Whirlpool Washer Error Codes List: Every Code Explained

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

How to reset / clear error codes on Whirlpool 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 Whirlpool 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 Whirlpool washer codes, in detail

5D — Suds detected

On Whirlpool's segmented displays, the suds code Sd is widely read — and on some panels effectively shown — as 5D. The meaning is identical: the control detected oversudsing and is running (or ran) a suds-reduction routine. It is a detergent condition, not a parts failure: dose, non-HE detergent, soft water, or tub build-up. 5D is best understood as a handwriting problem layered over a detergent problem, and the handwriting half is what this page owns. Whirlpool has never published a 5D fault; it publishes Sd (in the Cabrio and top-load manuals), Sud or Sd (in its front-load product help), and 'Sd or Sud' (in the washer-dryer manual) — three spellings of one event, all of which collapse into '5D' on the segmented panels where S and 5 share a glyph. The platform half matters just as much: a front-loader shows you the foam through glass and answers it with extended rinsing and paused tumbling, while a Cabrio infers the same foam from basket drag with the lid closed and answers it with a cleanout routine and, failing that, a flashing display at cycle end. Same detergent mistake, two different machines reporting it in two different dialects — which is why the dose audit is identical and the recovery steps are not.

Most likely cause: Too much detergent — HE machines need ~1–2 tbsp.

First check: Foam visible at the door/tub? Bottle check: HE? Dose?

If it keeps coming back: Build-up or dosing — see Sd page for the full suds playbook. A returning 5D keeps one of three diaries, and each is readable. If it follows only bleach loads, the thickened-bleach branch is confessing — the pattern will track the whites and bedding and ignore everything else. If it began with a new bottle, a new brand, or a well-meaning switch to a natural or homemade product, the concentration/formulation branch is confessing, and it fades across the first week at a corrected, measured dose. If it survives correct dosing of a mainstream HE product, the machine is re-foaming what earlier months left behind, and repeated empty Clean Washer cycles — not a smaller dose still — are the cure, with each cycle foaming a little less than the one before until the display stays dark.

E01 — Part of a split F-code display

Whirlpool Duet-era displays alternate between the F-half and the E-half of a fault code: the panel shows 'F9', then 'E1', and owners understandably search 'E01' alone. E01 by itself is not a complete code. The pairings that end in E1 include F9E1 (drain pump system/long drain — the most common), F8E1 (long fill) and F7E1 (motor speed signal). The fix is to watch the display for a full alternation cycle and diagnose the complete code. The two pairings behind most E01 searches deserve separating cleanly, because they send you to opposite ends of the machine. When the F-half is F03 (written F3 in the short spelling), the completed code F3E1 is a water-level sensing fault: the main control is receiving a pressure signal it cannot trust. The manuals put the sensing path first — a thin air hose running from the control area down to an air trap on the tub — and the printed suspects are physical: the hose pinched, kinked, plugged with residue, or leaking air so the trapped pressure bleeds away. Nothing in that list is electronic, which is why F3E1 so often follows moving the washer, stacking laundry supplies on top of it, or years of detergent residue building up inside the trap port. When the F-half is F09 (F9 in short spelling), the completed code F9E1 is a drain pump system error: the pump was commanded to empty the tub and the level did not fall in the time allowed. Its printed suspects live at floor level — the pump trap and filter where fitted, the drain hose run, and the standpipe the hose empties into. Same E01 tail, two unrelated workshops: one is an air hose you can inspect in minutes, the other is a water path you clear with a tray and towels. Reading the F-half is therefore not pedantry; it decides whether you open a packet of towels or go looking for a kinked tube.

Most likely cause: An incomplete reading of an alternating display — The F-half scrolled past unnoticed.

First check: Watch the display for 10–15 seconds to catch both halves (e.g. F9 → E1).

If it keeps coming back: If the display truly never shows an F-half, the display/board may be dropping segments — photograph it for a technician. A pairing that returns tells you which half of its own checklist was skipped. F3E1 returning after a hose clear usually means the residue is in the tub-side port rather than the hose, or the hose is leaking air at a fitting that only shows under vibration — reseat both ends before suspecting electronics. F9E1 returning after a trap clean usually means the restriction lives downstream (hose or house drain) or the pump is weakening: it moves an empty tub's water but cannot sustain flow against a full load's head. In both cases the returning code is information, not defiance — it narrows the same system further rather than opening a new one.

E1 — The E-half of an alternating Whirlpool F-code (see E01)

Like E01, a lone 'E1' is usually an incomplete read on Whirlpool's alternating displays: the fault is the F-code it pairs with (F9E1 drain, F8E1 fill, F7E1 motor are the E1 pairings). One minority platform is the exception, and it is a fill code, not a sensor code: Whirlpool's stacked laundry centers carry an E-only code family in which E1 alone means 'water inlet alarm — water level not reached after 20 minutes' (siblings: E2 draining, E3 unbalanced, E4 open lid). An earlier version of this entry repeated a claim that standalone E1 appears in sensor contexts on some Whirlpool-built washers; no Whirlpool or Maytag source documents that — across every tech sheet checked, sensor faults are always full F##E# pairs — and the thermistor 'E1' circulating online belongs to Whirlpool Duet DRYERS, not washers. The claim is withdrawn here. This page routes you: capture the complete code, match the symptom, then use that family's guide. This page is about the mechanics of reading the display itself, because on this platform the reading is the diagnosis. Whirlpool has presented the same two-part faults three ways across generations. Text-capable consoles show the completed code in one glance, as F9E1. Alternating consoles show the F-half, pause, show the E-half, and repeat — the presentation that generates nearly every lone-E1 search, because a glance catches whichever half happens to be up. A third generation has no code display at all: on those machines the Use & Care manual teaches owners to count flashes of a status light instead, where the flashes before a two-second pause give the F number and the flashes after it give the E number — the manual's own worked example is eight flashes, a pause, then one flash, spelling F8E1. All three presentations describe identical faults; only the reading effort differs. Two consequences follow. First, the model number matters more than the fragment: the same badge covers all three display generations, and your manual's troubleshooting chapter — not a search snippet — states which presentation your machine uses. Second, a photograph or a short video of the display is the single most useful artefact you can produce: it freezes the alternation, settles arguments about which half appeared, and is the first thing a technician will ask for if the machine later refuses to reproduce the fault.

Most likely cause: Partial display reading — The dominant cause of 'E1' searches.

First check: Watch the display through a full alternation to capture the F-half.

If it keeps coming back: If only fragments ever show, suspect display segment failure and photograph it. E1 seems to come back whenever the underlying completed code comes back, because the fragment is just the visible tail of that code re-presenting itself. If you find yourself reading E1 for the third time in a month, the useful habit is to stop re-reading the tail and start logging the whole event: the completed code, the cycle stage, the load, and the date. Two or three logged events usually reveal the pattern — always at drain, always on the largest load, always after the machine was moved — and patterns are what turn a repeating fragment into a single, solvable repair.

F21 — Long drain

F21 means the control ran the drain pump and the water level didn't fall fast enough. On Whirlpool front-loaders the pump filter (behind the lower front panel on most, or at the pump on others) is the leading cause, then hose/standpipe restrictions, then the pump. The machine stops with water in the tub and the door locked until it can drain or be drained manually. Read F21 as a stopwatch verdict rather than a parts verdict. The Duet control gives the drain eight minutes, flags Sud at the halfway point, then shuts the water valves and posts F21 — and everything that can consume those minutes is a suspect: debris at the trap, a plug in the bellows hose ahead of the pump, a kinked, frozen, or overloaded hose run, a standpipe that cannot accept the flow, foam standing in for water, or a pump that has lost its push. The Kenmore Elite HE3 and Maytag machines built on this platform post the identical fault because they share the drain hardware and the same timing logic, which is why the fix order never changes with the badge: prove the path, then judge the pump, then — only on a machine that visibly drains well — question the level sensing.

Most likely cause: Clogged pump filter/trap — Coins, lint mats and small garments collect at the pump trap.

First check: Drain via the pump trap (tray ready, slow) and clean it — on models without an access door, the trap is at the pump from below/rear.

If it keeps coming back: F21 returning with a clean trap points downstream (house line) or at a weakening pump under full-load head. An F21 that returns a week after a satisfying trap clean usually means the clean treated the symptom's location, not its source. Lint and small items keep arriving from the same place: overfilled loads that wash socks over the tub rim, pockets that were never emptied, a bellows hose that sheds its trapped wad one piece at a time. Note also the seasonal pattern — a drain that faults only in deep winter is the frozen-hose branch announcing itself — and the relocation pattern, where F21 begins the day the washer moves to a higher drain outlet. Matching the recurrence to what changed turns the second F21 from a repeat job into a final one.

F3E1 — Pressure system fault

F3E1 indicts the level-sensing system: the pressure signal reaching the control is out of range or implausible. The sensor reads tub air pressure through a thin hose running from the tub's air trap; hose faults (pinched, kinked, plugged, leaking air, or off its fitting) beat sensor faults statistically. Where the hose runs differs by platform — to a separate pressure switch/sensor on front-loaders, and to the main control itself on the direct-drive top-loaders, whose pressure transducer sits on the control. Read the display as one code, however it is padded: F3E1, F03 E01 and E01 F03 are the same fault — the F-part and E-part alternate on the panel, and the zeros are padding (the Maytag E01 page on this site covers the pairing rule in full). The platform scope matters more than the spelling. On front-loaders (the Maytag Maxima phrase in this article's searches is this platform), the fault list reads 'F3E1 — Water Level Sensor Fault: displayed when the ACU detects an out-of-range pressure signal', and its one printed check asks whether the pressure hose connection from the tub to the pressure switch is pinched, kinked, plugged, or leaking air. On the direct-drive top-loaders, service manual W10864849 prints the same code as 'F3E1 — Pressure System Fault: displayed when the main control detects an out of range pressure signal', but its hose runs from the tub to the main control, because the pressure transducer is part of that control. Same code, same first check, different second part — which is why the model platform, not the code, decides whether a 'sensor replacement' even exists on your machine.

Most likely cause: Air hose compromised — Pinched, kinked, plugged, leaking air, or off its nipple — the service manual's four hose faults, in its own order.

First check: Inspect the hose end-to-end; confirm it's dry inside and firmly seated at both ends.

If it keeps coming back: Returning F3E1 after a sensor swap = hose routing re-trapping water, or board-side connector corrosion. F3E1 that returns after a sensor replacement on a front-loader almost always means the fault was in the air path all along — a leaking hose that passed a blow test, or a tub port re-plugging with residue. F3E1 that returns on a top-loader after 'the sensor was replaced' usually means the platform was misread: there is no separate sensor on the direct-drive models, and the returning code is the main control repeating its out-of-range report through a hose nobody replaced. In both cases the correct move is one step deeper in the same system — hose, port, then the sensing element the platform actually has — not a second sensor.

F5 — Door/lid lock fault family

On Whirlpool's F##E# system, F5 covers the door (front-load) or lid (top-load) lock system. The display usually adds the E-suffix that matters, shown alternately with the F5: F5E1 = door switch fault (Whirlpool and Maytag both publish F5E1 as 'Door Switch'), F5E2 = door lock fault, F5E3 = door unlock fault. A bare F5 search lands here because owners catch the family before the suffix. Physically it's one system: the latch/lock assembly, its switches, the door/lid alignment, and the wiring to the board. The F5 page exists because of how this platform writes. A Whirlpool, Maytag, or Kenmore display does not hold the whole code still; it shows F5, then the E-digit, and owners naturally search for whichever half they caught. Underneath, there is one supervised system with three questions asked in sequence: is the door reported shut (E1), did it lock when commanded (E2), and did it release when commanded (E3)? Every F5 story is one question going unanswered — by a door ajar under a sleeve, a lid held high by a heaped load, a control state a 5-minute disconnection clears, or an assembly whose switches no longer tell the truth. Reading the E-digit first turns a vague 'lock code' into a specific repair.

Most likely cause: Door/lid not fully closed — Fabric in the seal; lid not clicked.

First check: Note the full code including the E-digit — that suffix is the diagnosis shortcut.

If it keeps coming back: Intermittent faults under spin vibration = dying lock switch contacts. F5 codes that come and go with the weather of the laundry room deserve a pattern note before parts are ordered. A lock that posts E3 only after long hot cycles is heat-tired and will eventually strand a load; a lock that posts E2 only on the largest loads is often being held under side pressure by the load itself; a switch that posts E1 only when the machine vibrates in spin has contacts that are opening under movement. Each pattern is the assembly describing its own wear, and each still ends at the same unit replacement — but the pattern is what lets a technician confirm the diagnosis in minutes instead of guessing between lock, harness, and control.

Less common and model-specific codes

Search data shows owners also meet these codes on Whirlpool washers: CL, D5, DRN, E3, F6, F9, H2O, IE, OE, OOB, P1, PE, S5, SC, SE, U4, U6, UB, UD, UE. They are not part of the core code list Whirlpool 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: manualowl.com · manualowl.com · producthelp.whirlpool.com · producthelp.whirlpool.com · producthelp.whirlpool.com · producthelp.whirlpool.com · producthelp.whirlpool.com · producthelp.whirlpool.com · nelihome.com · nelihome.com