Error code
LG-built Kenmore washer error code dE
LG wrote this code, not Kenmore. On a washer wearing this badge, dE means: On a front-loader LG's label is DOOR OPEN ERROR — the door is not closed properly, often because laundry is caught in it. On a top-loader the same
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What we can confirm
Code dE, 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
dE
On a front-loader LG's label is DOOR OPEN ERROR — the door is not closed properly, often because laundry is caught in it. On a top-loader the same two characters mean LID ERROR, which is a different machine and a different check.
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What it narrows down to
On a front-loader LG's label is DOOR OPEN ERROR
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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It is plugged in, the panel responds, and nothing happens Washer will not start
Almost always an interlock or a setting rather than a failure. Every one of these machines refuses to run rather than risk an open lid, and both manufacturers have a control lock that makes the panel look dead while nothing at all is wrong.
- The lid or door lock is the usual answer
- Control lock looks exactly like a failure
- Both builders publish a code for it
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 dE
Whose code this actually is
Kenmore did not write dE, 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
On a front-loader LG's label is DOOR OPEN ERROR — the door is not closed properly, often because laundry is caught in it. On a top-loader the same two characters mean LID ERROR, which is a different machine and a different check.
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 dE 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: dE1, E01. They are the same finding and they lead to the same place.
What happens next
- Open the door, clear the seal of anything caught in it, and close it firmly.
- Check the fold of the gasket for a sock. It is where they go.
- Tell us whether yours is a front-loader or a top-loader when you call — on this code it changes the answer.
Where this usually goes
The job this most often becomes is washer lock and lid switch repair, 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 dE, 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