Error code
LG-built Kenmore washer error code OE
LG wrote this code, not Kenmore. On a washer wearing this badge, OE means: LG's own label is WATER OUTLET ERROR — the machine cannot drain the water out. Which model prefixes can raise it, and what to do next.
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What we can confirm
Code OE, from the manufacturer's own documentation
A code is only meaningful together with the machine showing it — the same digits mean different things on different equipment.
The code
OE
LG's own label is WATER OUTLET ERROR — the machine cannot drain the water out.
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What it narrows down to
LG's own label is WATER OUTLET ERROR — the
What you are probably seeing
Diagnostic
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What it looks like from the kitchen
The symptom this code usually arrives with
A code names the subsystem; the symptom is what sent you to look at the display in the first place. That page says what it usually turns out to be, cheapest cause first.
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The cycle ended and the drum is still full Washer will not drain
This is the symptom where the decode earns its keep most visibly. A 110 is a Whirlpool and a 796 is an LG, and on this exact problem one of them will usually name it on the display while the other simply stops. The repair is similar; the phone call is completely different.
- 110 stops quietly, 796 usually says why
- The filter or coin trap comes before the pump
- The pump is blamed far more often than it fails
On the same appliance
What else belongs to the washers
On this make a code belongs to the appliance rather than to a product line. These are the other conditions this machine can display, and the models that can show this one — a display often has more than one thing to say, and the model number decides what any of it costs to put right.
Other codes this appliance can display
Too many suds in the drum
The load is too large for the machine to handle
The load is out of balance and the machine
The washer is taking too long to fill, or
The washer is taking too long to drain —
The lid lock will not lock
The lid cannot unlock — the machine has detected
The cycle was interrupted by a power failure
The hot and cold inlet hoses have been connected
A reminder that the Clean Washer cycle is due
The lid was left open
The cycle was paused or canceled
The same digits mean different things on different equipment. Search the full code list
In more detail
About LG-built Kenmore washer error code OE
Whose code this actually is
Kenmore did not write OE, because Kenmore has never built an appliance. This one is LG's, and it appears on the washer that LG built and Sears sold under the Kenmore badge. Whirlpool-built and LG-built washers wear one badge and share almost none of their code scheme, so the wrong table here sends you to a pump when the machine is reporting a lid.
What it means
LG's own label is WATER OUTLET ERROR — the machine cannot drain the water out.
Which Kenmore models can raise it
The Kenmore washer whose model number begins 796 — the three digits before the period on the rating plate. Those digits are LG's, which is why LG's table is the one that applies to OE and no other manufacturer's does.
The other ways it may be written
The same condition is published under more than one label, because it has been carried across generations of the appliance and because a segment display draws some characters oddly: E03, E21. They are the same finding and they lead to the same place.
What happens next
- Check the drain hose is not kinked and not pushed too far into the standpipe.
- Clean the drain pump filter behind the lower panel. On a front-loader this is a five-minute job and it is the answer more often than not.
- If the filter is clear and the pump is silent, the pump or its control is the repair.
Where this usually goes
The job this most often becomes is washer drain pump replacement, and that page carries a starting figure and the reasons that move it. A Kenmore washer in this county works in hard water and a warm laundry room, so a code that arrives with slow draining or long cycles is very often the supply or the drain rather than the machine. Photograph the display before you cut the power: a reset clears OE, and on a Kenmore the characters plus three digits off the plate are most of the diagnosis.
Where this meaning came from
LG's own documentation: LG Owner's Manual — Washing Machine, Front Loader, USA, P/No. MFL71728911. Kenmore publishes none of its own, which is why every entry on this site names the manufacturer's document instead.
This article is based on:
- Official manufacturer documentation
- Internal repair procedures
- Technician repair history
- Company quality standards