first line is 'There is no Error - Control Lock is activated.' The current front-load owner's manual prints the same pair in its display-code list: LOC or LC, control lock has been activated, release by touching the Control Lock button (on some models a press and hold). Owners naturally read and search those letters as CL, which is why this page carries the CL spelling — but the state being named is the control lock in every case, and the panel in front of you, not the search box, decides which spelling your model uses. The second fact is that Maytag documents a second, unrelated CL-adjacent prompt: the Clean Washer reminder. The MHW8200FC owner's manual states that the Clean Washer reminder light flashes at the end of a wash cycle once the washer has run 30 wash cycles, as a reminder to run the Clean Washer cycle; if the cycle is not run, the light stops flashing after 3 more regular wash cycles, and it flashes again after 30 more cycles are completed. A top-load Maytag manual (W10550279C) documents the same design as a Clean Washer Reminder indicator that lights after 30 cycles without a cleaning cycle, with a REMINDER RESET button to clear the counter manually. So a CL report is one of two scheduled, deliberate states — a lock that freezes the panel now, or a cleaning reminder that appears at the end of a cycle and asks for nothing urgent — and the checks below separate them in under a minute.

Most likely cause: Control Lock active — Or a cleaning-cycle state awaiting the next step.

First check: Buttons unresponsive + CL = lock. Mid-clean-cycle + CL = follow the cycle prompts.

If it keeps coming back: Self-engaging CL = sticking panel key suspicion. The two states 'come back' in opposite ways, and only one of them is news. The reminder returning after roughly another 30 cycles is the counter doing its job — treat it as a maintenance interval, not a recurrence. The lock re-engaging without anyone holding the pad is the pattern that graduates: a touch pad beginning to fail can sit in a half-pressed state and re-apply the lock whenever the console wakes, and moisture inside the panel after a spill or heavy steam can imitate it for a day. Log how often it happens and what preceded it; a lock that returns weekly untouched is a panel story, while a lock that returns only after cleaning day is a household story.

E01 — E01 is the zero-padded E-half (E1) of a Maytag two-part F/E code

Maytag's Whirlpool-platform displays present a fault in two alternating parts, and the manuals write the parts both ways — Whirlpool's own laundry-centre manual, for example, lists '"F9" followed by "E1" or "F09" followed by "E01" (drain pump system error)'. The leading zeros are padding, not extra information: F09 is F9, E01 is E1. Owners transcribe the pair in whichever order they caught it, so E01 F09 and F09 E01 are the same code read from opposite ends of the alternation. The three pairings behind nearly every 'Maytag E01' search: F3E1 — Maytag's service manual (W10864849) defines it as a pressure system fault, displayed when the main control detects an out-of-range pressure signal, with the pressure hose (pinched, kinked, plugged, leaking air) as its first check; F6E1 — the manufacturer's service instructions head it 'Serial Communication Error': communication between the Central Control Unit (CCU) and Motor Control Unit (MCU) is not functioning correctly; F9E1 — drain pump system error, the long-drain fault. Other E1 pairings exist on the platform (F8E1 long fill, F7E1 motor speed sensing, F5E1 door/lid switch), but F3, F6 and F9 are the combinations documented against the Maxima searches. [REFINED 2026-10-28, Batch 4: the earlier version listed the generic E1 pairings but omitted F6E1 — the Maxima E01 F06 pairing — and did not explain the zero-padding or the reversed transcriptions.] E01 is the purest example on this platform of a code that only exists whole. Maytag's two-part display writes a fault as an F-part and an E-part and alternates them — Whirlpool's own manual for the shared platform spells the convention out in full, listing a fault as '"F9" followed by "E1" or "F09" followed by "E01"' — and every part of the E01 puzzle falls out of that one sentence. The zeros are padding added by wider displays, so F03 is F3. The order is an accident of when the owner looked, so E01 F09 and F09 E01 are one code transcribed from opposite ends. And the E-half is common to several codes, so E01 alone narrows the fault to a family of systems — level sensing, drain, board communication — without naming any of them. The Maxima searches that built this page (E01 with F03, F06 or F09) are simply the three F-parts owners most often catch standing next to it.

Most likely cause: A partial or reversed reading of an alternating two-part display — E01 is only the E-half; the F-half (F03/F06/F09 in the searched pairings) names the system.

First check: Watch the display through a full alternation and write down BOTH parts in display order (e.g. F09 then E01, or E01 then F06 — order does not change the pairing).

If it keeps coming back: A code that returns immediately after its documented routine completes has moved past reset territory — the completed pairing's system (pressure sensing, drain, or board communication) needs the repair, not another reset. An E01 pairing that returns is reporting which branch's fix was incomplete. F3E1 returning after a hose blow-out usually means the hose is leaking rather than plugged — a pinhole passes a blow test and fails under pressure — or the air trap is re-plugging. F9E1 returning after a trap clean means the restriction lives downstream (standpipe, house line) or the pump is weakening under a full tub's head. F6E1 returning after connector work, especially only when hot or vibrating in spin, is a harness or board fault declaring its conditions. In each branch the correct response is one step deeper in the same system — the mistake this page exists to prevent is starting a different branch's repair because the E01 half looked familiar.

E3 — On a current Maytag washer, E3 by itself is not a complete code

Maytag's current platforms present most faults in two alternating parts: the display shows an F-half, then an E-half, then repeats. E3 is one of those E-halves, so a washer that seems to show 'E3' is showing you the tail of a longer code — and the head of that code decides the diagnosis. The pairing the searches behind this page name explicitly is F5 followed by E3, and F5E3 is fully documented: Whirlpool's product help titles it 'F5E3 - Error Code: Door Lock', and the Maytag tech sheet defines it as the lid unlock fault — the lock has not moved into the unlocked position, or the lock motor cannot be powered, so the main control cannot determine that the lid is unlocked. On front-load Maytags the same pair reads as a door latch that cannot unlock. The practical picture matches the definition: the cycle ends (or refuses to start), the lid or door stays locked, and the display alternates F5 and E3. Other F-halves can in principle precede an E3 on some model charts, which is why this page does not diagnose E3 alone: watch the display through one full alternation, write down both halves in order, and diagnose the completed pair. If the completed pair is F5E3, everything below applies. If it is a different pair, that pair's own guide governs — the E3 tail is shared, the systems are not.

Most likely cause: Wash-media buildup in the lock opening — Detergent, lint and soil paste accumulate around the lock bolt and its opening until the bolt cannot retract fully. The tech sheet's first check is lock interference and buildup for exactly this reason — it is the commonest mechanical cause and the cheapest to cure.

First check: Read the whole code before anything else: watch the display through at least two full alternations and write the pair down in order. F5 followed by E3 confirms this page; any other F-half sends you to that pair's guide.

If it keeps coming back: F5E3 that returns after a thorough clean is a lock wearing out on a schedule: note whether the interval between episodes is shrinking, because that trend, not any single episode, is the replacement signal. F5E3 that returns immediately after a lock replacement moves the diagnosis to the striker alignment and the harness — a new lock cannot retract against a strike that meets it crooked, and cannot report through a connector that is not seated.

UL — Unbalanced load

UL is the balance give-up code on Maytag top-loaders: redistribution attempts failed. Single dense items, tiny loads, unlevel installation, and worn suspension rods — the universal quartet. Maytag's Bravos Use & Care manual describes uL with a precision most retellings lose, and the precision matters because it splits one display into two different situations. In the manual's words, if the load is unbalanced the washer will display this code while running an imbalanced load correction routine at the end of the wash cycle and before the final spin — meaning the first appearance of uL is the machine working, mid-repair, on your behalf. The second situation is the manual's conditional: if the code remains and the wash cycle dial is flashing after the recovery routine has stopped, then — and only then — open the lid and redistribute the load, close the lid and press START/PAUSE. Owners who intervene at the first sight of uL are interrupting a correction that was about to succeed; owners who ignore a flashing dial are leaving a machine that has formally asked for help. The manual's loading note belongs in the same breath: for best performance, load garments in loose heaps evenly around the basket wall, and do not load above the stainless steel portion of the basket. Newer Maytag top-loaders report this same condition in the newer spelling, F0E5 — Maytag's product help page 'F0E5 - Error Code' calls it an off-balanced load and gives the same household remedy in modern dress: cancel the cycle, run a drain-only cycle if water is present, rearrange the clothing and/or remove some items so the load is level and not overloaded, consider the Bulky or Heavy Duty cycle, and use Drain & Spin to extract water after rearranging. Two spellings, one condition, one remedy family.

Most likely cause: Single heavy item — Mats/blankets clump.

First check: Redistribute; rock-test corners; bounce test the tub.

If it keeps coming back: Increasing frequency on normal loads = rod wear. uL's return pattern separates habit from hardware. Returns that favour one load type — always bedding, always the bath-mat load — are composition lessons the household has not finished learning, and they end when the loading changes. Returns spreading across ordinary loads over months are the suspension's slow resignation, confirmed by the bounce test. The return that demands urgency is different in kind: uL on an empty Drain & Spin, or banging that continues after redistribution, is no longer a balance complaint but a mechanical one — stop the machine and have the basket and drive inspected rather than coaching it through another routine.

XL — Not a Maytag fault code

Maytag sells XL-capacity models, and the badge gets mistaken for a code. Maytag's fault system is the F-code family (F9E1, F5E2, F7E5…) plus letter codes (UL, OL, Sd…). There is no XL fault. If the machine stopped, the real code is on the display at the moment of failure — capture it, and match the symptom (standing water → drain family; no fill → fill family; spin shake → balance family). The model-line facts deserve setting out plainly, because they are what convert an 'XL error' search into a solvable problem. Bravos XL is a named Maytag line: Maytag's own product literature for models such as the MVWB700BW and MVWB880BW heads the page 'Bravos XL HE Top Load Washer', advertises 'Extra-Large Capacity to Clean Your Largest Loads', and describes Bravos XL washers as Maytag brand's largest capacity washers ever — the XL is doing capacity work in the name, the same work it does in the model designations (MVWB835DW and its siblings are Bravos XL machines). Now set that beside the Bravos Use & Care manual's display-code list, which is the complete vocabulary of what a Bravos-generation washer can actually say: LF (washer is taking too long to fill), Ld (washer is taking too long to drain water from the wash tub), uL (unbalanced load), oL (over load) and Sd (suds detected). XL is not in the list, in any Maytag manual consulted for this page. Notice, though, what is in the list: the four codes the searches behind this page ask about by name — Ld, LF, Sd and UL — are precisely the Bravos XL code family. The owners typing those searches own the right machine and the right fault; only the filing is wrong. The useful move is never 'fix XL' but 'read which of the documented codes your Bravos XL is actually showing', and each of the four has a short, manual-written checklist, summarised below.

Most likely cause: Capacity badge mistaken for a code — XL = extra-large tub.

First check: Re-run and watch the display at the stop; photograph the code.

If it keeps coming back: Repeated stops with no readable code: run it watched, note stage + display at the stop — that's a technician's first question too. A Bravos XL that keeps 'having XL errors' is really keeping a log you have not read yet. Log each stop with its actual code and the cycle stage for two weeks: repeated Ld is a drain path deteriorating, repeated LF is supply or screens, repeated Sd is a dosing habit, repeated uL on ordinary loads is suspension wear arriving. The pattern across codes is the diagnosis; any single code is just an episode. If the machine stops with genuinely nothing readable on the display, that blankness is itself the finding — display and control diagnosis, not a code hunt.

Less common and model-specific codes

Search data shows owners also meet these codes on Maytag washers: AF, D16, D5, E1, H12, OOB, SE, UE. They are not part of the core code list Maytag 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

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

Facts on this page were checked against manufacturer documentation: producthelp.maytag.com · producthelp.maytag.com · manualsdump.com · manualmachine.com · hugepdf.com